This appears to be cool…

It turns out that at the end of September I will be going to Ireland for several days. Evidently, one of the things it may promise to be while I’m there is wet – so I have been shopping around for waterproof/resistant stuff. One of the things it seemed to make sense to have was some non-cotton socks as I expect to be doing a lot of walking/hiking. At 12 bucks a pop, the prospect of buying several pairs of Coolmax socks seemed pretty daunting so I checked out the ol’ ebay and here's what I found . I got 8 pairs of Coolmax socks for $14.99 ($22.99 with S/H and insurance)! Even if they’re seconds, unless they’re completely deformed, I think I made out. Hell, if 2 of the pairs were useable I would have gotten my money’s worth. So I was pleased. Once I actually get them I will report further on their quality.

Thinking, always thinking, about the future…

While shopping yesterday, I went to an outdoor shopping center and made it a point to park at the far side of one end and walk to the other and back for my excursions. Not a huge parking lot, maybe a half mile by the time I walked to one end and back (leisurely, not briskly). The outcome? Some soreness, but not too bad. The upshot? Let’s walk!

I’ve been looking around on the internet, specifically for a post-injury training schedule. I did find this , which had some useful information but seemed like way too much for me right now (or in the near future). I was only running about 10 minutes before I got injured and this schedule suggests 5 minutes right off the bat – for me it sounds like too much, too soon. The schedule that I was originally using (before I got froggy and jumped ahead), from Prevention magazine, is unsurprisingly conservative and probably about right for me. Pfitzinger’s statement that it can take 90 days or more to heal a stress fracture completely was very comforting to me as the standard 6 – 8 weeks that I always read about has passed and I know I’m not completely healed as yet. It was good to hear that healing can take longer as I was starting to get paranoid that I would never be really be done with this.

Public commitment = public shame…
Tomorrow I will do something. I will move. (I’d do it now but it’s bedtime).

Just ONE moment to be sentimental...

Who, but the RBF, would be so supportive when an absoulute beginner started blogging about running 2 minutes straight? Who, but the RBF, would offer advice at every request, and praise every little step forward? Who but the RBF would patiently listen to me whine, lament, and make excuses - and continue to give me endless encouragement and hopefulness? If I was involved in a running club, or had friends who run (or even understand why I would run), it might be different, and I might have had alternative sources of support. But that is not the case at this time and that is why I am so tremendously, amazingly grateful to have stumbled in. The universe is good.

Just a brief intermission from the real concerns of life to crab about Blogger...


When I initiated this blog, Blogger assigned me www.running-in-place.blahblahblah and the the site could also be reached at running-in-place.sans the www. Ok, 2 ways to get there but when I make a new post only one of those sites will be updated right away (if I'm lucky). So my post yesterday may have shown up at the www site and not the other, and today's post may be vice versa. Depending on from whence you link, you may or may not see a new post for at least a few days - and longer in some cases. Template changes I've made to my sidebar show up in preview and remain in template but are not showing up on either URL, and probably won't for a couple of days.

You know, I'm so not picky about visual stuff - if the color isn't offensive and the font doesn't give you a headache I'm happy enough - but when I wanna post, dammit I wanna post - not post and wait 2 - 3 days before my post shows up here or there.

'Kay, that's all I've got for today.

I'm here...
 
     Uninspired, unmotivated, but here.  It has been a busy couple of weeks at work and my internet time has been minimal, but the real story is that I'm just being damn sluggish.  Looking back at the enthusiasm of my previous post, I feel a little embarrassed. 
 
So what's going on??? 
 
     I think I'm afraid.  I still think about running all the time, and any time I pass someone running when I'm driving I am like some rubber-necking voyeur, trying to watch them as long as I can in the rearview - having flights of imagination that it's me, or glimmers of hope that it eventually will be.  The thing is, even though the Dr. cleared me for running again, I still haven't because I'm still having pain.  Not alot, not hardly any - mostly soreness to lesser and greater degrees, particularly in the morning, strangely.  But enough to make me way more skittish than I would have imagined.  It's not related to weight bearing, it's related to range-of-motion, and so some stupid movement will remind me that I'm not healed and leave me completely discouraged despite a day that was otherwise pretty comfortable.  
 
     So I'm nervous - I sit and wonder if the pain will ever completely go away.  Common sense says it will but it's been long enough that it's hard to imagine not having it.  Eight weeks feels like a long time, and maybe it's really not in the scope of healing from an injury, maybe I'm just impatient.  But even though the doc gave me the ok to run - my gut is telling me that I shouldn't.  I am so scared of going out there and re-injuring myself in any way and being sidelined again.
 
So how's the crosstraining going?...
 
     Yeah, well...um.....
 
Some cheese with that whine...
 
     The real story is that I am being lazy.  I know I'm not ready to run just yet but there's a hundred other things I could do and I am really just dragging my feet.  I keep waiting for magical inspiration to come like a lightning bolt when I know that what it's always been about is just going ahead and doing it - making the time, making the effort, making the committment.  I'm just having such difficulty getting back there.
 
     So anyway, thanks for missing me :)  Thanks for the prompt, Jon !  I have been remiss in keeping up on RBF blogs and that makes me more sluggish because they are so motivational and encouraging to me.  I hope to be speaking the truth when I say I'm back!!
  
    "Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky."   - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 
 

Free at last...

My convalescence ends today! Went to the orthoped and heard everything I expected - yep it's a stress fracture (what?? a stress fracture??!?), yep it's healing right along, yep you can start running again (as in learn to walk - then run). I did get the "if you do what you did, you'll get what you got" talk, not that I haven't been ruminating on and bolstering myself against going down that wicked path again for the past 5 weeks! The doc cautioned me that I am healing - not healed - stressed rest days, not increasing too quickly, backing off if pain increases, etc. He can caveat all he wants - I am very very excited!!

So, silly as I tend to be, between 5/26/04 and this day I could have been bike riding, swimming, doing some weights - instead, I did not a thing. I'm not complaining - I wasn't motivated, I was grieving (I know, sounds dramatic), I was uninspired because I couldn't do the thing I most wanted to do. Now that I have the go ahead to work slowly back into a running program I'm all like, ok tomorrow I'll walk, the next day I'll bike, the next day I'll do weights, blah blah blah. Now I'm thinking I'll be Susie-crosstrainer. I guess I've been cut out of my psychological body cast :D

My real plan is to not do any running for a couple more weeks as I still do have some occasional pain - more from certain ranges of motion than from weight bearing, but I do plan to get back on my little trail and start walking walking walking, and I am seriously contemplating dragging the bike up from the basement. All of the RBF enthusiasm for biking, plus going on a bike ride with my sis yesterday is starting to wear me down! At this point, my thought is to walk for 2 weeks (and resist the urge to jog just a couple of steps quite yet), then evaluate where I am pain-wise. Hopefully, at that point I will be able to start a real gentle walk/run program. Gentle, slow, patient, kind...

I'm really happy!

Boilermaker Fever...

Well, this Sunday is the 27th running of the Boilermaker Road Race and the Utica area is really keyed up! My original plan was to run the 5K Training Run, which is the last 1/3 of the course, this year and swing for the race next year. The registration for this course usually closes about a month before the run, and even the thousands of positions to volunteer are filled well before the race. The community support is awesome - for the entire course the spectators are 3-deep on the sides of the roads, hootin' and hollerin'. I will definately be at the curb, cheering everyone on and thinking about next year!!! :D