Getting closer

Two more weeks of the boot. Though I did get a pass for the bike trainer or elliptical. The doctor showed me the xray from today and from the day of the break for comparison. The broken ends are still in place with about a millimeter of overlap. They appear to be laying almost side by side. The bone is starting to fill in, but still has a ways to go. Also, looked at the healed stress reaction to the 3rd metatarsal, plus other prior injuries to this foot. Damn and I thought my left foot was the abused one.

Still haven't weighed myself, but I can tell in the last week or two that the belt has to be let out at least a notch. Plan to address the lack of physical activity over the last four weeks, this morning. Weights and the bike trainer.  A little bit of something has to be better than nothing at all. Plus, that should really help loosen up the ankle.

Surprised when the doctor said the ankle would take almost a year to heal. What the hell? Ligaments take longer to heal than bone breaks? I'm dumbfounded. Granted this has been the worst high ankle sprain I've ever experienced. It hurt worse than the break.

Looking at the picture above its easy to see how the bone broke. That must have been the point of impact. Still haven't figured out how I managed to land my foot so awkwardly on the sidewalk. Need to stay away from sidewalks when running or at least not follow so closely behind the fellas.

Random thoughts on Monday

Hard not to smile when the sun is shining. Sunday was a bright sunny day for the most part. The clouds did start rolling in late in the afternoon. Upper 40's and a pretty stiff wind at times. This wouldn't even have been an issue if I wasn't sitting on my ass. Took son number 2 to find some gaps and ledges to skate at the local high school. I sat in the chair and watched.

Saw the fast master at the track as we were headed to the other side of the school. Stopped and chatted for a bit. I haven't talked to him since I broke my foot. (he was sick at the half marathon last week and didn't hang around) He was coaching a young middle school kid. Pretty cool to see him at work. About the way I pictured him as a coach.

Wouldn't have thought I'd miss driving as much as I did. Car pooling has its advantages. It sure would help to ease traffic if more people did carpool. My unscientific four week study showed probably less than 3% of the cars with more than two occupants. Happy to drive myself to work today, with the sun shining.

Hope to ditch this boot tomorrow. That will be the fourth week wearing this thing. I even followed most of the doctors orders. That would pretty much be a first. Anyone who runs with me regularly knows my opinion of the field of medicine.

I've contented myself the last several weeks lurking on the running message boards and following blogs. 'Tis the season for spring marathons. The fellas are about eight weeks out from Boston. Need to go see how some others did this weekend and still others will be running next weekend. Perhaps when the fellas are recovering from Boston, I'll be able to start running with them again.

Wouldn't consider myself an optimist, more of a realist. Hate to have people blow sunshine up my ass. Life isn't all rainbows and unicorns. But, a little bit sunshine sure does a body good.

Sometimes even songs with sunshine can be depressing, if you let them. John Prine's, Donald and Lydia, chorus "like sunshine feeding daisies". 

Spectating

What to do if you can't run a race? Go watch. Saturday BQ2 and his brother picked me up at the local grocery store, because the wife sold me out to the doc and I'm still not supposed to drive. Gorgeous day for a race. Cool morning, warming to maybe low 50's by noon. Picture post card sky, brilliant blues with occasional clouds for effect.

The race was the Frostbite half marathon at Cedars of Lebanon State Park. They changed the course this year so the runners wouldn't be running down highway 231 with the traffic in the last miles. The new course was entirely within the state park, some of the same rolling hills and basically an out and back figure eight. The great thing about the state park series race is the entry fee. Six bucks gets you a long sleeve technical shirt, a great course, chip timed and age group awards. Unique to the state park series races are the grand masters and senior masters awards. BQ1 talked with Tomas and the premise of the races is to break even. Hadn't realized they've been going for 30 years.

Surprised when we arrived that we had to park out by the swimming pool, a little over 3/10 of a mile away. Seemed like a mile to me. Worked out well, we were right at the one mile mark. In the past I've been able to park on the same stretch of road as the finish. This is also were the packet pickup, awards and finish line grub is located. I've only raced here twice, BQ1 had a streak going of 5 races. Kinda strange for us both to be spectating.

Nothing better to humble, than to spend time with someone who has just had open heart surgery. Amazed that after only two weeks, BQ1 was out and in great spirits. I had to really be careful to try and not whine or be my typical grouchy self. We positioned ourselves just past the one mile mark at the top of a little rise. There was a slight bend in the road and from our vantage point we could watch the runners on the way out. On the way back, they would be at mile 12.

Still not running

Not ready to retire, yet.

It's only been 18 days. Usually by now I'm able to at least walk around the block or ride the trainer. Not this time. Sure, I can take off this effin' boot, but don't really want to risk flexing the foot and not have the bone set in my foot. Plus, I'm still having to get up early so I can carpool in to work, instead of driving myself. Arghhhhhhhhhhh.

The weight gain from not doing any kind of workout isn't really happening. I'm purposely eating like a bird and limiting the beer. Can't say for certain a number of pounds, haven't jumped on the scale. Just know the pudge hasn't showed up yet around the belly. Maybe I'll start lifting again.

The grumpyness/grouchy level isn't as high this time around. Perhaps I've mellowed out in my old age. At least I don't think so, the wife and kids would probably disagree.

Sure glad to be living here in the south. It'll be in the 40-50's for highs for the next week. Typical weather for this time of year. As much as I like to see the occasional snow, sure wouldn't want any part of the snow slamming the North. We got our token snow fall last weekend. It was pretty watching it fall, but it only lasted a couple of hours. Biggest regret was not being able to run in it. Try explaining that to someone who doesn't run.

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Thought I was a runner

Sidelined yet again. This time it's a fractured 5th metatarsal. Typical training run with the guys. Cold morning, probably overdressed, double layer for everything. In hindsight, this kept my knee from getting skinned up more. I was running behind the fast guys on the *&^%$ sidewalk. B was behind me. I stepped wrong on one of the driveway inlets. I hit the ground pretty hard. Ripped the palm side of the first glove layer. Rolled completely over on the outside of my right ankle. Got up to see if I could run it off. Wasn't going to happen. Hated to ruin the guys workout, so I told them to go on and I'd walk to my son's apartment. (luckily it was only about a block or so up the road)

Really helpful to have a wife who works for a Orthopedic Doctors group. We arrived around 7:30 am and I was out the door by 8:30. That has to be the quickest doctors' visit ever for me. Most time consuming part of the visit was filling out all of the paperwork. They took me straight to x-ray. Pretty short wait to get the x-ray's and then back out to one of the examination rooms. Finally got a sympathetic doctor who ran in college. That was a pleasant surprise. I'll be wearing a boot for 4-6 weeks. No surgery, doctor will try letting it heal as it lies, with the broken pieces overlapping. Stronger joint ? and no need to go back and remove a plate. 

Can't ride a bike. At least not for a week or so. The doctor did ok swimming. Perhaps I'll give pool running a try this go around, if I'm uncomfortable riding the bike on the trainer. I've ridden a bike trainer with other injuries. Also broke my running streak today, it was only 33 days this time around.

This isn't the first time to be sidelined with a injury. Ankle sprains. One of the reasons I don't run on the golf course any more is because I seem to sprain my ankle easily. I've done almost exact same thing on my other ankle. I stepped in a hole pacing a friend at CMM several years ago. It was the inside ankle sprained and a fractured 5th metatarsal on the left foot in 2002.

Supposedly I'm a grumpy old man. Who'd have guessed? Even worse when I'm hurt. Paula was worried I'd be rude/grumpy/mean to her co-workers. I thought I was pretty civil. I'll be worse in the coming weeks after not running. Hopefully, I don't take it out to much on those around me. I'll just kick the dog instead. What really pisses me off is the snide remarks about my "healthy lifestyle". I'd like to think most are just ribbing me in jest, but sometimes I wonder.

Winter craptastic

Another day, another run in the rain. Think it's been 4-5 days straight of rain runs. Yesterdays was the worst. Only because of lack of preparation on my part. One particular spot went unlubed and it was painfully obvious within the first 2 miles. The combination of a steady rain, a shirt that must have been made of sandpaper and the up and down motion of said shirt removed half of my nipples. Or so it seemed.

Today was much better. Harder rain, but temperatures in the sixties. Isn't it supposed to be winter? But, I wisely chose a singlet with a better tech material. Plus, it stuck to my chest when it was soaked, so it didn't ride up and down with each foot strike. And, I lubed every potential rub spot generously. 

Today's workout was 10 by 100 meters at 3k pace, with equal recovery. Luckily someone left the gate unlocked at the high school track. These are getting easier, especially since these were solo and I wasn't trying to keep up with the fast guys. Cool thing about this workout is that it's not really work, more of a shakeout/wake up the dead legs kind of thing. Makes the following days hard workout easier? At least able to get onto pace easier anyway.

Can't complain about the weather this winter. We're a little less than a third of the way into the winter. January and February are typically the coldest months of the year. We'll probably pay dearly for the mild fall and early winter in the coming months.

Oh yeah and that former Tour de France bike rider. What's his name? is going to be on Oprah. Whoopity shit. Won't be watching, won't watch the comeback, won't be interested in whatever angle he's trying to con/scam/be forgiven for, pffffffffffftt.