it all started last thursday night. right after i pulled off my SECOND toenail. i went for a run. at the beginning of the run, i was already having knee pain in my good knee, so i started experimenting with pronation/supination. the true ADHD kid that i am, i quickly lost interest in said experimentation and just ran. with only about 0.2 miles left, my knee brace was all but sliding off my leg, so i stopped to tighten it. when i put my left foot down to start running, the pain screamed up my foot and into my calf. i thought 'well, screw it, i'll just walk, my HR is too high anyway', so i walked in the last of the run. no biggie. i'd been having achilles pain, i thought it probably was just the MO for my f'd up legs in general. went to bed. woke up friday for my first actual work day of bedside nursing, and i couldn't bear weight. walking out to my truck in the garage brought tears to my eyes. i walked on my toes all day long. looked like an idiot. i just wanted to be home with ice. but then a new work buddy of mine needed help, which kept me from going home until well after 8:30 (i'd gotten off work at 3:30pm). saturday morning again brought me to tears, but this time i wasn't even able to walk on my toes. super irritating, especially since there's no bruising, no obvious swelling anywhere on my foot. so instead of my track/trainer workout which i'd been looking forward to for at least a week, i spent the morning in urgent care. which, might i add, was a total waste of time. the PA, although very nice, was not helpful. of course, i've got to remember i'm not the average patient. i went in, told him i was a nurse, and a triathlete, and that i have a race in one week. i told him how the 'injury' potentially happened, and what i'd been doing for it since. after that, he just kind of sat there and looked at me. excellent. not comforting at all. he offered xrays, which i declined. with no outward sign of injury, if there was/is a fracture, it's got to be miniscule, and the chances of an xray catching it are just as small. needless to say i hobbled away from that visit with nothing. well, less than nothing actually, as i was $30 poorer.
i drove out to malibu to meet my friends, and cried as i passed all the cyclists along PCH. the bitter jealousy was overpowering. i was even surprised by my reaction. i managed to find these velcro support things that wrap over the foot to help maintain the arch. like magic, i was able to bear weight on my heel the minute i strapped them on. my walk was better, but still very slow and still with pain. swimming, thankfully, remains in the cards, as i have zero pain. i kick haphazardly as it is, and when i do, it's not with enough force to flex enough to elicit pain. so i spent yesterday afternoon in the pool after lunch.
today was interesting. the MB swim. the walk out sucked. sand is not good when you can't walk normally. and sand walking for a damn mile just isn't my idea of fun to begin with. the swim was actually pretty good. granted the pier looked forever away the entire time, but it always does. i didn't see any of my friends while i was out there. with maybe a quarter of a mile left, i looked at my watch, and i was already at 23 min. at that point i knew it wasn't going to be a fast swim. i started hoping that when i finally did touch sand again, everyone waiting for me would just shrug off my overtly slow time to my new 'injury', even though my swimming isn't affected in the slightest. near the pier i thought i'd spotted one of my friends, so i stuck with her, until she took a really wide swing around the pier. i finally stood at 42 min, thinking (and saying aloud) WTF? i was dumbfounded. i actually was able to swim more of that swim that i think i ever have. i only took 2 10-15 sec breaks to fix my goggles, and other than that i was going the entire time. i asked a couple of the guys what the hell was up with that swim, and if it took them longer than usual too. they joked with me, and i never got a straight answer. imagine my surprise when i look back, and along come my friends, WALKING down the beach from the way i'd just swam. one of them said they walked it in after a half mile because the current turned against us. and then another friend came walking. i was blown away. i didn't notice i had to work any harder during the swim, i just noticed my watch. i guess i need to start paying closer attention. but the way i see it, if it happens like this in a race, getting out and walking isn't an option, so i'll just keep trucking.
can i just tell you how badly ice buckets suck? they SUCK. beyond suck. beyond blow. it takes my poor toes so long to reperfuse it's just painful. and it's the toes that have no nails. maybe toenails actually serve as a sort of insulation. hmmm
the plan for the week, charrissa shall be a fish. and ingest aspirin throughout (if i run in to a door at any point this week, i'll probably die from internal bleeding). and hope that my toes don't fall off from the godforsaken ice bucket. and find shoes that actually support me. yesterday when i went to the running store, the guy, as always, didn't believe me when i told him my shoe size. actually had to take off my new balances and show him the tongue. that's when i saw the width of these shoes is a 2E. wtf??? yes, i know that's where this injury has come from. and my achilles problem. ever want to see your coach's head just pop right off, tell him that little tidbit of info after hours of bitching to him about how you hate running, how running sucks and how you have pain here and here and here...that sucker will just pop right off. trust me. not only are these shoes about 4 widths too wide, but they're also walking shoes, which means the insole/arch is incredibly inflexible. yes, i know i need new shoes. but ya know, i've been unemployed for 11 weeks now. running shoes weren't really on my list of must-haves when my bank account never hit more than 3 digits.
santa barbara is in 6 days. 155 hours actually. i'm not convinced i'm not racing. i'm not convinced i am racing. it's my first race. ever. it's only a 2 mile run. i haven't tried it yet, but i seriously doubt the bike would be painful. i remember how to tape my feet/ankles like my old basketball coach used to do. i don't know how the tape would hold up in the water. i know that if i do too much right now, this injury will only get worse, not to mention plague me for the rest of the race season. but i'm not running at all this week - walking at work will be plenty. i'm swimming my arms off. possibly hop on the trainer towards the end of the week. i'm going to do what i need to do this week, i know that. but no, i'm not going to say i'm not racing this weekend. so get over it. and stop telling me not to race folks. somebody just better be ready to give me a piggyback ride towards the end of the run a week from today.
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