Overcoming frustration

I ran on Wednesday, pain free, for the first time in nearly 5 weeks.  This was a huge moment of pride and accomplishment for me. 

You see, 2 days after I ran over 6 miles, I injured my foot.

I was out running, just a quick 1.5 mile loop, and I felt a sharp pain in my foot.  First I thought it was just a cramp so I figured I'd run it out.  When it was still hurting a few minutes later, I thought I better give up, and so I limped home. 

I spent the next few days limping around.  5 days later, I decided it was time to go to Urgent Care and get it checked out (I'd had many people tell me to do that!)  Basically that visit didn't do me any good.  The PA said he thought it was probably a stress fracture, but the chances that an X-ray or bone scan could show that were quite slim.  Since we haven't met our insanely high deductible yet, Mike and I opted out of the X-rays and figured I would just treat it as a stress fracture.  The PA gave me a perscription for an anti-inflamitory and sent me on my way. 

Since then, I'd been sticking with lower impact workouts, like the elliptical and cross trainer, and focusing on some more strength training.  I tried to run one day and my foot felt ok as I was running but as soon as I stopped, the pain was back.

I was just so frustrated!  I love running and I felt like I wasn't getting a good enough workout on the elliptical.  My goal had been to complete a 10k race in October and I was right on track for that...and then BAM--an injury. 

So now I finally feel like I'm back on track again.  I ran a 5k on Wednesday and had absolutely no pain (well, except for my toenail cutting my toe and making a bloody mess in my shoes but that's another story!)  I'm half tempted to go back into training full-force, but I'm sure that would only end in disaster.  For now, I'm going to listen to my body...I'll probably run 2 or 3 times a week until I'm sure I'm painfree. 

I just signed up for a 5k with some friends from church for November 12.  It's been a while since I've done a race...since June (!!!), so I'm really excited for this one.  And, I found a great training program to start gearing up for a half-marathon next spring.  Now I just have to choose one to do!