Happy 2015! I'm a little late with that - but at least its still January!
2014 held many setbacks for me. The year started with my toes still injured from the 2013 NYC Marathon - which led to me not really running much early in the year. One of the worst pre-marathon mistakes you could possibly make is not trimming your toenails. I doubt that I'll ever forget again....
By March, my toenails were better and I was back to running shorter distances. But by April, the herniated disc in my lower back made it difficult to walk, running seemed like a distant possibility.
After a cortisone injection and quite a bit of physical therapy, I started running again. Despite having guaranteed entry into the 2014 NYC marathon, we decided to register for a cheaper marathon in case medical issues prevented me from running. So we registered and trained for the 2014 Lehigh Valley Via Half marathon. We quit the race after 23 miles (I'll save the details of that for another post).
Through it all, I managed to gain quite a bit of weight (40 lbs total since April 2013) and become significantly slower than I'd previously been. Since I can't change the past, I'll just do better in the future. Now for the optimistic part of this post!
Even with all of the 2014 setbacks, we were able to get in our NYRR 9+1 to qualify for the 2015 NYC Marathon, for which Alek and I have both registered. I've also started working with a personal trainer to help me work toward becoming stronger overall so that I can mitigate my risk of future back flare ups.
We've signed up for Spartans twice before, and not run them because we weren't ready. This year, we're doing it. We're signed up for the May 9 Citifield Spartan. Team Sadpony, late morning wave (10:45am - 12:00pm) with a preference for 11:30, just in case you'd care to join!
Our planned Half Marathons so far are:
January 25 - Fred Lebow Manhattan Half (yes, we completed it I'll write a post later this week).
February 22 - Love Rox Half Marathon (Richmond VA)
March 21- Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon
April 12 - Queens Half Marathon
May 19 - Brooklyn Half Marathon
We have ideas for a few of the remaining races, but want to make sure that we can register before they sell out.
I'm already feeling much more healthy! Its good to feel like I'm back on track!
Showing posts with label setbacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label setbacks. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2015
Saturday, April 12, 2014
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...
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...
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