Physical (& Mental) Therapy

Well, the Phoenix marathon is behind me (thankfully).  I work hard to be a glass half-full type of person, and I'm trying to find positives about this race....it was a short but great weekend with a friend from high school, the weather was beautiful, I was able to see my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces before I left, and...I finished the dang race.  I wondered after the first 10k if I would make it - a nagging, painful ankle crept up on me and from mile 8 to the finish, it was literally all I could focus on.  So, I walked, limped, and jogged the last 18 miles.  Finished, got my medal and finisher's jacket, found the free beer tent, and - surprise, surprise - I was so slow that the Wallflowers had already finished performing by the time I was done!  My goal was to be at a Boston-qualifying time of 3:55 or less, and my previous best in October was 4:06.  I finished Phoenix in 4:43.

So, a week and a half post-race, I ended up at an orthopedist for an evaluation and diagnosis.  After a half dozen x-rays and physical examination, I'm told I have arthritis, three bone spurs, and significant calcification in my right ankle and foot.  I'm thankful that it's not more serious, but I'm not surprised by the diagnosis.  Years of running and countless ankle sprains from playing basketball in high school undoubtedly contributed to this.  The therapy: prescription anti-inflammatory meds, physical therapy (to ensure my running gait aggravates the ankle as little as possible), arch support inserts (apparently I have high arches - something I've not been told prior to this), and the option of having cortisone injections a month or two prior to races.  Down the road (far down the road?) an MRI and surgery to clean out the ankle.

Plain and simple, it sucks to be old.

After taking it easy for three weeks, I'm back on a training plan.  Eighteen weeks until Grandma's Marathon, and just eleven weeks until the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  I'm definitely setting my sights on BQ-ing in Duluth; as for OK, I haven't determined a time goal but I would like to have solid, pain-free training up until the race and finish with a smile on my face. Hitting four hours or less would be wonderful. I'll get there, one day and one run at a time :)

....as for swimming - I'm continuing to make improvements, slow and steady.  My latest swim lesson video is below:

Progress, slow but sure.  I'm feeling more confident and less panicked with each swim lesson - and that is the first step towards me completing a triathlon.

My adopted motto leading up to Grandma's:

"Success is not final,

Failure is not fatal:

it is the courage to 

continue that

counts."

~

Winston Churchill