Leg Update and The Olympics

Well the word is in -  I'm cleared to run!  The stress fracture has fully healed and to date I have done 3 treadmill runs of 20-30 minutes. My Team (chiropractor, Crysta Serne and massage therapist, Brad Neate) want me to stick to the treadmill or soft surface trails for the rest of the month and then hopefully I'll be back on the roads.

I won't be posting very often in the next couple of months here.  This is mainly due to the lack of news on the running and racing front and also becuase I'll be posting on my new blog, Nicole's 2010 Games.

Check it out here:  http://nicoles2010games.blogspot.com/

Keep on running and I'll post here as soon as I have something worthy!

2009 in Review

Here are some interesting figures I pulled from my Buckeye Outdoors Training Log.  Despite being SO determined to make this my fastest, biggest, brightest running year so far - I actually didn't put up very big numbers compared to 2008.  I can blame a lot of that on my injury, however, because my last run of the year was in the first week of November.

                             2008                          2009
Number of Runs:  158                           165
Average Time:      00:55:20                    01:02:46
Total Time:           107:55:04                  170:31:11
Avgerage Pace:    10:13 min/mile            11:00 min/mile
Avg. Distance:      5.6 Miles                    5.7 miles
Total Distance:     878.1 Miles                929.0 miles

Hopefully I will see a improvments this year in average pace, distance, and total mileage!

The Case of the Mystery Pain: Part II

Sorry for the cliffhanger.  I wrote the last posting with every intention of coming back a day or two later and filling you all in on what happened to my leg.  But every time I sat down to compose something the explanation came out sounding so convoluted and confusing I just kept putting it off. 

I'm going to try to make this as simple as possible, and I'm probably going to leave some things out.  There's also a good chance that I've misunderstood or misinterpreted all or some of the diagnoses I've been given over the last couple of months.  Having said that, I will do my best.

First Chiro Appointment
When I showed up for my first chiro appointment last November, one of the first comments she had after looking me over was that my right hip was low compared to the left.  She also found out, by poking around my muscles, that my left glute and hip area were EXTREMELY sensitive compared to the left side.

Treating the Pain
Over the ensuing weeks my massage therapist and chirpractor used a combination of  adjustments, massage, pressure points, and exercises I was to do at home to treat the leg pain.  They also started applying Electrical Stimulation Therapy to the shin area, which is supposed to encourage the body's natural healing systems by sending safe, low frequency electrical pulses to the affected area, causing the muscle to contract and increasing temperature and blood flow.

An Explanation!
After a few weeks I started to feel so good I decided to start to run with a dog I was walking. I only ran slowly for about 90 seconds, but the next day my shin hurt BAD.  It ached for days afterwards.  When I reported this to the chiro, she decided to send me for an x-ray to see if there was a stress fracture.

(This is not MY x-ray, but merely an example)

A few days later, her suspicion was confirmed.  About a month after the initial pain started on that fateful October run, I finally got confirmation of a tibial stress fracture.

I'm a Gimp?!

Around the same time, both practitioners came to the conclusion that my left leg is a little bit longer than the right. The chiropractor felt that this would explain why the left leg suffered the fracture, since the left leg was bearing more of the stress from running than the right.  For this she recommended an orthotic which would be slightly higher on the right side to try and make up for the leg length difference.  To be honest I was a bit skeptical of this conclusion, since nobody had ever suggested this to me before.  I decided to trust their advice, however, and went with the orthos.

What I've Been Doing

I've been wearing the orthotics for about a week without any major complaints and I've continued with the massage and chiropractic therapies, although the frequency of visits has gone way down.  I've also been trying to keep up my leg strength with weight training, my cardio strength with swimming and spinning, and have been stretching lots to work on my overall flexibility. 

I also got the green light to ski over the holidays and took to the slopes 4 times at Whistler.  Nothing crazy.

What's Next?

Today I had my follow up x-ray and at tonight's chiro appointment I should find out if the bone has healed.  Hopefully it has and I can get back to running (and blogging more often)!

The Case of the Mystery Pain: Part I

On October 24th I went out for a 7 mile speed workout.  It was my third run after having taken a week off with acute bronchitis.  The first two runs had been easy and uneventful.  During the run, at around mile 5 I felt a sudden and surprising pain in my left leg.  The weird thing was, I couldn't tell you where the pain was centered.  It was sort of global. 

Naturally, I ran through the pain, very pleased with myself for completing my workout in my goal time.  Then I walked home and laid down on the floor in agony.  For the next few days the pain did not improve.  It was worse when I took a step on the left side, but it never went away. 

I saw the doctor on the first day I could get an appointment, which was Oct.27th.  The first question I asked was, did I need an x-ray to rule out a stress fracture.  But because I couldn't precisely locate the epicenter of the problem, the doctor diagnosed me with 'fascial pain', gave me a prescription for some strong anti-inflammatories, and told me to walk when it felt fine to walk, and run when it felt fine to run.  She said I would not do any damage by running on the sore leg.

Two days later we jetted to New York City where we walked about 3-5 miles a day and where I managed a 6 mile run.  It was painful, but not unbearable until the last mile or so..  Every evening after walking all day my leg killed me.  But every morning it felt fine, so I figured it wasn't getting worse.

I went back to the doctor on Nov. 6th and reported the pain had not gone away as expected.  I also let her know that my hip seemed to be the worst area now.  At that she sent me to a chiropractor, suspecting my hip might be out of alignment causing issues all the way down the leg.

To be continued....

Running Bébé Takes Manhattan: Day 5

Today we headed down to Lower Manhattan to wander around and also to go look at wallets at Century 21. We don't have those in Canada (Century 21's, not wallets). The department store was super crowded, so we did a lot more walking around outside than in the store.

Ian sipping coffee with Trinity Church in the distance behind him

It was a perfect day for aimless meandering through the streets - not too hot, not too cold, and not raining.

New York Stock Exchange Me on the steps of Federal Hall , which was the original capitol of the United States

Back at our room we were treated to quite a show, as the USS New York docked right in front of our hotel (picture above taken from our room!). Apparently part of the hull is made from steel salvaged at Ground Zero. Being our last day I thought it was important to get some shots of our room, which was AWESOME. This images don't do the hotel justice, but they're better than nothing.

Fabulous walk-in shower

View from the lounge area into the bedroom beyond

We had a great time in New York, and we highly recommend the Ink48 Hotel. The service is amazing, the rooms are well-appointed, and since the hotel only opened in October - everything is shiny and new!