BLEGH
Today was a sucky walk. It started out okay, but by mile three it had started to rain. Fortunately, I’d brought my raincoat and my little backpack rain shield thingy, so after stopping to equip both of those, I kept walking.
It rained.
The whole.
Time.
FIFTEEN out of my eighteen miles were in the rain.
By the end I was completely soaking wet (despite the raincoat) and VERY cold.
Then I had to go home and give a review for the stats test this coming week.
I’m so ready for this semester to be over.
Nineteen
Today was my first “longer run” (more than 17 miles) since my sartorius injury. I did 19, which is a far cry from a marathon distance, but I’m hoping I can slowly build back up to that.
Though I can already tell that I’m going to be super sore tomorrow.
Mileage Update:
I’m at (approximately) 4,500 miles for the year! At this pace, I’ll hit 5,000 miles way earlier than I usually do and may have a chance at 6,000.
CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP
Hexa Dexa
Back in, I think, January of 2020, I decided that I wanted to get a body scan to determine my percentages of muscle, body fat, water, etc. I found a location pretty close to where I live that does a BodyMetrix Ultrasound, which apparently gives similar accuracy to a DEXA scan and booked an appointment for early April.
Well, thanks to our good old friend Covid, that appointment never happened.
I recently looked up the location again and it looks like you can get the scan while wearing a mask (and the technician will also wear a mask if you ask them to, which is a plus). So I’m up for maybe making a new appointment and getting scanned!
It may not happen this semester because OH MY GOD I am so busy, but maybe early next year.
Ugh
Had my first migraine in a while today. I don’t know why the frequency has dropped off so much lately, but I’ll certainly take it. Last year around this same time I was having one almost every other week. I don’t think I’ve had one since March this year.
I wish I knew what triggered them.
Run in the AM
I went on my run today at 3 AM, which is about four hours earlier than normal.
I’d forgotten how NICE early AM runs are. Like, apart from the getting up at 2 AM part, I absolutely love them. There’s no one out, there’s minimal traffic, it’s super tranquil and lonely, and it just feels really good.
It’s a little creepy getting down to the path in the dark. And the end of Bowness Park (before the bridge) is REALLY dark and isolated.
But it’s all still so good.
(Except for getting up that early. That’s hard.)
A List of Things I Will Get Up Early For:
- Running
That’s it.
Leeeeeeeeeg
I had my first physical therapy appointment today and my physical therapist came to the same conclusion that the clinic doctor did: I done botched up my sartorius muscle.
It sounds like it will take a decent amount of time for it to heal, but she also cleared me for running if I could deal with the pain, so that’s good at least.
Buh.
OH GOD THAT WAS PAINFUL
So as I mentioned yesterday, today I decided to run for the first time since busting up my leg.
Super
SUPER
painful.
Especially at the start. Even after taking a few ibuprofens. It was like my whole upper leg was on fire for the first several miles, and that only diminished slightly as I kept running. And trying to run on any sort of uneven surface (like the back road in Bowness, which has a decently steep slant to it)? OH MY GOD PAIN.
But I was able to do it. I was able to run 16 miles.
Not sure how much pain I’ll be in tomorrow, but at least I was able to do it.
This is going to be a long, painful recovery.
Results
So for the first time since I went in for my PMLE issues in 2019, I went to see a doctor today because of my leg.
And the doctor, after a very thorough inspection, confirmed what I figured: an injury to my sartorius muscle.
(Pic from Wikipedia)
She recommended that I go see a manual therapist. Then I left without paying because THIS STUFF IS FREE IN CANADA
(Sorry, I’m still not over that. And yes, I know we do technically pay via taxes, shut up.)
Anyway, I looked up manual therapists and there’s actually a few that work in the physiotherapy place right across the street and the medical plaza, so I’m going to see if I can make an appointment with one of them soon.
The doctor also said that I could run without causing further damage, but that doing so will probably be very painful until things start to heal.
So I’m going to try to run tomorrow.
The Protector Vanishes
So as we all know, that gnarly monstrosity that was my middle toenail fell off about a week ago.
I was unaware of how much protection that toenail was giving the two adjacent toes, because now we have these three amigos:
And they all hurt like hell.
So who knows how this is all going to turn out.
The Leg (not the one you’re thinking of)
So.
I did something to my OTHER leg now.
Over the past week or so, when I’d start out on a walk or run, I’d feel this sharp pain in the middle of my quad, but the pain would diminish (relatively quickly) as I kept walking/running. It had started to last a bit longer each time, but it would eventually get better.
Today, however, after getting back from my run, I noticed that the pain was really lingering…to the point that it wasn’t going away at all.
I tried to ignore it as we went to Walmart and did other errands and stuff, but now it’s late at night and it hurts SO FREAKING BADLY.
Like, the pain is at a level where I almost wonder if I have some sort of stress fracture or something in my femur.
It really, really hurts. And I consider myself to have a pretty high pain tolerance.
So yeah. That is SUPER discouraging. Unless this magically gets better, I’m going to have to go to a doctor once we get back up to Calgary.
Edit: I think the pain started not too long after I bit it on that one run. Maybe I really twisted my leg more than I thought I did.
Edit 2 (from later in the month): LOL IT’S JUST A MUSCLE STRAIN WHY THE HELL DOES MY FEMUR FEEL LIKE IT IS GOING TO CRACK IN HALF
Get GU’d
Yo.
Today is a MARATHON DAY, so I used it to try my first GU.
I chose the Salted Watermelon flavor.
So I ran to Pullman, ran around the backside of the captive bear area and golf course, then ran on that path that kind of goes along the flat part of Bishop Boulevard. At the end of that path, I tried my Gu.
Flavor: Great!
Texture: Snot!
Seriously. Snot is not the most accurate thing to compare that texture to, but it’s the closest I can think of. It’s like snot mixed with Elmer’s glue. I had to hork up a big wad of it when I got back to the drinking fountain because it felt like it was gunking up my throat. I had about half of the packet in Pullman; I rolled it up, stuck it in my running pack, and had the rest at the drinking fountain by Guy Wick’s Field once I got back to Moscow.
Did it help? It’s hard to tell. It was a rough run this morning. I felt nauseous for the first six miles or so, then it was really hot for like the last eight miles. But maybe I would have felt much worse had I not had the Gu.
I’m terrified of that flavorless one I got now, haha. It’s going to be like dumping straight gluey snot into my mouth.
Another summer without…
Polymorphous Light Eruption symptoms.
That’s not supposed to just resolve on its own, so I either had something else going on in the summers of 2019 and 2020, or I did and my body’s just being the weird thing it always is and was like “K we’re done!”
Odd news.
UGH
So I had every intention of running a marathon today, but:
1. It got smoky. Like, super smoky. Our scale up here goes from 1 (clean air) to 11+ (you’re going to die if you go outside), and we hit a 9 while I was out running.
2. It’s muggy as all hell. For whatever reason, it’s super humid here today and there’s nothing worse than muggy hell when trying to run.
3. It’s windy as all hell. I’m always down for a little wind while running, but it was obnoxious today.
All these components resulted in a pretty miserable, difficult run that was only 21 miles long.
UGH I hate cutting my distance short, but I also don’t want to get lung damage, so.
Roon
All true. Especially the toenail one.
And like one of the comments said, it’s good to know that “some days the legs don’t show up” is a universal thing and occurs seemingly independently of how much you’ve trained.
Claudia vs. Forest Fire Smoke
Forest fire smoke doesn’t seem to bother me.
Smoke in general doesn’t seem to bother me.
We’ve had some pretty intense smoke up here so far this summer and I don’t feel like it gets to me at all.
My eyes don’t burn, my breathing doesn’t feel more labored, my throat doesn’t hurt, I don’t cough/sneeze more, I don’t get headaches or migraines.
I don’t know if it’s all psychological because I can’t smell it, but I never feel like it bothers me. Of course, I know the negative effects of the smoke will be there regardless of if I “feel” the smoke or not, but it just never bothers me.
So yeah.
Not a Fluke!
To prove that my first marathon last week was not a fluke, I tried to run another one today.
And I did.
So that’s good! It was also faster than my first attempt.
WOO!
MARATHON!!!!
I did it, y’all!
The marathon distance was not on the schedule today (it was only supposed to be 25 miles), but I was feeling good near the end and wanted to push it.
So I did. And then I cried, ‘cause I’m pathetic like that.
I really didn’t think I could ever run a marathon.
OH GOD THE BLISTER HURTS
OH MY GOD this is the most painful blister I have ever had in my entire life.
Typically when I have a blister on my foot, it will hurt for the first mile or so of a walk and then my body will realize that I’m not going to stop walking because of some measly blister and will turn the pain receptors off. It’s super convenient.
But not this blister.
Not today.
It was feeling a little better during the middle of my walk, but by the time I had about five miles left it was hurting so badly that I was almost crying. And I like to think that I have a pretty high pain tolerance.
(Example: I’ve had to dig chunks of glass out of the bottoms of my feet/toes with tweezers before – no crying there. I cut and removed stitches out of my leg before because I didn’t want to go back to the doctor – no crying there, either.)
OUCH. Maybe if I wrap the hell out of it with bandages/tape it won’t be too bad tomorrow. I have to run on it, too, so that will be fun.
BLISTER
My entire little toe on my right foot is a blister.
Like, almost literally, the entire thing.
I have no idea why I sometimes get blisters but 99% of the time I don’t…it’s not like I alter how much I run/walk by any huge amounts week by week.
Anyway.
IT HURTS.
I AM SPEED (AGAIN)
This is not a fast mile for most people, but it’s hella fast for me. I am a slow runner, haha. This was also like mile 10 of 16, so…
Hard Mode
Another 24 (plus a little bit) today!
I can go this distance without needing any fuel or water, but I’m sure that’s going to change as it gets hotter. I’m going to need TONS of water once it gets hotter.
But for now, I can still motor through with nothing.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it is what it is.
Longest Run Update: 24 Miles!
We’re getting there.
WE’RE GETTING THERE!
Eigenblogger 