2014: The year of setbacks

I'm back!  At some point in 2013 I abandoned the blog.  I was getting bored of constant race recap and training posts.  I'm sure you all noticed the posts were mostly the same with little reason to actually read them.

2013 was an amazing year for me.  I completed the Goofy Challenge, the NYC marathon, 4 half marathons, and enough nyrr races to qualify for entry to the 2014 NYC marathon (which I decided to forgo).   I managed all that in the same year that Alek and I got married!

However, things started to go downhill (without me even realizing it) just before the NYC marathon. I made a huge, huge mistake the night before the marathon.  I forgot to trim my toenails.  When your toenails are too long and getting pounded by your shoes for 4 hours and 55 minutes, blisters will form under them.  OUCH!

So I ended up with blisters under both big toenails.  I went to a podiatrist about a week after the race and she drained the blisters.  I thought my problems were gone...

...months later, I lost a toenail.  No big deal, it had been there long enough that a sliver of new nail had grown beneath it.  Then I lost the other big toenail at the end of January.  Also no big deal the same situation as the other and it wasn't painful....

... until the toe became infected.  This was pretty painful and kept me from running for several weeks until the toe healed.  But it did heal and I got back to my routine.

I was running, doing p90x3, skiing, and feeling pretty good about myself.  My running pace has been slow.  I blame that on two things.  1) lack of consistent exercise since November.  2) weight gain over the course of the year.

On March 9, we took my 9 year old nephew skiing.  I decided that this trip would be a great trip to work on my skiing form since we would be sticking to easier trails.  I felt pretty good about my new form.  I woke up with a back ache the next morning but didn't think much of it as I'd worked pretty hard skiing.

Over the course of March, the back ache came and went.  I continued working out but skipped the p90x when my back hurt.  On March 30 everything went down hill.  After a prolonged car ride I felt like I could barely walk.  I saw a doctor several days later.  He diagnosed me with a pulled muscle and sent me on my way with a prescription for pain killers and muscle relaxers.

The next morning I woke up and just walking a few steps was excruciating.  I lied on my back for most of the day before finally giving in and going to the ER.  Once there, I waited for 2 hours only for them to tell me that there was nothing they could do but prescribe more painkillers/muscle relaxers and suggested that I saw an orthopedist/neurosurgeon.  I spent the weekend lying on my back.

Monday morning I called the doctor referral lines for both NYU and HSS to try to find someone who could get me in soon.  NYU initially said that they couldn't get me in until May.  MAY!  I couldn't walk - there was no way I could get through the entire month of April.  Both NYU and HSS eventually found doctors who would see me on Tuesday.  I chose to go with HSS because of their fabulous reputation for orthopedics.

I saw the doctor Tuesday afternoon.  He diagnosed me with a herniated disk after a physical test.  He then prescribed some nerve medication along with the painkiller/muscle relaxer.  He also suggested a steroid injection into my spine after an MRI to see exactly which disk was the problem.

Its now Saturday, after a few days on the new mediation and having the steroid injection yesterday I'm feeling far better than I did last weekend.  However walking long distances is still painful and I'm not sure when I'll actually run again.  Boo!

I'm signed up for the Brooklyn Half on May 17.  My current plan is to walk or do a walk run for the race - since I'm certainly not trained up to running a full half and I don't want to cause any more damage.

After the brooklyn Half, I'm hoping to start marathon training for the Via Marathon in September. But I'm going to take this one day at a time - the last thing I want is a regression to last weekend.

I'll keep posting updates. sigh...