Adventures in the land of unidentified injury.

If you've read previous posts, you'll see that this year has been pretty successful in the way of running...up until this summer, that is. Shortly after completing my first trail marathon, which also happened to be my fourth marathon in four months, I was stopped dead in my running tracks.

I don't recall doing anything particularly jarring that would have caused me long-term pain, as the last two marathons felt pretty good. Two days after my trail marathon, I stepped out for an easy 2-mile recovery jog and every step initiated a sharp pain through the middle of my left thigh. Baffled and frustrated I stopped my run and took a few days off. After my short break, I tried running again and the pain was still there, just not as intense. So, I decided to make a doctor's appointment. I wanted to start with my regular doctor, hoping that he would steer me in the right direction of what kind of specialist to see (physical therapist? Ortho? Sports Medicine?). My appointment was a bit disappointing. I explained my issue to him, much like I did in this blog. Of course, no surprise, he scolded me for running so many marathons....yeah, he just doesn't get it. He made the assumption that I went from couch potato to 40 miles per week all of the sudden. What he didn't seem to understand was that I did not suddenly increase my mileage. I built up my weekly mileage over the course of 6 months. In fact, my weekly mileage before and after each race decreased a lot, because I'd like to think I train smart. Next, he pushed, pulled, wiggled, and bent my leg, trying to reproduce the pain while I was lying down. Having no success, he quickly concluded that I had a stress fracture in my femur. He didn't even want me to get an x-ray as he didn't think it was necessary. I insisted on one, so he ordered it for me anyway. Fortunately, they found nothing in the x-ray. Unfortunately, I was then sent off with my doctor's solution: Stop running and consider taking up biking or swimming. (insert the sound of nails on a chalkboard here)

To tell someone who runs, not just for fun, but for sanity, for accomplishment, for therapy, for camaraderie and for the simple love of being outside, doing what our bodies were built to do; to stop running is like telling Lance Armstrong to stop riding his bike and take up tennis because he has a sore knee. It just doesn't make sense - or perhaps it's a death sentence, you decide.

Since my doc wouldn't refer me to a specialist, I decided to do it myself, only to discover that my health care organization doesn't have a sports medicine department and does not contract out to any. Great. My next best choice was orthopedics, so I gave them a call. This appointment was a little more encouraging. The ortho doc had me run up and down the hallway and had me do some standing exercises to evaluate my leg. Then he ordered a bone scan. The earliest scan I could get was three weeks out, and in the meantime I was ordered to steer clear of all impact exercise until further notice! Gaaaah! Having already not run for three weeks and then knowing that it would be at least another three weeks, I felt extremely bummed and frustrated. I could already see myself becoming more easily irritated on any given day, and I found myself a bit more anxious in the evenings. This limitation couldn't have come at a worse time, as Mike left for deployment and school stared up again. ugh!

I did my best to keep up my cardio with my bicycle, the elliptical machine, etc. There is nothing in the world that could truly replace the experience you get from running. I quickly began to miss being outside and on my own two feet. I also found myself struggling to stay motivated to be active. I gained a greater appreciation for what Mike must have gone through when recovering from foot surgeries. I would occasionally "cheat" and run the 100 feet to the mailbox just to get a quick fix. I found myself feeling jealous every time I would read a race report or announcements on facebook about someone running a really cool marathon. I still feel that way.

The bone scan was not all that exciting. More so, it revealed no evidence of stress fracture. The only parts of the bone that looked stressed at all were the areas where the muscle is connected to the bone. Hmmm....

Well, the follow up appointment was both good and bad. The nurse who checked me in made some comments that made me want to slap her. "Oh, you're a runner! From looking at you, I would have never guessed." was the first thing that came out of her mouth. My response was, "well, if you went to watch a marathon, you would be surprised about all of the different shapes and sizes of even the experienced runners." Her response was, "yeah, we'd all like to think that, wouldn't we?" Good thing I was in a good mood because her face could have easily been placed into dark crevasses otherwise. When the doc and I looked at the bone scan results, he felt that it would be okay to start running again. The plan now is to start at a measly 15 minutes for the first week, and add 5 minutes each week, pending my leg feels okay. He also wants me to incorporate some weight training and cross training to make sure that my muscle structures are balanced. He felt that the stress on the bones was due to overuse of some muscles and under use of others. This made a lot of sense, so I figured I'd stick with it.

Starting off running again was easy as pie. I guess all of that cardio on the bike and at the YMCA paid off. Pfew! My next challenge was not to get back into shape, but to deal with "the itch." You see, if I go more than 3-4 days without running outside, and then I start running again, my skin starts to itch and burn so badly that I almost feel nauseated and I just want to rip it all off. After a few days consecutively with some outside runs, it goes away. This is another issue that I have yet to figure out. It's not an allergic reaction to my clothes or anything, but it sure is miserable. My first run was only 7 minutes because I just couldn't stand the itch and I had to sooth it by taking a hot shower right away. The next day was better. I made it one whole mile before I thought I was going to puke from the itching and burning. Day three, I made it my entire 15 minutes with just a slight itch that was manageable. Then I went a few days with some cross-training, trying to be a good girl and listen to my doctor. Unfortunately, that meant, that my next run, which happened to be this morning, I had to suffer the itch again. I was able to run two sets of 10 minutes with a 12 minute walk in between.

So, the next challenge will be to come up with a training routine that allows me to run frequently enough to avoid the itch, but also get in that cross training. It sounds easy, but being a full time music teacher, it is quite challenging. I often have no idea what time I will get home from work. I can't exercise before work, because then I won't have the stamina to teach in the afternoon. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but I am certainly feeling challenged, frustrated, and discouraged. My next marathon goal keeps getting pushed back further and further. I am sure that once I get back into the flow of things, I will be a much stronger runner, but to be honest, I am having trouble seeing the light. I bought new running shoes today in hopes that I will be motivated to use them. So far, so good, as I am looking forward to running tomorrow morning. We'll see how far I get this time.

*sigh*