The Year Of The Full: Chapter 10- THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!

There are no more long countdowns to go. In fact, after today the # of days until Chicago drops into the single digits. The time has come and I'm in full celebration mode...

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(you can probably tell I'm going through a range of emotions by the number of exclamation points in the blog post title and the lack of any so far in this post...and by the .gif above ^^^). 

I'm getting excited it's just that my excitement also seems to be coming with a lot of nervousness ...and some nausea. But I'm going to do it, and I'm going to finish it, and I'm going to try and not die during the process...

Pins & Pools...

I tried acupuncture for the first time yesterday afternoon. It was different. I definitely felt relaxed, but some of that might have been because of the ambiance and the "happy thoughts" I distracted myself with...

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Acupuncture is one of those "cumulative effects" therapies so I'm going to keep an open mind and continue to go and hopefully I will see improvement in my pain level. Since the steroid injection to my right hip I haven't had any pain, but I still feel a strain in that area when I do certain physical therapy exercises.

Swimming & Serenity...

If you follow my Instagram page you probably already know that I have to take another week off from running... (if you don't follow my page (and you want to) you can click HERE). A lot has happened this week and I've kept IG more updated than the blog so I'm just going to do a quick recap to get everybody caught up...                                                                                                                               source

My last post was on Saturday (9/05) when I did my 10 mile long run that wasn't really a long run. Then I ran 1 mile on Monday; 1 mile on Tuesday morning; and 5 miles on Tuesday evening...

Wednesday was a rest day (because of the evening run on Tuesday) and I went back to see my Orthopedic Surgeon (Dr. K) on Thursday morning. I was hoping to be given the "all clear" for longer distances but I was still having some lingering pain. When Dr. K did his assessment of my right hip he expressed some "concern" regarding the amount of pain I had to my greater trochanter area (basically the side of my hip)...

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The most concerning part for him (and me) was the degree of pain considering I had only done 10 miles on Saturday and hadn't done more than 5 miles since; and Dr. K expressed general reservations about my ability to complete the 26.2 mile distance without a more invasive intervention.

Friday Favorites...

The Friday before a long weekend has got to be the greatest thing ever!

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I was so excited about having three days off that I agreed to go shopping on Saturday AND Sunday with Kai (as you can imagine she is excited about that too).

Apart from the three day weekend I have a few Friday favorites to share:

1. Virtual Race Medals...

A virtual race was on the list of 15 New Things for 2015 so I'm excited about getting it done. It's not my first virtual race (I did the Hug-A-Runner 5K with Mary last year) but it's the first one I've done with a medal...and the medal (as well as the cause) is amazing!!!

Motivation and More Miles...

Yesterday I went to physical therapy and this was hanging on the wall...

I love that they find creative ways to provide motivation :)

And then something amazing happened this morning...I ran 5 miles!!!

It wasn't pain free but it definitely wasn't as much pain as previous runs which is a great sign! I also managed to have negative splits again today...

Training to Tolerate the Torture...

I've been a bit sporadic with my blog posts for the past few weeks <sorry guys> because things have been hectic. And to be completely honest, when you have a blog about running and you can't run because you're injured it just simply sucks to talk write about it.

I'm still injured but I'm off my "woe is me" soapbox <kind of>. I spent the past week trying to refocus and adjust my approach to Chicago so that I can make it across the finish line...without hating running. I anticipate that I'm still going to have some hip and knee pain but I'm hoping to maintain a pace and approach that will keep the pain within a tolerable range...

The Week Behind & What Lies Ahead...

In the past week I've been to my Chiropractor three times and my Sports Medicine fellowship trained Orthopedic Surgeon once. They both have given me the "ok" to run (yay!). My Chiropractor said "just don't overdo it" and when I responded with a blank stare he clarified and said "start with 3 miles and slowly increase from there". My Sports Med doc said "no long runs". He didn't catch the blank stare so he offered no further clarification...but he did say I could run every other day.

In addition to mileage reductions I have to start "intense physical therapy" for my current injury diagnosis: Right Trochanteric Bursitis and IT Band Syndrome. That starts on Wednesday of this coming week. And there was also a change in my prescribed anti-inflammatory medication. Sigh. It sounds like a lot doesn't it?

I'm approaching this whole thing with renewed focus and determination. I will be running in the Chicago marathon this October. End. Of. Story. In keeping with my renewed focus I was trying to find motivating stories of marathon runners to keep me from getting discouraged and came across this one...

**If Fauja can do it at age 89, then I can do this at age 35 right?**

"Rolling Hills" & "Pizza"

That moment when your doctor says "I'm going to need some time to study your case and come up with a treatment plan, so don't run until then"...

The appointment actually went better than expected. It was the first time I've ever been to a Chiropractor (which is probably kind of shocking considering my scoliosis) so I wasn't really sure what to expect...

(Turned sideways the x-ray of my spine looks like "gently rolling hills" doesn't it?)

The Elephant In The Room...

It's been over two weeks and I still have lingering pain from my last long run. Being the typical runner that I am I haven't really wanted to talk/blog about it. Runners rarely want to acknowledge that they may have overdone it and need to take a few days off...

I don't think I've done a lot since my 20 mile run, but whatever I've done has clearly been "too much" because on Monday I could barely get through a mile without pain...