The Runner's Reward

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Sidelined!

After Burning River I had planned to take a full week of rest or more. Well, I likely will be getting a little more than that.

About 4 days after the race my left foot started hurting. It was similar to a pain I had in the past involving my plantar fascia being too tight so I assumed that was the cause and started rolling my foot with a tennis ball. Saturday AM I headed out for a run with the cool cats of the Steel Ciy Road Runners. It was great seeing everyone.My foot was a touch sore as we started out, but as expected the pain died down within the first mile. And the pain wasn't all that severe. Around mile 5 it started throbbing with each stride. I had planned on 5 miles anyway so I decided to walk back to the SCRR garage. Really, my foot wouldn't have it any other way and made the decision for me. Lisa, being a kind soul, walked with me.  I decided to take another week off at that point.

Later in the day Tara and I headed out to do our household shopping for the week.  After a couple of hours my foot really got sore again and then , as quickly as it came, was gone. It was time for a medical opinion. My guesses included extensor tendonitis or stress fracture.

Sunady morning I stopped into Urgent Care. They X-rayed my foot and the doctor poked around on it. I left with a diagnosis of either tendonitis or stress fracture. In other words, I left with nothing I hadn't guessed already.

The radiologist saw no indications of fracture and the doctor thought she did. I scheduled with a podiatrist who also is a runner and came highly recommended from some of my SCRR people. Unfortunately, that appointment isn't for over a week.

Today (Tuesday) I went to the gym to bang out some crosstraining. I got a good leg workout with the arc trainer,bike, and weights.  No pain, but I am being very conservative in the event it is a stress fracture healing up.  I have plenty of time as far as training goes,though this might knock a few hours off my Akron finish time.

In short, I'm not sure what's up , but the symptoms match a stress fracture well. So for now I rest and crosstrain and likely will not know anything until at least next Thursday.  Who has a pool I can aqua jog in at 5 AM? :-)

Nutrition

Also, I have been focusing on nutrition for healing bone damage which includes a lot of fresh veggies for nutrients, bone broth soup, a collagen supplement in orange juice daily, and getting a good amount of protein, some of which is in easily digestible liquid form.