Hazard Lights

First, there was the tendinitis in my left wrist.

Then came the plantar fasciitis in my left foot, and hints of it in my right. The right foot was cured by the orthotics PT Chris gave me, and the left foot was significantly mitigated. But I still limped pretty badly a few hours after a run, even if it was completely pain free from start to finish (no gutting it out over here!).

Then last Monday night, while sitting on the couch shortly before bed I noticed my right knee felt stiff. I tried to stand up and it was immediately obvious my chondromalacia was acting up. Thankfully it wasn't painful like in the past, but it was very stiff and swollen and I could barely move it, let alone walk or climb the stairs to bed.

The next morning I had PT for my wrist, which Baby Bear usually tags along for. I could hardly move and carrying his seat was beyond me at that point, so my awesome BF called into work for the morning to watch him so I could hobble in for treatment. PT Chris taped up my knee while my wrist got zapped, which made a huuuuuge difference and allowed me to function while it healed up.

Then she said my wrist clearly isn't improving and put a cortisone patch thingy on it and taught me to tape the joint to help stabilize it when I can't wear the brace (when I'm taking care of Baby Bear).

I was just going to make this a 'pictures tell the story' post because I do have pix of my various braces, orthotics, tapings and ouchies but I'd have to go down the steps to get the pictures off the camera and I just don't have it in me.

I'm pretty much limping along in the multi-sport breakdown lane. The hazard lights are on and at this point I'm really just hoping to scrape by my race in June.

Needless to say I took the whole last week off. By last night I was starting to feel more like myself, so I seriously modified my scheduled 3 mile outdoor LSD and did a 'let's see how it feels for how long' treadmill run.

Wasn't too bad (14:00 pace at 1% incline), but had to cut it off at 2.5 miles because my knee started to have an opinion on the proceedings. A little bedtime ice and ibuprofen did the trick, but I'm clearly walking on eggshells these days.

My current plan is to mosey through my June triathlon however I can, conserve my body as much as possible and focus all my good days on really training for the half marathon. It's becoming very clear I won't be able to ask much more of my body this season.

Baby Brick

This weekend was eventful in more ways than just discovering the whole incline workout theory works... Baby Bear turned 5 months old, we finally bought our jogging stroller and we had our first Baby Bear Brick Workout Extravaganza!

OK, so it was a pretty sad brick (3 mile bike, 2 mile run) with the longest transition in history, which included a breast feeding, being spit up on and a complete change of clothing for both of us. But it was a gorgeous day and we spent most of it outside, so I wasn't gonna be picky.

[Ed. Note: We could only go 3 miles on the bike because he hated the trailer and cried every time it hit a bump, so I headed back home after only a few minutes. I strongly recommend against buying this brand of trailer - get something with better tires and maybe a suspension so the ride isn't so jarring.]

After the shortest bike leg ever recorded, it was time to test out my shiny new BOB Ironman stroller!


This stroller is Da. BOMB!!! It was so worth the wait. It's light as a feather, practically runs itself and Baby Bear was comfortable even though he's just barely big enough to sit up in it. The only thing I would change is remembering to put on my running bra before venturing out with it next time. THAT was an unfortunate oversight.

After workout time was done we relaxed and goofed around outside. Baby Bear got his first good look at grass...


And promptly decided he hated it.


So we chilled out watching the Cubbies beat the Pirates and called it a great day.

(We think his first words will be "Just wait 'til next year!")

I Told You So

Last week I started putting my treadmill on a 1% incline for my indoor runs. Because I've always struggled with the frustration of finding myself able to run less than half the distance outdoors as in, and I'd read in many articles and been told by many people this would help because it more closely simulates running on pavement.

I've known about this helpful hint for at least two years. But I've never used it because of these very important mitigating circumstances:

- It's hard.
- I don't want to.
- Seriously, it's hard.

I finally caved and started the incline thing because my sheer panic over the half marathon thing is, at this point, outmitigating my prior mitigations.

So, after only one stinkin' week of doing it this new way my weekend outdoor run felt substantially more manageable, and the whole workout my Inner Runner was rubbing a great big giant "I told you so" in my face.

So, mitigating circumstances notwithstanding, I feel like a moron for not doing this sooner.

But on the bright side, at least I found a way to put a dent in the panic. : D

I Guess My Wrist Was Lonely

Cause my left foot joined the pain party, and my right one is trying to schmooze its way past the bouncers.


Luckily I've got PT Chris on my side, and while I was in for my wrist session she gave me some orthotics for my running shoes that are already making a difference just walking around in them (she's making me wear them all day for the time being).

In other news...

Since I'm trying to rest my ouchy foot I left Baby Bear with Grandma and went for my first real swim in 6 months. It wasn't pretty, but I survived. I just decided to swim easy for as long as I could. I stopped around 33 minutes with plenty of gas left in the tank. (We won't talk about the fact that the pace worked out to roughly 3:30/100 yds. Let's just focus on the fact that I swam successfully today, in spite of a wrist injury that hurt with every stroke.)

Basically, today was about finding out if I can make it through the swim leg of my race in (OMFG what have I done?!) 8 weeks (my worst time in this race's swim is 27 min), however ungracefully, and I'm satisfied I can.

And speaking of that race... today I got an email from a girlfriend asking if I'd be interested in doing it because she's volunteering there! We've only recently gotten to know each other, so she had no idea she was talking about my favorite race. We're SO. EXCITED! She's got a thyroid problem too and is also struggling to get it (and her weight) under control, so we have tons in common. (She's also afraid of open water, just like me.) She's eager to tackle the course herself next year, and I'm thrilled to be the one to take her through it.

April 15

At least we've got this going for us...

Really Dumb Injury of the Week

Had my ortho consult a few day ago. Survey says.... DeQuervain's Tendinitis.
She kept using words like "common," "classic" and "textbook." Suits me just fine, would hate to have something wierd and hard to treat.

So my current 'goes with everything' accessory of the moment is this sexy little number...


They sent me for a few weeks of PT (which is cool because I get to see awesome PT Chris again). I'm allowed to run and swim but have to stay off the racing bike for at least a month. I can ride the upright hybrid bike and do modified (i.e. don't use that hand) yoga.

All in all, it's looking like the embarrassment of explaining the injury (it appears the baby's head compressing my wrist when I nurse on that side caused the inflammation) is going to end up being worse than the injury itself. I can live with that.

Starting the Season Right

Right about now I'm feelin' like this...



Cause I'm about to go on the first official run of my official half-marathon training plan in my snazzy new Mizuno Wave Rider 11s!

***Update***

I went, I ran... I sucked. (1 mile in 14:05, and it was hard.)
BUT... my feet felt faaaaahbulous! I heart my new runnin' shoes!!

Old School Motivation

This was supposed to be a post about how cool it was that we took Baby Bear for his first swim and how much he loved it.

Then I saw the pictures.

I mean, I was back at my pre-pregnancy weight within a week of giving birth and that's basically where I've been hanging out. Not good, but way better than it could have been and I've been taking steps to start losing again.

Maternity leave is over. I'm easing back into real life, easing back into work (which is killing me! I've having to try to work late at night after the Nightly Epic Baby Bear Bedtime Battle) and easing back into training.

So, like I said. Babies and pools and pictures and Oh. My. GAWD!! Suddenly I don't care how hungry the breastfeeding makes me, something has to be done, and done N.O.W.

Oh, and I can't help thinking if it's this bad now, how bad was it BEFORE I lost 50+ pounds?!?!

So, I'm going old school Erma Bombeck on my ass. Only instead of a picture of Mama Cass on the refrigerator, I'm putting the baby swim day pictures up as wallpaper.

(Least horrific picture provided in order to keep your screens from melting...)

(If this were a movie you'd be able to see that he'd just discovered how much fun it is to kick his feet and splash water.)