It's dead.

I've finally admitted defeat, my ankle has beat me once again and I am canceling my plans to do the Pocono Mountain Half Ironman. I signed up for the race nearly a year ago and had been really looking forward to it for most of the season. I planned my year around it, not starting the tri season too early in an effort to avoid peaking before October 2nd. I have now bagged two races and plenty of $$ as a result of my injury, but the $ wasted isn't worth racing on a *nearly* healed ankle and throwing away the 12 weeks I've spent trying to get this thing better. In the end it could cost me several more MONTHS if I re-injure it and it would probably require surgery. The reality is too obvious to ignore anyway, I haven't run in 6 or 7 weeks and even if I were cleared to run today that isn't enough time to train for the half marathon after the swim and bike.
Yes, I'm bummed that I can't do the race and that I still can't run, but there is literally nothing I can do about it. There isn't even anything I could have done to push my rehab along faster. It is out of my control and I have simply accepted that. There will be another race next year and the year after that and the year after.... Right now I'm focused on getting stronger and staying fit for the moment that I can run again! I'm going to go back to the ankle specialist later this month with my fingers and toes crossed that this thing shows improvement on the big screen. It doesn't really feel that much better, unfortunately, but I am hoping that most of the pain is attributed to the tendinitis around the joint and not the ligament itself.
In other training news, I've been working hard at all sorts of other aspects of fitness including strength and flexibility. You know, those things most of us runners skip over and avoid like the plague. I've been doing two-a-day workouts twice a week with cardio early in the morning and core/strength in the evening with the Inwood Hill Runners DL. I'm feeling strong and beat up at the same time. I'll also be back at that yoga class on Friday morning, making a pretzel of myself in an attempt to get stronger, longer and more balanced.

posted from Bloggeroid

It is about time...

...for an update! I realized yesterday that I never updated after the Philly Half Marathon, mainly because we left for Germany a few days later and this week has been mostly recovery from that. I can't believe so much has happened in the last 11 days. The Philly half was tough and we didn't hit our goal of sub 1:40, but Elyssa and I were both fine with that. It wasn't meant to be, we have bigger fish to fry in 5 weeks! (NYC Marathon looms...) Check out her blog post for the scoop if you haven't already here. It is too far gone for me to post a race report.

The Thursday after Philly my hubby and I flew over to Munich for the wedding weekend of a dear, dear friend of mine. I optimistically packed some running clothes (including gloves!) and trail shoes with thoughts of a mountain trail run in the back of my mind. Sadly, my knee gave me trouble on the ride over and throughout the weekend so that and the packed schedule kept me from running from Thursday through Monday. Eek. Despite my jetlag and head cold, as soon as I got home on Tuesday I put on my shoes and hit the streets. I didn't have time for a long run, but I needed to do this as a test for my knee anyway so I snuck in 2.77 very hilly miles in Fort Tryon Park in about 23mins. It took nearly 1.5mi for my knee to stop hurting, but the important thing is that it DID stop hurting. Whew. While I still have pain in my knee every morning when leaving the apt and walking to the train. The approximately 90 steps to leave my apt and 15 more in the subway station leave me cringing in pain each morning. It sucks, this is a repeat of what happened to me 2 years ago after NYCM. Damn.

In addition to the knee pain, I started having some pain in my SI joint- the sacroiliac joint is the point at which your spine connects to your pelvis. If you think about it, it is probably one of THE most important joints in your body, and it isn't even technically a real joint, its more of a "connection" between two bone surfaces by very thick ligaments. I knew right away that the low back pain I was having was the result of some friction in my SI joint because it has a unique burning/searing type of pain that spreads down to my hip and up to my ribs. Normally I've been able to take care of the discomfort in my SI myself, but it began interfering with my work these last 2 weeks. I may be stubborn, but I know better than to mess with my back and pelvis considering my line of work. One bad twist or slip and I could be out of work for weeks or months! So... I did the adult thing today- I made an appointment to see a PT. I know boatloads of PT's in the city, but I took the advice of my Orthopedic Doc and went with a well known sports PT practice in Chelsea. I'll update after next Wednesday's first visit.

In the meantime, I'm still cautiously playing soccer and running, swimming and doing CORE work. I know I need to step up the CORE and upper body work, so I hope to get back into the routine tomorrow after my swim. Things are changing...and hopefully for the better. I'm sick of being injured or on the verge of injured.