Week of 06/24/2007 - 06/30/2007 (Recovery Week 1)

I've optimistically decided to call this week "Recovery" instead of "Separated Metatarsal". Unless something goes drastically wrong, I've been promised to be cleared for walking and riding sans el Star Wars Boot on Thursday, June 28th.

The end is actually kind of tangible now, though I am slightly experiencing the Waiting Theory of Relativity (WTR)... that is, time slows drastically with increasing proximity to desired event. Christmas and birthdays aren't really that exciting anymore, but this one is huge, second only to the anticipation of getting my plaster and crutches type cast off in 2001. I just remember thinking back then, that I wouldn't need anything else in the world to be happy, if I could only just walk (wasn't an athlete back then...).

Walking is great and all, but the stakes are a little bit higher now... I'll get there some day.

Sunday 06/24 - Monday 06/25: Nothing. The funk continues from last week. Kind of stressed, can't sleep at night. Feeling vaguely head-achey all of the time and crappy. I sat down on the couch one day, and realized that I now have a real stomach roll... the kind that spills flabbily over the waist of your pants... .

Tuesday 06/26: Motivated by the discovery of the stomach roll, trundled off to the gym today. Saw Kiesz (not) playing softball with the chem grad students, oh the memories... it was better back in my day though, when the fields weren't enclosed by a chainlink fence, and there was a big stack of Coors Light by the third base line.

Anyways, same set of lifting as last week, core strengthening, stretching. Felt alright. Probably the last comprehensive lifting, though hope to maintain lat pull down, bench and hopefully tricep dips on a continuing basis to help with the fact that my shoulders cramp when I run because I am so, so weak.

Wednesday 06/27: Off. Last day to be fat! Ate a fantastic vietnamese meal with melon smoothie and fried bananas. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Thursday 06/28: And the day of reckoning has arrived at last. Ortho doc on the morning, was successfully cleared for exercising. Got a prescription for physical therapy to correct the atrophy pain associated with the left ankle/arch. Walking feels funny, but oh, so good!

Nice leisurely stroll* to farmer's market in honor of Ryan's imminent departure :(. Bought some excellent fruit and Peruvian dinner by the South Pas library, yum!

*leisurely stroll caused sharp pain in my L arch that night, but mostly corrected with some icing and sleeping. Metatarsal joint a bit stiff, a bit more puffy than usual, but no pain.

Friday 06/29: First ride back! Ditched work a bit early to go ride 5 laps around the Rose Bowl, plus commuting time. 23.57 miles in 1:27 for 16.1 mph average. Fun, legs actually felt pretty good, but struggled badly on the cardio front. HR immediately jumped to 158 and then to 175 where it stayed for the rest of the ride, despite leisurely pace... I am SUCH A FRED, GOOD GRIEF. My bike has been much improved and my fitness had been much decreased, ergo a double whammy for the Fred Index. Wished desperately for a sign that said "This is my first day out of a cast... please be kind!"

Very happy with the new improvements though. Seat is so comfortable, no more chafing, thank goodness! Helmet fits perfectly, even though its an ugly bright blue color instead of Bianchi green... Shoes are really stiff and good, orthotics fit well, didnt feel any strain on the toe at all. L arch hurt, but it pretty much is consistently unhappy, irrespective of what shoe I am wearing, so decided to chalk it up to atrophied ligaments and wait for PT to strengthen all of that back.

Saturday 06/30: Day 2, struggled mightily through 6 laps of the Rose Bowl, 26.6 miles, 1:44, 15.2 mph average. HR lower, 150-170. Pretty discouraging... legs felt TOTALLY dead and leaden from yesterday, that horrible leaden, heavy, aching feeling. I actually kind of like the running sore feeling, but this is just unbearable.

This is one of those days where I feel embarassed to call myself an athlete. The only thing that separated me from those fat people creaking slowly along on $100 walmart bikes today is $1400 of lighter, faster bike. Felt just a smidge better after 1 hour of grueling slowness, so decided to stick out the last 3 laps. No way I'm going to be able to stick to my plan of 1 lap/day rate of increase.

Thanks to all for your congratulations, despite the last entry, I am really psyched to be back in some way. Don't hold your breath on the running again, but drink of your choice on me to celebrate when that day comes for anyone and everyone!

Week of 06/17/2007 - 06/23/2007 (Separated 2nd Metatarsal Joint Week 7)

A Medical Mystery...

My parents are vitamin freaks. I guess I'm kind of a vitamin freak too, or now that I'm an athlete, I've become somewhat of a pill freak. In the beginning, I had the Granny pill box of every vitamin and every supplement and every training fad ever to have existed... but I'm starting to weed out the ones that don't seem to work. After extensive research, I've debunked the whole glucosamine craze. That's already 3 fewer pills a day.

Enter WOBenzyme... the mysterious, expensive little red pill that comes in packs of 800. While skeptical at first, I ended up swallowing 15 of these after my last crash. Strangely, within an hour of taking this, the swelling reduced drastically on my banged up elbows, and all of the scabs healed a lot faster than when I skinned my knees when I fell on a late night run.

I ordered my own bottle which arrived last Friday, so on a whim I started taking them despite the lack of acute trauma. Within a few days, I noticed that the residual soreness and swelling in my toe began to subside after a long period of plateaued improvement. Coincidence? The mystery continues...

Sunday 06/17: Missed going to the gym due to visitors from a far away land. Culinary tour of the Pasadena area with friend from highschool friend. Boba tea and In 'n Out... SO FAT...

Monday 06/18: Back on the ball. An encouraging day at the gym. Still pretty weak, but weights getting easier, kind of getting settled into a routine. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, like I may actually survive without ending up in the looney bin. Did core strengthening and stretching to round out an 80 minute session.

In other news, the last of my purchases arrived in the mail today! Spiffy new cycling shoes that fit my orthotics perfectly. Hopefully this will help with my feet once I'm back in the saddle. Really looking forwards to moving into the walking/riding/physical therapy phase in 1.5 weeks!

Tuesday 06/19 - Saturday 06/23: Nothing. I'm a big loser :). Couldn't work up the motivation to go the gym, etc. Lots of distractions, fussing over new bike parts. Getting inordinately fat. This is bad... but thankfully the end is in sight. Counting the days until the cast comes off!

Week of 06/10/2007 - 06/16/2007 (Separated 2nd Metatarsal Joint Week 5)

EMPIRICAL ASSERTION #1 --->

Where the quantity Q sub T represents the quantity of training (in hours per week) and the quantity Q sub S represents the quantity of shopping (in dollars per # of amazon.com purchases per week).

I'm not really a shopper by nature. Much to Uncle Bain's chagrin, I only buy two types of things: athletic equipment and food. The last time I bought so many things was when I bought my bike last summer, the last time I couldn't run for a really extended period of time... coincidence? the mystery continues...

The hypothesis is that the compulsive shopping is my way of soothing the demons. I can't *train* to make myself faster, so maybe I can buy new shoes, lighter bike parts, a new HR monitor? I have to feel like I'm still in touch with that world, I have to feel like I'm still doing something to make myself faster, even though, in a saner mindset these are not really the things that matter. Maybe its a desperate plea to the heavens--look how much cool new stuff I bought for my hobbies... oh, please don't take this away from me forever...

Sunday 06/10: Off. Hair-cutting and gu-making with KB and Ian. HOLY CRAP MY HEAD IS SO MUCH LIGHTER! I had been saving this occasion for the day when I'm at the edge of something... 19:01 or maybe even 18:01 or 3:00:01. But I guess its okay, maybe we have to take the leap of faith in advance of being there. Feel like my hair is now more compatible with my lifestyle.

Monday 06/11: Back to the gym again, added leg curls, one at a time. Incremental gains in lats, delts, free weights... but a bit consterned about lack of progress in the bench. Core strengthening, stretching. Disgruntled about "summer hours". Basically the 8 pm - midnight crowd now gets mashed into the 8 pm - 10 pm window, so everything is really crowded, and I'm not really at the point where I feel entitled to complain to a 200 lb guy that I still have a set left on the bench.

Maybe this is very snooty and elitist of me, but I personally feel that there is a pecking order for athletic facilities... People who are actually serious about something should have priority, and then within the set of equally dedicated individuals, priority should go to the greatest need, and then lastly to greater ability. But it rarely comes down to that. Mostly its about the level of dedication. When it comes to the track or the elliptical, I'm very pushy, but I know I'm just at the gym to pass the injury time... let the muscle men have their weights.

Tuesday 06/12: Rest day. Dinner with Dr. Rossi. Consult on the foot indicates low probability of stress fracture based on symptoms. Felt moderately encouraged. Prognosis on the compulsive shopping was more grim--the path that starts with improving one's bike usually ends inevitably in the buying of an entirely new bike, apparently. Thankfully, thus far I do not present with such symptoms. Perhaps my lack of being a high net worth individual has a retarding effect on the progression of Bike-buying-itis.

Wednesday 06/13: Some improvement at gym. Same set as Monday, but with incremental gains across most of my sets. Accidentally put more weight on the bench on my last set and almost died. Mostly a good day, except for the unfortunate circumstance of having forgotten to bring a t-shirt to change into since I went directly after work. Decided that my dignity was not worth the 20 minute round trip to retrieve this item, so looked like an idiot and was moderately uncomfortable.

Core strengthening and stretching afterwards. Unsuccessfully tried to extract the Bowerman book out of Matt and/or Mark. Got something about twinkies instead, to go with the theme of obesity.

Thursday 06/14 - Saturday 06/16: Sadly for me, woke up on thursday with a sharp pain in my left shoulder, probably from that last set of bench press. Decided to take a few days to let that heal a little bit. Was foiled in our attempt to view a Freeway Series game. *shakes first*

In other news, went back to el doctor unit on Friday... got told to wear the boot or the flat shoe for another 2 weeks, mehhhhhh... thankfully if it survives this, then I'm good to go. Joint has been feeling a lot better recently, with full range of movement, the only issue is that there is this residual tenderness/soreness associated with a little bit of swelling over the top of the joint. It's just slightly painful to the touch, and the improvement has kind of plateaued, which is concerning. I suspect though, that this is really more associated with the trauma of the incision site, rather than an outgrowth of the original condition.

Week of 06/03/2007 - 06/09/2007 (Separated 2nd Metatarsal Joint Week 4)

Hokay. So, here's the thing.

I've tried and I've tried to put some sort of a redeeming spin on things, tried and tried to preserve some last obscure bastion of identity, but the bottom line is this. For me, unplanned time off bites the big one.

I've finally just accepted that nothing I can do will make this time suck less. So, I will put my head down and get through this week, I will get through next week and maybe, just maybe on Friday, June 15th, I will be cleared for some walking and if I'm really *really* lucky, a little bit of riding. Here's to hoping.

Sunday 06/03 - Monday 06/04: Nothing, external consternations. Can't find the motivation to go lift, even though presumably it will be better than sitting on my ass. Ate cookies. Lots of them.

Tuesday 06/05: Dragged fat ass to gym--success! Thinking the motivation is a good sign for me making it 2 more weeks like this. For the life of me I can't remember what I used to DO at the gym though.... I had a 90 minute and 60 minute routine that got alternated, but take out the ones that involve legs, and the ones I can't remember and the machines that have disappeared (WTF happened to the pull up/tricep dip bar!?!?!?!?) I only had enough crap to do to fill up 1 hour, including core strengthening.

Lats, Bench, Pecs, Delts, free weights (curls, shoulders, forearm), core strengthening. Through some trial and error, determined that every set essentially had to be decreased ~40% from what I used to be able to do back in 2004. Glad that I went though, even though I felt squishy and weak, like a normal girl... gah!

Wednesday 06/06: Sore as hell, swamped with work. Felt okay with decision to take a recovery day. Will go back tomorrow. If I remember correctly, the learning curve on lifting is pretty steep.

Thursday 06/07: Argh, sore as hell, arguably more so than yesterday. Unfortunately today is not a rest day. Did the same set at the same weight as Tuesday, but with a lot more difficulty due to extreme soreness. Can't lift arms above shoulder height or behind the plane of my body without incredible pain. Felt better after the workout, but afraid that I'm just compounding the soreness for Saturday. Bah, humbug.

Friday 06/08: Kangway's going away dinner/beer mile. Booo to leaving :'(. Hobbled the equivalent of 400m in the walking cast, no beers. Inebriated-to-varying-degrees pull up contest ensued... based on results of 2 days of lifting... wisely decided to avoid that ass-kicking.

Saturday 06/09: Back to the gym again. Surprisingly, not very sore anymore, thank goodness. Added a few new ones--quads and leg press (gingerly and one leg at a time, if possible) and back extentions.

Tried to increase some weights, with mostly poor results. Pissed at the lack of improvement. Found a way to fix the tricep dip bar, but determined that the competence was sorely lacking... had trouble completing 3, much less 3 sets of 15. This used to be my favorite set too... how sad.

Core strengthening afterwards, almost 90 minutes total today! Progress is frustrating, but I think its a step in the right direction that I'm doing *anything* at all other than sitting on my butt eating food.