In week 14, with just 6 weeks to go, I was in the midst of dealing with horrible shin splints that didn’t seem to be letting up. I decided to just tough it out and (sort of) ignore it. It seemed like foam rolling, stretching, and using my TENS unit was the best solution and I would just have to deal with the pain while I ran. I gave my elliptical the middle finger on a beautiful almost-Spring day and took Cooper to Mines Falls, our favorite local trail running spot, while Noah napped (yes, Adam was home).
Precisely 1.8 miles into our beauteous run I misjudged my stride, or maybe the root came out of nowhere, or maybe I was too in to Rock The Casbah, and my ankle snap*crackle*popped like some g-damn Rice Krispies and I did a superman dive into the pine needles. Poor Cooper stopped short and looked genuinely confused, then came to stand over and crying and looking around. All I said was “…fuck.” My first thought was “there goes my race”, my second thought was “maybe I don’t have to go to work on Monday”. Thankfully as of right now only of those statements was definitely true.
I was able to pull myself off the trail a bit and committed to DEFINITELY not make a scene and have my ass carried out of there. I silently prayed no one would run past me and force me to share my dilemma. Now, I did something quite similar a few months and I was able to actually continue my run (albeit slowly) and then just ACE wrap it and return to normalcy. I’m convinced moving actually helped it and staved off some of the swelling. I was able to get myself up after a few minutes and to put weight on it. It didn’t feel great, but I know enough basic wilderness first aid to know it wasn’t broken and I had the ability to get myself out on my own accord. I was on a loop trail on the opposite side of my car, so it made no difference if I kept going or turned back. I soldiered on and stood at the next main intersection contemplating my fate. I could go left and go directly back to my car, or go right and continue on a longer loop. I knew that furthering my mileage and the impact of my ankle could totally screw me, but I was doing okay after about a half mile and decided to keep going like I did last time. The loop on the left side of the photo was mileage I didn't really need to do.
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| Bad decisions in action! |
It wasn’t the best idea. I ended up cutting the loop a bit short and was able to slowly jog on it with a very modified stride. It was faster than dragging my sorry ass along. What should have been about 1.8-2.0 miles back to my car ended up being about 2.6 miles. The extra half mile was totally my fault, and unfortunately it wasn’t the magic fix that it was last time. We spent the following day bouncing around between our hospital’s weekend hours office, the ER, and radiology for X-rays. The doctor I saw earlier in the day told me they didn’t see anything too concerning but to stay on crutches for a few days. I stayed out of work for 2 days and hung out on the couch popping painkillers and watching the swelling and bruising go down. My primary care office called after my doctor got a chance to read the X-rays and shared the bummer news. I had an avulsion fracture (aka a bone chip), which basically means a ligament or tendon (or something) likely pulled away a piece of the bone during the epic superman dive of failure, essentially “chipping” it off. I was told to take at least two weeks off of any high impact exercise, and at least a week and a half off from even getting on the elliptical.
Wonderful.
During this time I was doing a lot more sitting than I normally do, and my back pain flared up enough that I was on the verge of asking for a shot of morphine. I had enough and booked an appointment with my orthopedist. I’ve been through many rounds of PT and tried lots of alternative methods for pain management, all of which will alleviate the pain for a little while (though never take it away entirely). My doc recommended trying cortisone shots. I’ve had an epidural cortisone injection (basically you get an epidural injection of the meds in a hospital setting), but thankfully he was okay with me just doing an injection into the sore spots and not into the spine. I didn’t realize it was done in the office, so I got a semi-surprise dual shot of cortisone to my lower back on Thursday. I was told it would take 2-4 days to kick in and to take it easy in the meantime. I promptly drove to my volunteer community service day and shoveled gardens beds for 3 hours. What can ya do?
So I’m back to square one-ish again, dealing with a very sore back for another day or two while the injection sites “cool down” a bit and the cortisone starts working. Also dealing with the side effects of taking steroids, such as profusely sweating at night and feeling super dehydrated. I’ve got less than a month until my Spartan race and almost exactly a month until my 10k.
Sigh.
It sort of feels impossible at times, even though I know it is not. I just want to have enough time to get in decent enough shape to enjoy the experience of both races, and it feels like that time is quickly running out. I'm hoping that enough time on the elliptical and enough yoga will make it all possible. **FINGERS CROSSED SO HARD**.
