Alive and Kicking

My sister recommended I begin blogging again in this home stretch. That recommendation coincided with my own thinking that I should blog these last thirty days. What really got me though is that she said it looks like I just died.

So, first to clear that up. I’m still here. November 25, 2010 was the last entry I made.

At that point I was still baffled by what might have happened during Ironman AX 2010 to make my foot so painful that I couldn’t bear weight coming off the bike leg and the last 40 miles were excruciatingly physically and mentally painful. Funny though how once my foot pain took over I forgot about my shoulders and low back, which must have been feeling it after the long 8 hour ride it took. Not only my foot but the 35 mile an hour winds half of the time in the out and back loop, plus a bit of rain.

By the last entry I was doing much better and so while the mystery continued…nothing more was discovered. I could run, wear heels, was forced to do an early morning bootcamp when I released an employee and was doing plyometrics for demonstration with no problems. I didn’t get cocky, mind you, but I wasn’t restricted.

Near the end of February- after three months of cross training indoors while winter winds and snow blew I headed out for a first of spring run with the dog. It was one of those early warm days when you know that it’s going to blizzard again, it’s Iowa, but you have hope for Spring none-the-less and take advantage of it. I had been running on a treadmill, doing Stairmaster, yoga, swimming and biking, as well as weight lifting since Arizona, in other words doing a balanced mix of activity and experiencing no problems.

The day after the run I experienced a little heel burning sensation. I couldn’t get comfortable in my shoes while standing to observe someone exercising if I was training them. I wore clogs to teach class at ISU one day and the next it was worse yet. I called the podiatrist and got an appt asap. Got fitted for orthotics there. While waiting, the next day was worse yet. I asked for some other solution. Nurse suggested a boot. Fine, went and got it. Second day in that and it was built up at exactly the spot that hurt so I was worse. Dumped the boot and cried uncle. I finally succumbed to an MRI. Until that point it hadn’t made sense.

MRI showed a torn plantar flexor- the muscle that pushes off when you run. So walking or running up hills was potentially culprit during my run that had more terrain change than the treadmill had all winter. And even extreme positions like down dog puts the ankle and foot that hadn’t hurt it we just guessed was because it was slow and gentle. Where the run was impact and force and though it didn’t seem so in terms of time or effort was more than the foot had done. It also showed a talor dome lesion that the podiatrist suspected might a bigger problem for me going forward. And who knew what came first the chicken or the egg.