[S]he Conquers Who Endures

12 miles last long run. Taped the knee, but the pain still came and went. 8:13 min/mi AP last mile was 7:41 min/mi. The AP felt harder than it should!!!

6 miles on the treadmill at 1% incline. I was planning on 20:00 threshold, but after 2 weeks of racing, I felt like this would be unnecessarily pushing it for Big Sur. I held back to 15:00 at 6:53 min/mi pace. It felt harder than normal, but I think that's from coming off the racing. It felt really, really good to break a sweat and I felt a smidge of runner's high at the end. :)

I had a Dr's appt this morning after my run in Newton. I decided to take the scenic route and drive back to Cambridge on the marathon course. I'm glad I did because it reminded me of all the hill work I did there, getting up to run the Newton Hills at 4:30am in the middle of the week and long runs on the weekend. I started feeling a sense of pride and I'm happy to say my attitude is coming around and I'm starting to get excited for Big Sur! 

I found a sign posted at the London Marathon especially helpful to get excited for this marathon. It said "Run if you can, Walk if you Must, but finish for Boston". :) 

Oh no! My knee and foot were feeling really, really bad. I had to stop after 1 mile because my entire right leg locked up on me. I walked a quarter mile, then decided to try to run again. My knee felt better but my foot hurt the rest of the run. AP 9:18 min/mi

I went to urgent care, the orthopedic nurse practioner was convinced it is either a stress fracture or torn ligaments. This pain started as a sharp pain just when I woke up Monday. I don't understand how it could be ligaments because there wasn't an event to cause it, it was spontaneous. 

I went to a physical therapist, he said if he had to guess it's bone. My gut tells me it's a lot of muscle tightness. I have a tight spot in my quad, bruising on the outside of my knee, inner knee phantom tightness, and after looking at pics online, the main culprit is a tight extensor digitorium longus muscle. 

I'm injected with radioactive isotope now, heading back to the hospital in a bit to finish this bone scan. Hopefully, it's not bone. I really want to do Big Sur on Sunday!!! :( 

30 mins on bike while the radioisotope gets circulated for my bone scan! 

My results: I have a stress fracture. No Big Sur for me. I'm handling this better than I thought so far. It's bone, it will heal - things could be much worse.

The dr says I can only bike if I wear my boot. I don't know if I buy that. I read otherwise on the Internet. In the meantime, I am looking up trainers for my bike and searching for century rides and Ironmans! If I can hit a fast fall marathon, then why not knock IM off the list? 

PM: pumping some iron! Man, I am all trained up for a marathon I had the best training round of my life, hit the fastest paces, and the longest mileage but 3x1min wall sits really kicked my butt!! I found a weak spot to work. By the time I get this boot off, I'm going to be at 3x5mins wall sits mark my words!!! The Newton Hills won't have nothing on me then. :) 

My bike trainer is in the mail and I'm off to CA with my fiance!! It will arrive just as I get back. In the meantime, I found a pretty awesome century ride training program that correlates so closely with running (long rides, steady state, and threshold rides). I love this structure! I also read that rowing can be as aerobically intense as running. I'm not sure how it will be in my boot, but it's just one more option to try!!

I'm maintaining a great place mentally about this injury. Just in case my moment fades, I ordered a new plate to add to my road id bracelet. It says:

Resilient

Because everyday is an opportunity 

This stress fracture is my opportunity to explore new cross-training activities, give my body the break from running I couldn't bring myself to allow, and to fully be reminded of my love to run. It will be a re-invirogating thing, and I will come back with a vengeance!!