Pictures of my bones & the reason someone smiles :)

I woke up this morning and my feet were still hurting from yesterday's run. My left foot hurts more than my right but lingering pain anywhere is not how I wanted to start my week. The pain in my feet is something new ever since I ran the Palm Beach half marathon. My normal "aches & pains" locations are my left knee and left hip, so I'm not exactly happy that there are new areas to apply ice packs to.

I've been trying to figure out why I'm getting pain in my feet. The only new thing I've done recently is use compression sleeves...but that's supposed to help right? Plus, I didn't use my compression sleeves yesterday when I ran :( sigh.

My friend's husband was recently diagnosed with stress fractures in his feet a week or so before his full marathon. So, of course, I start to worry about things like that when I have a new onset of symptoms that I can't otherwise explain. I didn't want to wait to get it checked out so I spent a portion of my morning getting x-rays done (bilateral ankle and feet x-rays).


I probably won't find out the results until Wednesday so I get to spend more time worrying about it. Fun.

I figured (you know...since we're so close) that I would share the pictures of my bones with you. I'm not a radiologist but I didn't see anything glaringly wrong...

Left foot and ankle

Right foot and ankle

I'm hoping that the pain is nothing to worry about (please think positive thoughts for me), but just-in-case I'm taking another "semi-rest day" tomorrow. I was supposed to run in the morning but I'm going to do other types of cardio instead and hopefully run on Wednesday (the x-rays should have an official radiologist reading by then).

A few months ago I attended a short intro session on Chi Running with my running group. It was a very short session so there wasn't a lot of practice time available, but the Chi Running method is supposed to help you run injury-free. Coincidentally, today I came across THIS ARTICLE posted on the Run Haven Facebook page on Chi Running...

It seems like a great concept in theory but it's harder to put into practice in reality. However, I really do want to improve my form and minimize these annoyingly persistent injuries so I'm going to try to incorporate some of the techniques I learnt in the Chi running class (and reviewed in this article). 

The rest of my Monday went by relatively quickly but was filled with good news:

1. Kaiyu made her school's volleyball team!!!! 

2. My little sister's fiancé is in town and came to visit...

3. I received my online nursing course assignment for the upcoming semester!!! (the online courses that I teach help fund my lengthy marathon and half marathon bucket list dreams).

4. I saw this on Instagram today and it made me smile...

so hopefully it makes you smile too...and even if this doesn't make you smile, I hope someone or something was able to make you smile today :)

Happy Monday!!!