I have not run in 26 days. When I write that it seems inconsequential but it feels like years instead of days. Since breaking my foot I have either swam, deep water ran, rowed or biked every day, often a combination of 2 or 3 activities because I cannot get the intensity of running.
I have been a bit depressed because everyone I spoke to that had food fractures told me it hurt for a few days and that was it. Mine hurts 24/7. My third metatarsal broke clear though. It swells up my foot and I have a big red bump on top. I feel like I am constantly being stung by a bee. My x-ray at day 1 and 14 showed no healing but today I went to a new doc. Dr. Donald Rose, orthopedist to the stars of dance, most notably Alvin Ailey. One of my colleagues was a prima for Ailey and knows all the best doctors. It turns out that Rose was also PhD.D dissertation adviser for another one of my colleagues. I knew I would be well taken care of. He was excellent. He thoroughly checked out my foot, took three x-rays, showed me everything, went over it and made some changes in my orthopedic boot. Man, I hate this boot. I clearly saw the break and the healing, even a novice could pick it out the x-ray was so clear. So I feel much better seeing that my bone is healing.
In the meantime I am desprete to keep my fitness. I am on the 9 week Pfitzinger deep water running plan. I am swimming and begin a master swim stroke clinic on July 2. It meets 3x a week all the way through August at the 14th street Y in Manhattan. After 25 coached swims I will have to be a more fit and a stronger swimmer. I am not a good swimmer. I never had lessons and taught myself by doing it and having friends give me pointers. I also discovered Concept 2 rowing. Wow I love rowing. This is almost as good as running. I was rowing like mad every day and met with a coach. But I was also really torquing my feet so I have to lay off it for a bit. In it’s place I am using a hand-cycle and that is really fun too. I think most people feel hand-cycling is only for rehab, but this thing is awesome. Again one of my colleague’s from the PT division told me to try it for cardio and it’s great. And technically I am in rehab, working out the rest of my body while by bone heals.
This weekend is Pride. I get to watch my Front Runner teammates run the Gay Pride Race. I hate standing on the sidelines. I planned on winning our teams master division this year. I guess it is not a good idea to plan on winning, one never knows what may happen.
Keep your chin up Hil-fortunately you are in a great city with great athletic rehab options-I wish I could have had a deep water pool where I could have water run, I only had a lap pool(but that helped!) Running is such an integral part of life-when it goes, everything is different-but, you are in good hands, and it WILL come back. And chances are, with your current rehab, you will be even stronger. Who knows, maybe you will be doing a tri before you know it. They truly are a blast. Hang in there! Love Melissa
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I am impressed with your exercise. How is your foot?
A dog attacked me when I was training for a marathon, tripped me up and caused three fractured metatarsals. I crawled home and put my foot in a plastic bucket of cold water and a tray of ice cubes. The injury was very painful. I was back to running in 6 weeks and my usual schedule in 10.
The ice water is the best thing for helping your foot to heal quickly.
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Your blog is so informative … ..I just bookmarked you….keep up the good work!!!!
Hey, I found your blog in a new directory of blogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, anyway cool blog, I bookmarked you. 🙂
–Robert Shumake Paul Nicoletti
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