The trial of miles; miles of trials.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wednesday Run

I'm not really well enough to run right now, but I'm angry enough.  On Saturday I had to concede my spot on our Dances With Dirt team and it hurt me bad.  I've wanted a piece of that race for a few years and really didn't want to give it up, but I had to be realistic.  I've had good days and bad through my recovery, but the past few have been particularly bad. 

On July 1 my physical therapist spent some time measuring my progress and told me that when I started PT, four weeks prior, I could only dorsal flex my left foot to 48 degrees.  My left foot flexes to about 95 degrees.  After four weeks of PT (my insurance is done paying for PT now, so if I continue I will have to self pay), I could flex my right foot to 71 degrees.  It's still not to neutral, so my gait hasn't improved much, but I know that is good progress.  It is still very weak and I have a long way to go.  I'm trying very hard to stay positive because I know how important that is to healing, but it's been extremely difficult to fill the void that was created when I had to stop running.

So this morning when my alarm went off at 5:00 AM, I sat up in bed, and said out loud, "F*ck it, I'm going running!"

It was difficult because so much concentration is needed to keep from coming up short with my right foot and falling down...but I muddled through it.  It was a beautiful morning and it felt good mentally, but physically it hurt.  Because I have to strike on my toes my calf muscle takes a beating.  It is very sore as I type this.  This is what I came up with:

3 comments:

  1. Dude. Thats a good run. I'm impressed, given the circumstances. Thats still farther than I can go dammit.. Maybe your gonna convert to a barefoot forefoot striker that runs 50 miles with just a mouthfull of chia seeds? Keep it up. But don't get Achilles tendonitis from to much forefoot to soon.

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  2. Yeah, I don't really see what the problem is. Looks like a good time for that distance. What is the normal degree of dorsal flexion?

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  3. I'm glad you were able to run. 5 miles is pretty decent to just bust out after not running for awhile! Stay in it!

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