Ankle Saga Continues
When I walked home from the hospital, it was creakier than usual, thanks to having raced a 5K only to be stuck in bed the next 30 hours.  So I went on ibuprofen for a few days to get a solid anti-inflammatory punch and when the weekend came, I went off it so I could see how it felt, undrugged.

Alas, once off Vitamin I, it didn’t hurt per se,  but it was still there in the background, a shadow when I descend stairs or step a certain way.  As usual, there was no visible swelling and I couldn’t even press an area to make it hurt, but just knowing it hadn’t gone despite the week off was a bummer.

So yesterday morning, I started googling on how to deal with it, wondering if I should get it looked at.  In my search, I came upon this collection of posts from an Ultra runners site that, while I’m not suffering from an achilles problem, has some good stuff in there for tendon recovery.

One happy eye-opener on that page was the Nirschl Pain Phase Scale of Athletic Overuse Injuries (here’s more info on it).  I’d say my ankle is Phase 2 which isn’t even at “take rest days” intensity, so unless it gets worse, there’s no reason to get it looked at – I’ll live with it the way many runners live with a constant niggle.  I’m sure I have tons of company on that score.

Still, I want it gone, not just managed.  The supplements in those posts looked interesting (L-lysine and glycine) so that’s something to consider, though I’m at my limit of pill-popping between glucosamine, msm, a calcium chew and now a multivitamin (I stopped taking separate iron, btw, the multi is enough).

My other thought was that maybe I could just take ibuprofen as needed, since it works really well for me and it’s not like I’d use it regularly, but I have that guilt about it, which I think I don’t need to have – it’s not crack, for god’s sake!  Still, in looking for alternatives, I started investigating ibuprofen cream, which ultimately landed me on Arnica gel.

Arnica gel is natural, it comes from the arnica flower, and has been used for hundreds of years in Europe and by tribal Indians.  It’s great for bruising – makes them go away sooner (I never heard of anything that can do that) but what got my attention was the anti-inflammatory properties – better than ibuprofen cream and with less adverse events.

My friend Lara uses it but I thought it was just for pain, not that it actually helped with inflammation and healing.  So when I read it genuinely helps bursitis and tendon issues…Jackpot!  After scouring tons of glowing user reviews at Vitacost, Drugstore.com and Amazon, I flew to Whole Foods to buy a tube.

I started on it yesterday morning (you use it 3 times/day) and knock me down, my ankle feels fab!  I felt just a tiny twinge upon waking today, so I have major hopes for this and will keep you posted as I return to mileage. The fact that it’s available in gel form is excellent – it dries super quick, isn’t sticky and no pills to swallow, yay!

Running Times Fabulosity
I’ve already posted this on Facebook, but after those months defending my position on moving to shorter races vs marathons, there was an article in Running Times this month that encapsulated my thoughts perfectly.  If you don’t get the magazine (I just subscribed, it’s only $10!) you can read the article here.

There’s also a good article on running form in the same issue.  Be aware this is a preview website that lets you view these, so if you “use up” your preview, just try again later.  Otherwise, the articles should end up on the Running Times site in a months time.

As recap, during this period I couldn’t go more than 2 runs to where I’d feel it.  Long runs (limited to 11 milers) always required stretching stops and because one annoyance isn’t enough, my ankle bursitis from last year reappeared as an underlying bass note for the beginning of most runs during these two months.

Because I’m a 7-day runner, I did take a few days off (5 total), but from reading of how people would take 2 weeks off and return to the road only to find they were right back where they started, I didn’t even consider taking a clump of days off, figuring I could manage the injury as it made a slow exit.

My mileage didn’t suffer too much – June was a lower month, but I was able to average 53 mpw between June and July.  I just made sure to stop and stretch if it hurt on the run, foam roll the shit out of it in the evenings and often took 3 ibuprofen after “long” runs to keep it in check for the next day’s run.

I’d like to say I did my leg exercises regularly, but I lasted about 1.5 weeks till I conveniently forgot to do them (I hated leg lifts when I was a pudgy young thing, I don’t like them any better now).  I’ve been pretty regular with stretching, but was never sure if I was overdoing it, so I tended to go from stretching too much to not enough, and always suspected I wasn’t doing it quite right.

This seemed to work ok, it had diminished greatly, but was still there like a bad cold that never leaves, culminating in a horrible 13 miler last Sunday, my longest run in months, and one requiring numerous stops, mainly because I was wearing an IT band strap that was backfiring on me and causing calf discomfort, but still, I was most certainly not “cured”.  So I took this Monday off.

Now, a few days prior, July 9th to be exact, I’d started the glucosamine/chondroitan/msm combo pills.  After taking that rest day on Monday, I ran like usual from Tuesday on, except suddenly “usual” had a whole new meaning.  There was no ankle bursitis, no IT band shadowing, absolutely no weakness in my legs at all.  At. All.  This was 6 days after taking that first pill.

You guys…I ran 15 miles today.  15 miles without one single peep, shadow, twinge or anything.  15 miles like it was a mid-long run, not the farthest I’d gone since a 16-miler on April 12th (April 12!).  I even stuck a couple faster miles (7:20s) in there ala Hudson.  Average for the whole run, 8:18.

So these pills really are a miracle, because I know for sure that while the injury was sneaking out the backdoor, it was going so very slowly that if left on its normal course, would have continued the wave of 2 days good, 1 day bad, eventually moving to 3 days good, 1 day bad, etc, and all the while with those stupid stretching stops.  Instead, I’ve had 6 days of 59.5 miles with perfect legs the entire time.

I’ve been thinking more about these magic pills and while I know that MSM is still the main hero at the moment till the glucosamine eventually kicks in, I think the glucosamine could eventually benefit ITBS too, even though it’s for  joints and not soft tissue – because glucosamine not only adds cartilage, it increases lubrication as well.  The whole reason ITBS is so painful is that it rubs against the femur, becoming inflamed.  If the joint has more lubrication, it makes sense that your IT band would slide easier against that joint. But that’s just supposition and a moot point anyway, since whatever is working  is working now!

I have suddenly gone from hiding marathon training into the farthest back corner of my brain to pure, unadulterated excitement for getting started again and seeing what this training cycle brings.  As they’d say back in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, “YEE–HAW!!”   (they’d also say “Pig Sooie, Razorbacks!!” because they’re weird like that, but I digress…)

Hope is restored, fun is restored, I am back on the road for real.

I’m not a big pill-popper to begin with and avoid it when I can.  My eating is pretty clean so I don’t take a multi-vitamin, though I do take calcium daily (ladies, you know I’ve mentioned it before, but check into your requirements and make sure you’re getting enough…anything to help avoid stress fractures is our BFF).

Last week, I mentioned that I started taking a glucosamine/ chondroitin/msm combo daily.  It’s purpose is to help your joints by increasing cartilage and adding lubrication.  I’ve been reading hundreds of accounts over the last week of people basically saying “I could never live without glucosamine again, I swear by it”.  These comments come from arthritis sufferers to heavy-lifting bodybuilders to runners.

When I started on it, I was thinking “maybe it’ll help my IT Band somehow”, though glucosamine isn’t for soft tissue.  Even so, I’d read a bunch of user reviews from people finding success with it for certain tendon issues.  Runners knee is also a common reason people take it.

The thing that got me to buy a bottle though, was watching a sports injury video from a doctor at Stanford University saying that it was worth taking since it acts as an anti-inflammatory but without the side effects.  I figured that’s got to help since tendon crap is all about inflammation.

As far as joint pain goes, I hadn’t thought about it before taking this stuff, but I do have joint tweaks, I  just don’t pay much attention to it because I figure it’s part of getting older, like sometimes my fingers hurt after opening a jar or my elbow might hurt when stuffing a pillow into a pillow case, etc.  And while I’m not a hurty girl in general (these tweaks are fleeting), it’s fun to think there’s something that might remove even these little ouchies from my life (not to mention do good stuff for running).

So on Sunday I had that IT strap episode that had my calf feeling weird, then on Tuesday, a really good 9-miler, Wednesday an 11-miler that was the first double-digit run in weeks where I was completely tweakless (no stretching stops at all) and then today, another perfect run, an 8-miler with some fartlek.  The thing I noticed on all three runs (besides a beautiful lack of IT trouble) was that my ankle bursitis, which has been hanging about these past few weeks and is always slightly noticeable at the start of a run, though not really painful, just “there”, was gone.  Nada.  Nothing.

It can’t be the glucosamine yet because that takes 4-6 weeks to kick in, but MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane, the third ingredient in my new magic pills) starts working in only a few days.   What’s it good for?  So many things, you’d be tempted to call it snake oil.

Among the items it helps are: tendonitis and bursitis (bing bing bing!), but also allergies (specifically rhinitis, which I have in abundance) as well as improving skin, nails and hair (actually speeds hair growth, of all things).  There’s even been a study on it saying it improved snoring, which sounds ridiculous, but if it helps allergies, I could see how that might carry over.

Now, quicker than you can say “Placebo”, glucosamine and MSM are commonly given to dogs, cats and horses with great success, in fact many people start using them because their doggies returned to frolicking puppydom after taking the stuff.   Since animals don’t know placebos or act from wishful thinking, that’s pretty solid proof of efficacy.

I’m not going to say “my IT band is cured!” because we know where that’s gotten me (though this is the most I’ve run in 3 consecutive days without feeling a thing since the crap began), but my ankle…I was resigned to thinking it would be a lifelong annoyance, waxing and waning whenever it felt like it.  It never occurred to me that I could take something for it that might make it actually go away.

It should be noted that the brand I’m currently using, Triple Flex from Nature Made, is not the latest version of the product because my local Rite Aid sucks, so it doesn’t contain hyaluronic acid, which all the new formulas have.  Hyaluronic acid does indeed work on soft tissue (tendons, ligaments), so I already ordered a vat of Triple Strength Advanced Osteo Bi-flex for when this bottle’s done.

I also ordered a separate bottle of MSM to see if will lessen my allergies, since it’ll take a larger dose than the glucosamine mix provides.  I’ve put Nick on glucosamine, too, since he’s battled a rotator cuff issue for years and that’s the perfect malady for this stuff.

Better living through chemicals supplements.  Why not?

I haven’t been sleeping, mostly because of an evil red cardinal living in our courtyard that loves taunting Kitsia, our cat, who’s always laying out on the deck.  The cardinal will stand on the deck rail starting at 5am and chirp loudly and unceasingly to get a rise out her, but the cat doesn’t give a shit.  I’ve taken to scaring it away myself by storming onto the deck with a really mean face, yelling “Go away you stupid bird!!”  But the bird doesn’t give a shit.

In work news, I got that voiceover job for the Rita’s commercial (the funny one requiring a bit of Swedish pronunciation) so I’m doing that this afternoon.  Yay.

Other than that, been doing a lot of designing and redesigning for Adorableshirts.com so I hope to get those up in the next day, then do a couple more running shirts for Gifted Runner, then the big job after that will be getting my music section off Fishpie.com and make its own seperate shop/website.  So I’ve gone from not doing anything designwise for a year to giving myself enough work to be steadily occupied for the next few months and beyond.  I wish I had more of a money-lust, then I’d work hard all the time.  As it is, I wait until some dwindling has occurred, then hurry to catch up.

On a funny note (though entirely aggravating to me), I discovered that after redoing my x-rated shirt site using Zazzle products instead of Cafepress, someone else on Zazzle had immediately copied two of my designs!  With great joy I submitted a copyright violation report with Zazzle and they removed the offending copies without ado, but still.  People are so stupid sometimes.

As far as running goes, I’m hopefully going to get my mileage back to the 60s starting this week.  June saw weekly averages of low 50s thanks to the IT band adventure.   This actually worked out well in the end, since a cutback is a healthy thing anyway and I wouldn’t have done it voluntarily.   So now I’m crossing fingers and toes for a strong mileage return without incident (though keeping toes crossed sounds like another cause for injury, so maybe I’ll stick with fingers).

Oh, and I never did share a chuckle at the havoc my IT rehab ended up wreaking.  Overzealous stretching awoke my dormant ankle bursitis (I’ve since laid off the heavy stretching so my ankle’s back to normal, thank god) but I also burned the side of my knee by icing it so much and not using a cover over the gel ice pack, so I now have a large scabby circle there.

If it’s not one thing…

I also had a bit of a scare yesterday on my 4-mile recovery run.  I wore my Asics 2130s knowing they’re no longer good shoes for me for regular runs (not because they’re used up, but because they don’t agree with my ankles and feet), but anyway, I figured some slow recovery miles couldn’t hurt.  I was wrong.  I felt this terrible pain at my heel/ankle, where my dormant bursitis exists, that came and went throughout yesterday’s run.  So all day I did major ibuprofen and ice, scared shitless because an injury at this point would be the LAST thing I need.  Thankfully, it didn’t appear once on the run today and as for those shoes, if I had a gun I’d take them in the backyard and shoot them full of holes, instead they’ll be going to Goodwill this week.

Back to today’s run, I put on my lightest shorts, bra top, My Precious Marathon Shoes for the second time, gel flask rigged to hold some S-caps (because if I ever needed them, today was the day), handheld, and I was gone.  It was 6:23 when I left, just starting to get light out and it was cloudy for the first half of the run, so that helped.  I forgot to eat before I left and was thinking I should have had a little bagel with peanut butter, but was 2 miles in by then, so banished the thought.

Around mile 8, I passed a cute guy in green wearing a hydration belt who said with a smile, “Oh my god, it’s Flo.” then gave me a high-five.  I figured I knew him (because I have a horrible memory for faces, among other things) so trying to not let on, I replied, “How are ya?” as I slapped his palm, to which he answered back something about “Three blocks”, and while I wasted time trying to figure out what he meant (3 blocks left to go? there are no blocks here…) I realized he’d actually said “I read your blog”.  And that was an instant “oh wow how cool” moment, but by that time I’d figured it out, he was too far away to say so.  So Cute Green Guy, you better leave a comment here so I know who you are, it totally gave me an energy infusion and left me with a huge smile on my face!!  Thank you!!

That smile lasted until about mile 15 when I first noticed my feet were as soaked as if I’d been tromping through puddles, nevermind my clothes which had become completely soaked through miles earlier.  I hadn’t put any bodyglide on my feet, so luckily I didn’t feel blisters forming but was ultra aware of the massive pruning going on in my shoes.  Not comfortable.

By then the sun was out, too and while I had originally planned to take a jaunt up Smile Hill, I was so miserably wet and hot by the time I got near it, I said, “fuck it” and made a date with the hill for this Wednesday when I have an 11-miler.  There would be no jaunting today.

As far as pacing goes, I started reeeeeal slow today because I knew the humidity would be a killer, so the first mile was a blistering 10:21, which is funny considering I never would have run that slow before marathon training, but I didn’t give a crap today.  My plan had been to do the proper Pfitz paces, staying around 10s for the first half, moving to Pfitz’s 10% over MP for the second half, which would have been 9:13s.

What ended up was a bit faster (but not hugely), ending with 8:50s for the last miles, average pace for the run today: 9:22 (this includes 3 stops for water refills).  Not bad considering it was such a disgusting day.  In fact, it’s my 4th 20-22 this training cycle and my fastest, despite the conditions. But I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking too pretty at the end, felt like a panting dog and just wanted it to be over.  I almost considered taking a walk break around 18.5, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, I’d seen those 8:50s and wanted to keep it that way.

So that’s my adventure.  Once I got home, I stripped down and parked myself in front of the fan, standing on a towel to sop up the dripping water, then left watery footprints everywhere as I dragged myself to the kitchen for a glass of water.  You’d think I lived at the city pool.

Anyway, it’s over. Like I said before, I hope this isn’t my last 20, but I only have one more opportunity for one and that’ll be 2 weeks before the marathon which can go either way.  Depends on how the Philadelphia Distance Run goes next weekend, if I don’t require any extra recovery.

So yeah…big race next Sunday, a half-marathon!  While I won’t be fully tapered, this will be a looser week, so hopefully I can manage a great race.  But now, must take a long shower and wash the salt crust off, happy in the fact that I completed one of the toughest runs this training cycle.  Later, my lovelies!!  And I hope you also had a productive, if not soaking, long run this weekend.

Today was my second appointment with the doc, who said if I wanted to run over the weekend I should come Thursday for re-taping.

So I go this morning and first off they put these odd contraptions on me:

Cynical observation #1:
I ask what it’s for and the girl attaching it says something about stretching the toes, like massage, but I’m here to fix my peroneal tendon on the right foot, so I wonder what long-term good this can possibly have and why both feet? Hmmm.

Cynical observation #2 (and the most important one):
When I saw the doc on Tuesday, he mentioned the peroneal was slipping from it’s groove. I had already read about that, so I knew the term for it (subluxation) which surprised him. After I got home that day, I started questioning his diagnosis though, because a subluxed tendon supposedly feels like it’s popping over the ankle bone and is a very serious thing…50% of people with this need surgery, otherwise, it’s a boot for a few weeks!

So today, when he sits down to give me acupuncture, I ask him about subluxation and my understanding that it’s a serious problem. He says maybe it’s simply a mild case, so I then ask him to tell me the primary symptom of subluxation and he says “you feel a snapping of the tendon”. The problem with this is, I never said I felt this – there’s no snapping or movement at all, so where’d this diagnosis come from?!? Not to mention, he never even picked my foot up to physically see what it was doing in the first place! Subluxation my foot (punny, huh?), it isn’t that and he agreed.

Cynical observation #3:
I mention I ordered a popular type of brace for my ankle and he gives me eyebrows up and asks what I was hoping to accomplish with the brace. I sheepishly reply that the taping seemed to help a lot, so when he’s not available for taping, I’d use the brace. I’m thinking he’s anti-brace (because it means less bi-weekly appointments) but then he tells me the one he sells (aha!) is better and thinner and more comfortable. I reply that if mine doesn’t work, I’ll buy his.

Cynical observation #4:
Everyone in the room is getting the same stuff, same treatments. If I’m there to fix my peroneal tendon, why I am I getting the same thing Bunion Lady is getting? All in all, I’d rather spend 15 minutes with a doctor who directly addresses the problem than over 2 hours for “feel good” treatments.

What I got at the end of my appointment (besides the $26 parking ticket because I was there for 2.5 hours) was for him to look at my x-ray from Monday, which (joy, oh joy) looks fine and dandy with nothing suspect, so it’s probably just an irritated tendon and I should be right as rain in a couple weeks of keeping it taped/braced.

If however, I start feeling more discomfort, I’ll travel up to Matt’s podiatrist, who won the Philly Marathon years back, so the guy knows running. But hopefully, everything is on the mend.

So that’s my doctor adventure, from “what fun is this!” to “um…are you sure?”

Going out for 4 today and will keep it at 4 for the next couple days, I guess. Just happy to get out there. I guess this means I’m a real runner.

I’m about the farthest from Eastern philosophies and ching-ching stuff as a person’s allowed to be, so I was doing secret eye-rolling when no one was looking.

My first task was to stand and walk on a pad that reads pressure and heat, so when the doc analyzed me, he noticed I distribute uneven weight between legs, my poor right leg does a lot more work than the left, and that the way my foot rolls is kinda wacky. Hmmm, makes sense since any twinges I get are always on the right leg.

Additionally, it appears I’m paying karma points for making fun of those Lincoln Center ballerinas when I was in acting school, with their constant fifth-position waddle…turns out that’s kind of how I walk these days. Serves me right.

Anyway, he told me my peroneal tendon was getting out of it’s groove. My reply was “When can I run??” When he responded, “Today, after I wrap your foot up”, I didn’t care if they hung an effigy of Buddha on my butt and lit my ass on fire, I’d do whatever he said.

So I got the full treatment starting with electro-stim where they put paddles on my ankle and sent an electric current through my foot (this increases blood flow). Then I went into another room where a nice woman showed me exercises to strengthen my ankles. Next, I got acupuncture and lastly, the doc wrapped my feet up and told me to come back on Thursday for re-wrapping and whatever else they come up with. Fine by me! My insurance is paying for it after all (or at least the first few visits), so I’ll be your human voodoo doll any day.

My lesson for next time is to get to a doctor sooner rather than later – I could have saved weeks of worry and several days of depression. Enough boo-hooing though, time to don some shorts, a top and take my feet where they’ve been itching to go for a week; outside into the big world. Later, kids!! (and smooches for the well-wishes during this most boring whining time of mine, you guys/gals are the best!)

Apres Run Addition: Well, that hurt like a son of a bitch…for the first half anyway. I ran a blistering 10min pace for 3.2 miles. Was thinking the doc was a quack for a while (not that it made me turn around and go home), but the ankle loosened up the longer I was out there. Saw my construction worker boyfriend who’s been cheering me about Broad St. for the last 3 months, we exchanged race results and I was really happy for him, he was expecting 10min miles and ran 1:32. Good times, good times…