hbfs

At my HS's practice, I did two.  I started off easy- the kids like to race hard from the start, so I ran with two eighth grade girls for the first ten minutes.  They split up - Danielle dropping her little friend, and then her little friend giving up behind me.  After I lost Hannah, I decided to drop the hammer and see how many kids I could catch before my pre-determined stopping place (the course was an out and back, and I was only running the "out").  I finished in 15:18, so those last 5 minutes I was booking it pretty hard... I'm pretty sure I was running 8-8:05 pace the first 10!

Today I tried three for the first time.  25:57 (8:39) on my slowest three mile loop.  It's the, ah, hilliest three miles I can find in my part of pancake-flake rural SE Michigan.  It's also half on dirt roads, which makes it an appealing option for a gal who broke her foot two months ago and is trying her very first three miler!

Ever since I started running again (...six days ago), my mom has been on my case.  "When are you going to go to HS cross-country practice?" Blah blah blah.
And I'm all, "Mo-om, I ran a mile and a half today.  Everyone else is running FOUR TIMES that.  I haven't tried to run on the road yet.  Everything I do is painfully s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w."

Except my favorite HSer ever is hosting practice on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  He lives on a dirt road.  He's the second of five kids, and I adore his family.  I can ask my HS coach if he thinks my arch pain is normal.  You can see where I'm going with this....

I'm going.  Who am I hiding from exactly?  Aside from Creepy McCreepster*, our "assistant coach" who hangs around our meets and summer practices, no one. Everyone last saw me lugging around my boot, so it's not like there's an expectation for me to go far or fast.  I was saving myself for the time when.... uh, yeah, what exactly?  When I'm ready to bust out 4 in 27?  6 in 42?  Tomorrow, I'm going two miles, and if it takes me 22 minutes**, then so be it!

* Creepy McCreepster ran for my hs coach before we ever had a girls program, about 90 years ago.  He's in his 40s, single, runs his own business, full of enthusiasm.  He's not a bad guy.  He comes on really strong, and he should really have the sense to know that you don't tell fifteen year old girls that they look like they've lost weight or to call anyone - even a graduated athlete - "baby," but... enthusiastic?  Well-intended?  I just avoid him and make sure he doesn't get to hug me.

** It won't.  I've run 8 minutes (mile in 7:45, plus 15 seconds more), 8 minutes (mile in 7:30, plus 30 seconds more), 1.5 (12:56/8:37 pace), and 1.5 (12:20/8:13 pace).  It'll take 17 minutes :)

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm really feeling good this week.  I'm not too achy, I've had some good elliptical rides, and I'm starting to think ahead to next Wednesday, when I hopefully get cleared to run!  July 2 is two days shy of my eight weeks diagnosed anniversary... and four days over my eight weeks since my last run anniversary... but it is exactly eight weeks after I figured out I had a stress fracture, so the symmetry is perfect.

The weather has been amazing for running lately.  I have the itch SO bad.  Last night, I got a wrench and changed the height on my brother's bike.  I rode out where I used to run... at my favorite time of day.  It was sad, but it was also really beautiful and motivating.  I can't wait to get back there.

I had my follow-up appointment with my favorite orthopedist today.  I had an x-ray taken and we talked about the fact that I have pain with inversion.  True to my biology major, my x-ray confirmed my symptoms.  My calcaneal stress fracture is unusual because it's located right by my subtalar joint.  My doc, who is about 6.5 billion years old (read: as old as the earth!) told me he had never seen an x-ray that looked like that before.  Of course, he'd never treated a steeplechaser before, either, and asked me whether I had an unfulfilled childhood which left me with an urge to torture myself.  Ohhh, he'll always be my favorite orthopedist!

So I have another follow-up appointment July 2nd, but there's no running until them.  He cleared me to try to elliptical, though, so I'll give it a whirl tonight.

Today, I got puked on.

I was in the locker room, changing into my swimsuit, when somehow I find myself in the midst of the littlest girl having the biggest pukefest.  I had never seen so much vomit before.  Undeterred, I got into the shower, rinsed the vomit off, and did 40 minutes of aqua jogging and kickboard work.  Unfortunately, when I came back into the locker room, the puke hadn't been cleaned up!

As I was driving back from the rec center, I started to compose my email to my coach in my head.  "Dear Dan, Today I got puked on before my aqua jog workout, but I did it anyway.  You can put my medal of valor in the mail on Tuesday.  Sincerely, Jess."  He didn't like the last piece of humor I wrote (the top ten things I liked about my calcaneal stress fracture.  Sadly, this never got posted and my sent emails have all vanished due to our interface switch!), but this should make him chuckle....  After all, if I can laugh about it, anyone can.

The last two days were really good cross-train days for me.  Yesterday, I did 20 minutes of bike followed by  a solid lift and 35 minutes of aqua jogging (8 minutes of warm - up, 8 minutes of one length straight legs, one length normal, a hard, slightly modified set of 30 seconds easy/60 seconds moderate/90 seconds hard (the second set was 60 seconds easy/90 seconds moderate/120 hard), 8 minutes of cool down, and and an easy 200yd swim to finish it off.
Today, I rode the stationary bike for 50 minutes.  The cardio machines at my gym have a 30 minute limit, which I usually counter by getting a drink, wiping down my bike, and hopping on another.  Since I was actually alone today (who knew Fridays were such a dead gym day?), I stayed on my machine for 50 full minutes.  I spun for the first 30 minutes and did a hilly climb for the second 20.  I also played a game of putt-putt golf... does that count as cross-training?

I swam today!   This is quite an achievement, because I am a pathetic swimmer.  I can't flutterkick properly, I only know two strokes (freestyle and breast), and I'm really intimidated by other people swimming around me.  Fortunately, my rec center pool is deserted at 7:30pm, so that will be my default swim time.  My default approach to swimming is going to be to try to swim longer, and hopefully all of my form problems will just straighten out on their own.  And if that fails, three of the boys I ran with in high school are excellent swimmers and I could bribe them into giving me a few pointers.

So today I swam 825 yds- 100 yds easy warm-up alternating breast and freestyle, 100 yds of free style as a time trial that left me breathing harder than a 400m repeat over hurdles!  I did some kickboard stuff that totally trashed my legs - can't flutterkick means I kind of thrash, and thrashing works all of your little muscles.  When I was done swimming, I did 10 minutes of aqua jogging (all I had time for), and I felt awful the entire time!  My arms and shoulders hurt from swimming/the lift I did yesterday, and my thighs were trashed from 2x50 kick!

I'll work on the swimming and spend hours staring at the wall wearing an aqua jogger vest, though, if it means coming back from the stress fracture in the best shape possible.

I've been home for a week, but I've made myself scarce.  I took some time off to sit on the couch, play the Sims, smoke all of my friends at putt-putt wearing the boot, the usual.  I got a membership at the rec center on Monday, so I've been cross-training.  On Monday, I did 30 minutes of biking and 20 minutes on the erg.  The rec center has two ergs, an erg like the one we have in my gym at school (old looking, causes massive blisters on my hands) and a fancy looking one with a really nice display.  I tried that one... and it gave me WICKED butt chafe.  In order to quiet my butt chafe, I skipped the pool in favor of a bike ride (50 minutes) and a quick lift.  My gym at women's college is really nice and non-intimidating, with machines for bench press and everything.  The weight room at the rec center is scary: there is pulsing rock music, grunting men, and machines that are totally foreign to me.  But I did it!  Tomorrow, I WILL swim just to get an idea of how poor of a swimmer I actually am.  My friend Allison, a member of my college's swim team and a Masters coach, is going to take that info and come up with some ways for me to stay interested in the pool (i.e. workouts).

Both of my high school's track teams won league titles today!  My neighbor repeated as high jump champ clearing 6'4".  He qualified for the state finals and is seeded pretty high - well, as high as you can ever get in an event where multiple people are seeded at your exact PR!  Places 3-11 are all 6'4" seeds, so we'll see.  A sophomore girl from my HS is the second seed in the 3200 and the third seed in the 1600 and hasn't had a close race with another girl all year.  We're also sending our 4x8 relay, which ran an impressive 9:59, and our boys are sending a 4x1 and the third-seed 4x2.

Home has been wonderful so far.  My visit with my orthopedist went well.  I got fitted for a new boot (one that is actually my size!) and have another appointment coming up June 4th.  I expect (which is probably safe - I've been seeing this wonderful man for three years) that he'll let me out of the boot and clear me to elliptical, and after another three weeks, he'll clear me for running.  That puts me back on the road June 25th!  Here's hoping!

The orthopedist we consult is an arrogant douchebag with a vendetta against the Midwest, so I'll be consulting my foot and ankle guy as soon as I can.  I haven't had an MRI/bone scan - basically, Dr. Smith poked my "spot" EXCESSIVELY and decided that we'll assume it's a sfx, seeing as there is no time to do an MRI or bone scan before I depart... Monday morning.  So I've got a boot, and I'll see Dr. Wild in Ann Arbor to get it confirmed and a less dangerously optimistic recovery time line.

Anyone want to clean/pack up my room for me?  I'm crippled.