I know a lot of my posts lately have been a little on the down side. I promised myself when I first decided to do a blog that I would always be honest and open and not try to hide things or sugar coat them. In athletics, as in life, there are lots of ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like more downs than ups.
Yesterday was a big down day. A big down day. I was feeling so hopeful in the morning. I had been to see my awesome chiropractor who does so much more than just chiropractic. She found that two of the muscles in my shin had sort of stuck together. After a lot of muttered "words" under my breath as she was torturing my leg, it was feeling much better. But she said there's a chance that I may have a stress fracture. I'm still hoping not, but it's something we have to have in the backs of our minds. But the next day I woke up with my leg feeling the best it's felt since Isle of Man! Still, to be on the safe side I took it easy. She told me Epsom salt baths, anti-inflammatories, compression socks, the works!
Next day my leg felt great! I was so excited to go for a nice, easy walk. I went out and got started. Felt a little stiff, as expected, but it was okay. But by 2K it was starting to hurt. Not to the point it got at the Isle of Man, but still getting bad. I was so frustrated but I thought, okay, I'll cross train. I'd found that the elliptical doesn't hurt it at all, so I would just do a hard workout on the elliptical. I turned the power on, jumped on, and the power went off! Wiggled all the connections, did it again, and again the power went off. Seems there's something wrong with the electrical system. It just seemed like insult on top of injury. I didn't know what the heck to do. I was so frustrated I was ready to either cry or punch a wall (I didn't do either). I did some yoga with a friend, read through a book with some good information, tried a few exercises. But by the time Dave got home I was feeling really, really down. We went out and worked on the bunkhouse, and that was good to get out and do stuff.
One of the things I'd decided about a month ago is that I wanted to get in super good shape. Not just race walking shape, but overall shape. So last night I went to a cross fit-style class. Holy cow! I had a blast! I had so much fun! It was a fundamentals class, so make sure people can do certain moves before they jump into the other classes. The owner (coach?) was positive, giving advice, correcting things he saw that needed improvement, giving encouragement. I realized I had missed that so much. To have someone there, while you're working out, telling you you're doing a good job just felt amazing. I was working harder, trying harder, pushing more. And I made a friend :) I don't have a lot of friends in my town. It's a small town and I spend most of my time training, don't go to bars, so it's hard to meet new people.
I came home all excited and bubbly. Dave hadn't seen me that way in quite a while. Another reason the workout made me happy was that running didn't hurt. While I'm not a doctor, and not making a diagnosis, I would think that if the pain in my leg was a stress fracture then running would've hurt it, but running and jumping doesn't hurt. So that made me feel good.
We'll see what tomorrow brings. I took care of myself as much as I could today. I'll do a little more stretching tonight and give it a go again tomorrow. But I also need to keep things in perspective; I'm healthy, I have a fantastic husband, I have a roof over my head and food in the fridge, I have wonderful fuzzy cats, my chickens crack me up, I have super supportive friends and family, we're making great progress on our people barn, and I'm still here kicking and fighting. Perspective is important! I realized that yesterday too when I went to the class. I was feeling out of shape but I was stronger than almost all the other people in the class. I have to remember sometimes I judge myself by different standards.
So chin up! Things will get better! I was given some great advice and will run it around in my head and get things figured out very soon!
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