There's a saying that runners are friends you haven't met yet. I've met some of my best friends through running. Of course, with any group of people, there's bound to be a few who aren't your type. But have you ever met someone who left you scratching your head?
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| Random horseshoe tree on Sunday's trail run |
For those of us who work in healthcare, especially those of us who are working with patients, things have never been so bad as they've been the past couple of weeks. I don't talk much about work here on the blog, but I don't think I've ever felt as burned out and run down as I have lately. This current surge is affecting children more than we've seen with any other strain of Covid. I'm testing multiple patients throughout the day and the large majority of them are testing positive. Combine that with the mental health crisis we are seeing in pediatrics and yeah, it makes for a tough day.
The good news is that at least here in the Chicago area, the numbers of Covid cases are starting to level off. My hope is that this variant continues on its fast and furious pattern, burning itself out soon. Fortunately, none of the kids I've seen are very sick. I wear my N95 mask all day with the hope of not getting sick.
It's increasingly hard to motivate myself to go to work. Making sure that I get in a run or a workout before my day begins has continued to keep me grounded. I also have tried some meditation through the Happify app and that simple act of breathing and centering helps to keep my anxiety down. I'm certainly not ready to leave my job, but I am ready for things to normalize somewhat.
When you live in the northern part of the US, you get winter. This week, we had arctic-style temperatures and yeah, it was cold. On Thursday, I was working out with SJ when a fellow athlete walked in and asked, "why do we live here?"
I get it. I'm not a fan of the cold either. But I do like the snow and when you live here, you have to make the best of it. I grew up in a rural area of Illinois and we played outside all winter long, sledding, ice skating, and snowmobiling. I was an avid downhill skier, although the hills we have for skiing would be laughable to those of you who live out west.
I've learned to dress for the cold so that I can get my miles done outside. As long as the wind isn't blowing, I can tolerate just about any temperature. But every once in a while, I have to take my runs to the treadmill. It happened once this week. You know it's cold when Cocoa won't stay out for long.
I ask you this:
Who's an idiot? Apparently, me...and a few other runners I saw on Wednesday's snowy, muddy, slushy trail run. I was crossing the parking lot, deciding between calling it quits and continuing on for a couple more miles. A group of 4 runners I had seen earlier on the trails was stripping down in the sunshine and preparing to leave, when one of them called out to me. "Another idiot runner!" I stopped and he laughed, gesturing to his running companions. "All of us," he said, laughing.
I don't know if running the trails in the snow and slop constitutes a diagnosis of idiocy, but I laughed and continued on, telling the group I had been planning to stop but challenge accepted. I mean, how could I stop after that backhanded compliment? I ended up going 2 more miles before returning to my car.
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| Wednesday's sloppy trail run |
Just because it's the busy holiday season doesn't mean I put my workouts on the back burner! Au contraire, my friends. If anything, I'll cut back on holiday prep to squeeze my workouts in. This year feels more stressful than usual to me. Between the chronic stress of the pandemic and the explosion of Covid cases in the past couple of weeks, I need to move my body more than ever! Thank goodness for it all.
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| Friday's foggy run |
When I chose the word STRONG as my word for 2021, I clearly had no idea how deep I was going to have to dig to find my strong. At the time, I already realized that 2021 was going to be challenging. I think that after 2020, we were all crazy optimists and thought things were going to be better. We were so full of hope for the new year. Of course, nothing magical happened with the turn of the calendar. It never does. I know that and you know that. But it never hurts to hope, right?
The year kicked off with that turmoil in Washington D.C. and I started off the year battling anxiety and despair. But instead of succumbing to my feelings, I acknowledged them and vowed to "find my strong". At times, it felt as if the universe was out to test me on this declaration! I had a lot of personal struggles this year, besides that battle with depression and anxiety. There were some significant injuries--the tendon tear in my wrist, SJ joint dysfunction, and the broken ankle and foot. I didn't figure on starting the year with an injury bingo card!
I already reviewed my year of bling, so I'm not going to talk about races in this post. Instead, I'm going to use the outline of my original word of the year post from last January to evaluate how I did on my journey to find my strong. Did I find it?
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| Grand Tetons National Park |
My return to running from my ankle and foot fractures continues! While writing this recap, I can't help but share my pride in my progress. I've been slowly increasing my running intervals for the past month but really -ahem- hit my stride this week, with 2 longish trail runs and another zippy 5 miler on the bike path. While my ankles are still a bit cranky, once they loosen up, I'm able to move well. RA hasn't always been happy with my increased miles either, but I ran a total of 69 miles in November.
Wow. I saw that number and was stunned. Happy, but stunned.
Why has this comeback gone so well? I credit the work I did while I was healing. Instead of agonizing about not being able to run, I looked at what I could do. As soon as I could, I started walking. I added pool running, which gave me cardio and mobility. I participated in a trail hiking challenge on the Ice Age Trail, which helped me build strength and work on agility. My strength coach adjusted our sessions to incorporate mobility work in addition to building strength. The funny thing is that I didn't plan any of this. These opportunities came my way and I took advantage of them.
I'm going to continue to increase my running intervals with the goal of eventually eliminating the walk intervals. Pool running will stay in my rotation through the winter. I'd like to add more strength work and I'm still trying to figure out when I can add CrossFit back in. It's a great problem to have, isn't it?
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| Apparently, I run with my eyes closed! |
For the past 4 1/2 months since my injury, I've been patiently returning to running. There has been a lot of splashing around in the pool. Modified strength training. Walking and hiking. And finally last week, full-on running, using 3:1 run/walk intervals. I've been pretty pleased with what has mostly been uneventful, steady progress.
Until Thursday. After my pool running session, I decided to set up our outdoor Christmas tree. The whole neighborhood sets up little trees in their front yards. It's pretty awesome and since it wasn't terribly cold, it was a good day to do it. I gathered the ornaments and proceeded to carry them outside when I missed a step in the garage and painfully rolled my ankle. Not my right ankle, thankfully. It was my left and oh did it hurt. I felt sick to my stomach and had to sit down for a few minutes to evaluate the damage. Nothing broken, thank goodness. I stood up and hobbled out to the tree. As I moved around to decorate it, I started to feel better. I finished my job and headed back inside to rub some CBD salve on the ankle and put it up for the day. As I write this, it's still sore and stiff but I'm able to run and walk without a problem.
Grateful nothing bad happened, I couldn't help but think, enough already! It kind of felt like a theme for the week.
With Thanksgiving coming up later this week, it's time to reflect on all that we are grateful for. Let's be honest, for so many reasons, 2021 has been a really crappy year. I'm not going to talk about any of that. It's Thanksgiving and I'm going to focus on the positive, the stuff that kept me going in spite of what was truly a very difficult year for me personally:
And this week, my return to full-on running.
On Thanksgiving, we'll be celebrating in person, with my entire family. I'm looking forward to it!
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| Wednesday's trail run |
I was tired and achy all week. Was it the time change? The dramatic shift in the weather? Work stress? RA? On Thursday, I woke up to a dark, windy, rainy morning. I felt unusually achy and even after my cup of coffee, was unable to shake it off. It's been a long time since I have felt this bad, and all things considered, I guess I was due for a day on the couch.
It's never easy for me to surrender, but I canceled my strength session with SJ and my haircut. With Cocoa by my side, I snuggled under a blanket, slathered my knees and wrists with my favorite CBD salve, and read a book. Sometimes the body knows best. I'm glad I listened.
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| Friday's dig deep empowering run |
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| At the crossing of 4 trails in Devil's Lake State Park Which way to go? |
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| Friday's walk/run |
The week started off really well with a long run on a beautiful day in the forest preserve. I was eagerly anticipating my upcoming Saturday trail race in Devil's Lake State Park. It's a race I've wanted to run for several years. In this strange year that is 2021, registration just opened up about a month ago. I decided on the 10k distance as a way to check out the race and the trails, which are notoriously hilly. If it went well, I planned on doing the half marathon next year. Heck, I even had a blank recap post waiting in my draft folder.
You know what they say about making plans, right?
Once again, all my plans are on hold. Is the universe sending me a message? Or does someone have a Wendy voodoo doll? If so, please remove all the pins because...
Maybe it was the strawberry moon--did you see it?--but things kind of flip-flopped this week. We got a ton of rain--the drought is over! Everything is green again, but yep, the mosquitoes and biting flies have come to life in the woods. My insect repellent doesn't seem to be holding up to the challenge.
On the plus side, my wrist responded well to the steroid injection that I received last week. I am so grateful for that! While I know that my wrist isn't healed, it's been interesting to see what I can do without pain. I wear the brace most of the time for comfort but have stopped wearing it when I run and work out. Oh...and I tested it out behind the boat this weekend!
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| Monday's rainy run |
If only I could do a better job of shaking things off!
I've always been a ruminator and I have trouble letting go of my worries. If you read my runfessions from Friday, you know that I received a yellow light from my ortho: proceed with caution because you might feel pain but it's ok and it will probably fix your problem... and yeah, if you find that confusing, so do I!
Even with this unusual advice to get out and test the limits of the tendon, I didn't immediately get behind the boat nor did I run to the gym and do cleans and jerks. The steroid injection itself caused me some pain. Dare I say that my wrist is feeling better since the injection? I haven't tested it out yet. We'll see how the upcoming week goes.
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| Friday's rainy run |
Running and lifting, running and lifting, go together like birthdays and gifting, this I tell you sister, you can't have one without the other... ~apologies to Frank Sinatra.
After getting my final diagnosis this week of a tear of my flexor carpi radialis tendon--that's at the base of my right thumb--my first thought was, well, at least I can still run. But then it hit me: over the past couple of years, I've become so much more than a runner. As long-time readers of the blog know, I've been strength training and doing CrossFit as a means to supplement running and to prevent injury. Running was always my favorite way to move my body. I identify as a runner, not a CrossFitter.
Then I hurt my wrist and with that came the realization that while running is still number one, strength training and CrossFit have become essential activities in my fitness regimen. Much like I do with running, with my strength training, I set goals and I train to achieve them. With this injury, I've had to cut back on my training and I miss it. After I got the news this week that confirmed the tendon injury, I felt really sad. That surprised me, because like I said, I can still run. But you know what? Running isn't enough anymore.
There, I've said it. Now, I know. I promise to behave and let my wrist heal so I can get back to ALL the THINGS.
The lake is calling...
