Breakdown

I'm sure y'all remember my ankle issues from last year.  In case you've somehow forgotten, I sprained my ankle horribly during a soccer game, went through two months of intense physical therapy, and finally started feeling better in February or March.

So far this marathon training has been going swimmingly.  Other than some shin splints prior to getting proper shoes, a few nasty blisters, and miscellaneous aches and pains that are to be expected, I've been PERFECT - which has been shocking due to my past with IT-band issues, knee and hip drama, etc.

Well, here's me now:

Okay, that was actually me two days ago.  Now it's way more swollen and taped differently.

On Saturday, I ran the best run of my life: FIFTEEN miles.  I felt so good - like I could run several more miles.  And then...a couple days later...my body fell apart.

I don't know what happened.  I don't remember twisting my ankle, rolling my ankle, doing anything out of the ordinary to my ankle.  But starting on Monday, the medial side has been ridiculously sore.  And it has only gotten worse.

I went for a three-mile run on Monday (probably not smart, but it didn't hurt too badly).  I took Tuesday and Wednesday off and actually went to see a chiropractor instead.  

*Side note: I've always been a little leery of chiropractors, but Dr. Rehmer is awesome.  She focuses on whole health rather than just one aspect and spends most of her time with me on therapies rather than on adjustments (although that's part of it, too).  After seeing just one set of X-rays, she was able to explain why I had been feeling the way I'd been feeling - without me even telling her how I'd been feeling.

Today, I was supposed to do this week's long run since I'll be out of town on Saturday.  My student and I were to run 16 miles.  We started off, and I felt decent for the first three.  Then I started to get sore.  Around mile six, I verbalized that I wasn't sure I'd be able to do the whole 16.  Around mile eight, I became quite sure of it, and a half mile later, I started walking.  We ended up doing eleven miles, but I was dying.

After taking a quick shower, I headed to school to put my disaster of a classroom back together.  As I was hobbling around like an old man, I nearly had a sobbing breakdown.  I realized that for the past five months, I have been kicking butts and taking names with this marathon gig.  I have started to love running, I have started losing weight, I have started becoming healthier, and I have gotten legit excited to run 26.2 miles.  I cannot imagine not running this race.  But there's no way I'll be able to run it if I can't get two more long runs in.  And I won't be able to finish those if I don't train with shorter runs during the week.  Which means I will have spent five months training for nothing.

BREAKDOWN

So...I went to my third chiropractic appointment in as many days.  On the first day, Dr. Rehmer wrapped my ankle in kinesio tape, did the electrode thing they have in PT offices, and sent me on my way.  The second day, she lasered my ankle.  And today, the third day, she re-taped it, lasered it again, and took X-rays.  It's not broken, but as she and my previous doctor said, it'd be a lot better if it were fractured than sprained.

Lovely.

So that's that.

I've decided to be semi-smart for a change: I'm going to completely lay off running until next Saturday at the earliest.  (We have a 10k race on the 27th that I'd really like to run, but we'll see how I'm feeling.)  I'm going to gobble down a lot of Advil, use up a lot of ice, and just chill out.  (The third part of that equation is going to be the most difficult, I think.)

How do you cope with injuries while training for something so huge, so important?  Help!

On a completely different note, let me show you some posters I made for my classroom:

These are two of the Eight Keys of Excellence (Quantum Learning).  I'm going to color the keys yellow and then maybe cut a squiggly outline of the words/key to paste to brightly colored paper.  I haven't quite decided yet.

Is this not the most perfect quote/poster for my classroom, a room focused on the fact that everyone has a voice and a story to tell?  LOVE.

So important.  SO. IMPORTANT.

After reading Alice I Have Been, I'm more than a little obsessed with Alice in Wonderland.  And I love this quote - I think too many of our kids are lacking imagination.  Sad.

My next post will be more cheerful.  Promise.