Did my 2nd 9 miler yesterday again at Shelby Bottoms. It was another gorgeous day in Music City - 71 degrees! Thought I'd share some of the beautiful scenery I have been doing my long runs at over the past 4 weeks:
I *believe* this is the pedestrian bridge that goes over to LP Field - which is where the Tennessee Titans play.
This is a roundabout taking you from the Greenway (where I run) to the pedestrian bridge.
And this is my favorite bridge. Why? Because when I have it in sight, I know I'm almost done with my run because my car is parked underneath it.
The Bad:
When I started my run yesterday, I couldn't get my breath. I forgot to take my Flonase nose spray before I headed out. Not real smart running in a park in 70 degree weather in a state with a very high pollen count for almost 2 hours and forget your allergy medicine. Finally, after I hacked up a few coughs, things seemed to clear up a bit. I even spit twice. I still kept having to stop and walk. Which is fine! I always take walk breaks on my long runs. But this was more than usual. I realized I hadn't even run 1 MILE straight without having to stop. After I finished this stop-n-go for the first 3 or 4 miles, I told myself 'when I hit mile 5, I'm running straight til I hit mile 6'. I had to channel my inner Goldilocks to do this... not too fast, not too slow, but juuuuust right. And so, I did it. A nice slow, controlled run. (FYI - I now feel confident saying that I'm currently about an 11:30 min/mile runner.)
After that, I decided I'd do it again from mile 7 to mile 8. This thinking was definitely more fun, and I was looking forward to the challenge. (shouldn't be such a challenge at this point in my training - to run 1 mile straight).
That *fun* idea never happened. Before I got to mile 7, I had a twinge in my ankle. It was mild, and if I landed my feet just right on the ground, I didn't feel it at all. At this point, "just right" was landing on the big balls of my feet. (you know, the balls of your feet, but the BIG ball under your BIG toe? so, big balls.) I was concentrating extremely hard to do this. Too hard.
Mile 8-9? All walking. Well, all walking and a little bit of limping. My whole knee discomfort was now radiating down my leg to my ankle and part of my foot. Lovely. I stretched quickly (a big no-no, but I was starting to be in more pain than I liked) and drove home. After my 35 minute drive home, and no moving of my leg, I could barely walk to the door from my car. I took a 15 minute ice bath and hoped like hell that my knee/calf/ankle/foot would be so numb, I wouldn't feel anything for a while. Didn't happen.
The Ugly:
I'm on crutches. The same crutches that I had when I had my stress fracture 6 years ago. I'm waiting for my doctor to call with my MRI results from LAST week - when I could actually walk and before any of this pain started. I think I need a re-do. My MRI has got to be completely different from how my leg/knee/ankle - WHATEVER - is feeling now. Right?
I've been on the verge of tears all day. My kids are on spring break. My boys leave tomorrow for Florida to see their dad - which is always a heart-panging day for me. I need to pack their bag, but would rather send clean clothes in their suitcase than dirty, so I have a lot of laundry to do as well. My 3 year old looks bored to tears. My husband is on conference calls all day but dressed and ready to sweep me off my feet to the emergency room for another xray (that's what he keeps saying I need - honestly, neither of us know). And he leaves out of town tomorrow. And I can't walk.
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