Saturday, April 14, 2012

I'm not even going to ask what else can go wrong

Leading up to marathon #12:

I made a clerical error with my training plan and did my peak mileage week (including a 20 mile training run) 2 weeks before the marathon instead of 3 weeks.  Now, I'm a firm believer in Hal Higdon and have used some version of his training plans for each of my previous 11 marathons, and he always has you do a 3-week taper.  Anything less and your body isn't rested/recovered for race day.  Well, long about 18-weeks ago when I was entering my weekly long runs on the calendar, I made a mistake and entered the 20-mile run for April 1st, a mere 2 weeks prior to the race.  I didn't even realize it until shortly before I headed out for the run, when Rob said something to the effect of, "So you're shooting for a 2-week taper, then.  That's ballsy."  I freaked the hell out.  But.  There wasn't much I could do about it at that point except hope that a 2-week taper turns out to be the Best Thing Ever.  We'll see.

A day or two after my poorly scheduled 20-miler, I was taking the trash down to the curb and twisted my ankle and fell flat on my face.  It was bad.  Like, bad enough that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to stand up and walk outside, not only from being mortified that half the neighborhood saw me, but also because my ankle seemed broken.  I couldn't put any weight on it, I couldn't even move it.  Walking to work that day was interesting to say the least.  I did lots and lots of ice and Aleve for many days afterwards.  It remained swollen and it hurt to touch or rotate, but interestingly enough it did not hurt to run.  I regained a cautious sense of optimism that the marathon might be possible after all.

Just when I seemed to be on the mend (Thursday), I was out for a routine 3-mile super easy run-- my last run before the marathon.  And I tripped.  Not on a pinecone or my shoelace or even a crack in the sidewalk.  There was nothing there.  I just tripped.  And twisted my ankle in the same exact spot as my previous injury.  Oh my god it hurt.  I sat there on the sidewalk, leaning up against a light post and wondering how I was going to make it home.  Eventually, I told myself everything would be okay and got up and ran.  I'm now about 2-days out from this repeat ankle injury, and interestingly it hurts less than it did before the whole thing began.  Maybe it was like my previous series of knee-related running injuries, which began when I tripped and fell on a "gum ball" (wrenching my knee in the process) and then completely disappeared 6 weeks later when I tripped and fell on another gum ball.  Go figure.

You may begin to notice that tripping and falling is a common theme in my life.

Because bad things never happen in 3's, the next set-back I encountered was Rob's cold.  He started coming down with a cold about 2 weeks before the marathon (around the same time I noticed my clerical error and fell down the driveway).  I thought, great, I'll probably catch this and be sick for the marathon.  But then I reevaluated and determined No, that would never happen.  If I caught the cold from him it would be within a matter of days, and while I might be uncomfortable for a little while, it would all pass long before the marathon.  Not so!  Rob's cold has continued to linger, most uncharacteristically, for this entire time.  He has been fairly miserable, and I have nervously observed this trajectory while waiting for the other shoe to fall.

I managed to evade the cold for for almost two weeks.  And then Thursday (consequently, just hours after I re-twisted my ankle), it hit.  My throat hurt, my head hurt, I felt chilled to the bone, and my left eye was red and swollen shut.  "What's the matter with you, do you have a stye?" one of my coworkers asked.  A stye??  What the hell is that.

I urge you, never, ever to Google the term "stye" while you are on your lunch break.

But at least I learned that styes are not life threatening, and they are treatable by the relatively simple process of applying a warm compress.  Excellent.  After about 2 days of that, the redness and swelling started to go down, and I feel like I will probably be able to wear my contacts again by tomorrow.

And another thing: the weather forecast for tomorrow is a high of 77 and thunderstorms.

Bring it.

Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

GO!! Kick some butt!

Barb

Cara said...

Good luck Melissa!