Yesterday afternoon, I went back to the doctor to get my foot re-looked at because it seems like the healing process has stalled big time.


Remember when I was so excited that it wasn't broken...

All the swelling and bruising disappeared in a week or so, but I still can't walk well and I certainly can't run or even put a lot of weight on my foot and it's been more than a month since I originally hurt it.

To say I'm frustrated would be an understatement.

So I went back yesterday, now that the swelling is gone, so the doctor could get a better look and maybe find a better answer as to what might be going on.

I explained how the pain seemed fairly localized in one area of the foot, the outside of the left foot along the bone and then sometimes right underneath the ball of my pinky toe.

The X-ray didn't show a break initially, but as my doctor and the physician's assistant did some more poking, prodding and general examining, he was starting to wonder if maybe there was some sort of stress injury or fracture going on that didn't show up.

He's sending me for an MRI so that he can get a clearer picture of what's going on.

In the meantime, we talked about what some of my options were. The first was clearly just more rest. But the doc could tell I was frustrated with just resting. He asked me if I had any races coming up, and when I told him yes, he and I started talking about more aggressive treatment options.

He mentioned two things specifically.

The first is Platelet Rich Plasma. This is an option a lot of professional athletes use to bounce back from injury. The doctor draws blood and then spins it in a centrifuge to separate out the platelets. Then they're re-injected back into the site of the injury. The theory goes the platelets encourage new healthy cells to grow at a quicker rate, thus speeding recovery.

This option sounds pretty awesome. Except for the part where it requires a lot of needles....oh and isn't covered by insurance and costs about a grand.

But the doctor told me to research it anyway. So I did.

I read a lot about it last night, about all the people that have had success with it. And then I watched a video of YouTube about the process. People, I don't like needles. And the like six inch one they use to re-inject the plasma might just be a dealbreaker.

Check it out (unless you're squeamish...in which case don't...I ugly cried a lot after watching this)

http://youtu.be/RsT6SB1q2vA

The other option we talked about was bone stimulation, where electrical and ultrasound pulses are sent to the injured area to stimulate cell growth and speed healing. This option is covered by some insurances in some instances. I tried to find out if my insurance would cover it in this case and I just couldn't get figure it out. So if we decide to go this route, I'd have to call and ask specifically.

But for now, I just need to get through the MRI and get the results back.

If something comes back funky, I'm seriously considering the PRP, despite the needle and the insane cost. It's worth taping into the ol' emergency fund to be able to run again right?

Have you ever had PRP, know someone who has? Thoughts, suggestions, general comments?

Hey team! I'm back from a blissed-out, truly awesome week at the beach, and I'm kind of sad that it's already back to reality.



Why is it that vacation weeks seem to fly by so fast?

I swear this past week I got some of the best sleep I have in ages. I only had one stress nightmare about work, otherwise, I was waking up by 7 a.m. each morning without the need for my alarm. (I'd love to know why I can't do that when I'm at home. At home it seems like torture to drag myself out of bed when my alarm blares.)

I came back feeling refreshed and relaxed...exactly the way vacation is supposed to leave you feeling.



We were graced with some pretty awesome beach weather all week. Sure we had a few brutally hot days, but those days just made the ocean water feel so much better.

I spent almost every day on the beach, sitting with my toes in the sand reading a ton of books. Of the 11 books I took on vacation, I got through six of them. That's about a book per day. Not too shabby if you ask me.



I also learned way more about the Royal Baby and Anthony Weiner than I ever wanted to in my life. I swear CNN had those two stories on a continuous loop. Was there nothing else important happening in the world?

When we weren't lounging on the beach, I was doing all my other favorite Rehoboth things.

Like eating oysters at the Henlopen City Oyster House.



We went to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday, and my dad and I split the sampler. I don't know why we get the sampler, I have a clear favorite (the New Brunswick oysters). We should just order a platter of those next time.


Family at the oyster house

And eating lots of Kohr's Brothers custard.


Chocolate peanut butter is my favorite.

And strolling the boardwalk in the evening. We got to see a gorgeous full moon out over the ocean one night.



We also had a few visitors come to spend a couple of days with us this year.


Me and my brother in our matching white shades

My brother was in town for the first weekend, and then my friend Emily and my Aunt Marybeth came down for a few days.


Me, my parents and my Aunt Marybeth


Me and Emily

It was fun having guests pop in and out through the week.

My mom and I also tried something new this year. We rented ocean kayaks and spent Wednesday morning trying them out.



It was a great workout and a lot of fun. I was glad to be able to do something active while on vacation.

Normally I run the boardwalk most mornings when I'm at the beach, but this year with my foot still acting up that wasn't really an option. So half way through the week, I was feeling extremely lazy, and kayaking was just the thing I needed.

My mom and I certainly worked up a sweat fighting through some of the stronger currents, but it was a great way to start the morning, and of course we recovered by spending the rest of the day at the beach reading.

All in all it was a pretty fantastic week at the beach. Now I just need to pull myself out of this post-vacation haze and get back to reality.

Not being able to workout is still driving me nuts, but I'm trying to be more mellow about it and enjoy my time soaking up AC while all the DC runners are miserable in the heat and humidity.

....That was almost believable right?

I mean seriously who am I kidding. Not being able to run is killlllling me.

But I'm trying to remember some sage advice a friend gave me back in the winter when I was laid up with my stress fracture:

\

I think the same holds true for this foot sprain or whatever it is. Just swap ankle brace for aircast and the message is still the same.

But...in trying to be more mellow about it, I'm instead focusing on my awesome beach vacation which starts in about 8 hours or so.

I'm peacing out for the week and heading to Rehoboth with my family to do nothing more stressful than stick my toes in the sand and read a bunch of books. In fact, I hit the library last night to pick up some quality beach reading, but I think I may have gone a bit overboard...



11 books in one week...totally do-able right?

And speaking of family...yesterday was my dad's 60th birthday!


Dad and my grandma at my parents' wedding


Family in Philly last fall for the UMD v Temple game

Happy birthday Dad!

So by yesterday my sprained foot was starting to feel better. The pain was pretty minimal, and the doctor had given me the go ahead to start some low impact activities.


My not broken foot!

I was so beyond thrilled to get some exercise since other than cleaning out closets to get ready for my move, I've largely been sitting on my butt for the last two weeks.

So last night after work I headed to the fitness center and planned to put in some time on the bike. But sadly, when I got there all the stationery bikes were broken. Super annoying.



My only other option was an elliptical and I figured since that was pretty low impact I'd be OK.

I did 20 minutes. Nothing too intense, but enough to work up a bit of a sweat.

My foot felt pretty OK during the workout, but by the time I walked back to my house afterward, I realized working out had been a big mistake.

My foot was swollen again and super, super painful.

I immediately iced it down and kept icing it on and off for the rest of the night. This morning when I woke up it definitely hurt more than it did yesterday, so I'm putting myself on an exercise ban. No exercise (other than the pool when and if I can get there) until the first week of August.

Basically, I need this to be healed in time for my softball tournament on August 3. Priorities.

So this weekend Emily and I were supposed to run the inaugural Biggest Loser 5K in DC, but because of my foot injury, I obviously couldn't actually run the race.


Emily after finishing!

Disclaimer: I was offered a free entry to the race so I could review it.

I was pretty bummed because sitting on the sidelines during a race is no fun, but it was about a million degrees outside with a thousand percent humidity, so sitting on the sidelines wasn't the worst in this situation.



Emily and I got there just as the race was starting and I quickly grabbed a sunny spectating spot while she hurried off to run the race.

The race took place in the parking lots of RFK stadium in DC, and because so many people had registered, the race directors used a wave system at the start to help with spacing on the course.

Good decision there. I'm always a fan of wave starts to help with spacing on the course.



The only thing was, the waves were set up kind of weird. You know how in normal races, the fastest people are in the first wave with slower folks and walkers toward the back? Well these waves seemed to not be broken up that way at all.

In fact, each wave had an entire mix of speeds from sprinters to walkers. If I were in the second or third wave and had to run past a whole bunch of walkers, I would have been pretty annoyed.

A few minutes after the first wave, I saw Emily cruise by in the third or fourth wave.


Go Emily!

As the minutes ticked by, I was getting excited to watch the race leaders come in to the finish.

There must have been some confusion somewhere on the course because the 10K front runners got turned around somewhere and looped past us going in the wrong direction.

I asked Emily after the race if the course was clearly marked and she said it was definitely a little confusing at points and saw how it would have been pretty easy for people to get turned about.



They must have got things straightened out eventually though because the rest of the pack ended up going in the correct direction.

Despite the heat and humidity, it looked like most people were having fun. Because the race was sponsored by the Biggest Loser and several of the contestants from past seasons were there, the race drew a large crowd. There were lots of families and people of all different fitness levels, running and walking the race.


Emily pretty close to the finish!

Every racer got a really nice tech shirt (yes, I picked mine up even though I couldn't run) and all the finishers got pretty nice medals.

The race certainly has room for improvement in coming years, but I thought they did a few things right.

It was super easy to get to the race either by Metro or by driving. (There was plenty of parking if you chose to drive.) Emily got through the finisher's area and was able to grab water and a banana fairly quickly. They had a misting station near the finish area to cool people down.


The expo was centrally located in the city at Penn Social. (I've never been to an expo at a bar) so it was easy to get to from a bunch of different metro lines. I got to the expo a little later on Saturday to pick up our packets, and while there was definitely a bit of a line, it wasn't bad when I was there. (I heard there were much longer lines earlier in the day.) They did run out of size small women's shirts though, which is annoying. If you register for a certain shirt size, you should be able to get that shirt size.

So yes, as with all inaugural races there were definitely some glitches, but overall, Emily had a fun time, and I was kind of bummed I didn't get to participate. If BL decides to bring the race back to DC next year, I would most likely sign up to run it. Although I'm hoping maybe they'll consider having it during a cooler time of year.

Last night's softball game was one hell of a barnburner.



We played one of the best teams in our division and the only legitimately good team we've faced all summer.

Instead of our normal blow out win, we squeaked by with a one-run victory, just enough to keep our undefeated season in check.



But man was it stressful, especially from my seat on the bench.

We had a ton of people show up last night, which was great for me and my injured foot. I popped some Aleve and I played three innings at catcher, a position that requires about zero running, and only got up to bat once, where I had a courtesy runner.



I was very happy to let other non-injured people play, but sitting on the bench in a close game stresses me out big time.

Our team was up 4-0 through the first two innings, and then the other team tacked on four runs of their own to tie things up.





They knocked out the bottom of our line-up 1-2-3 in the next inning, but we managed hold them, before adding on four more runs of our own in the bottom of the inning.





I started to feel a little better with our new four run lead.

But the other team managed to tack on another two runs that inning, then sit our players down 1-2-3 again, and then add another run in the top of the seventh.



With our lead slowly slipping away and the other team consistently loading the bases, I was more than a little tense sitting on the bench.

But our defense made two incredible relays in from the outfield to tag out runners at home plate and preserve our one-run lead.



The game ended with a final score of 8-7.

And we got to celebrate our best win of the season at the Tune Inn.



The beer always tastes a little bit better after a sweet victory.

A big thanks to Sarah for coming out and taking all the awesome pictures you see in this post!

I don't have a whole lot of exciting news on the workout front. My foot still hurts so I just haven't been able to do much. Though, I have been able to take the Metro to work again, which isn't really something to get excited about, except that it's way better than paying $21 per day to park my car downtown.



So while I can't really do traditional workouts, I've been spending time getting ready for my big move in August. I'm finally moving into my first "grown-up" apartment...aka an apartment that's all mine with no roommates. Alleluia!!! It will be my first time living without roommates since I was a freshman in college, and I am so beyond ready to have my own space!

It turns out that all the cleaning, purging and packing involved in getting ready to move is a workout in itself.

On Monday, I went through all the shared closest space and made many, many trips back and forth to the dumpsters. I also took apart an Ikea desk and lugged it down the steps so someone could pick it up and give it a new home.

Last night, I started the process of purging my t-shirt collection and workout clothes. It turns out that if you keep every race shirt in your seven plus year running history, you will have an insane amount of t-shirts to sort through. Same with my Terps shirts. (Seriously is it necessary to own like 20 different UMD shirts?)


Oh look, just another Terps shirt

I set most of the t-shirts aside and I think I'm going to have them made into a quilt or something. I can't bear to just get rid of them, but I don't want them cluttering up my dresser drawers anymore.

I have the same problem with workout clothes. I love buying new Under Armour gear, but when I buy new stuff, I don't really purge the old stuff. I've just sort of been shoving it to the bottom of the drawer. During last night's purge, I found stuff that was four or five years old that I probably haven't worn in as many years because it's been replaced with newer, more awesome stuff.

Needless to say, it all went into a giant pile to be donated to the closest Good Will or Salvation Army. It felt good to clear out so much excess stuff. Plus it's less stuff that I have to pack and move to the new place.

What do you do with your old race shirts?

So I think I casually slipped it into a previous post that I had slipped and fallen in the rain and hurt my foot a few weeks ago. (Turns out flip flops + rain are a bad combo).

The next two days after the fall were unbearably painful, and I spent the better part of last week on crutches. As a side note, crutches are the absolute worst, especially in humid, humid summer months. I swear last week I had pretty much sweat through my shirt by the time I made it across the street to my car. At least I was getting a workout?

I had a doctor's appointment for Wednesday to make sure it wasn't more than a bad sprain or something. The doctor checked it out, confirmed that I could move my ankle and all my toes and then sent me for X-rays.

I was sweating bullets waiting to get the results. It was just a little more than six months ago that I was in an air cast for six weeks because of a stress fracture. I didn't want to be repeating that whole nightmare.


Not broken!

When the doctor pulled up the X-rays maybe 10 minutes later and there was no break, I did a bit of a celebratory dance in the room.

The doc said it was most likely a bone bruise or a strained muscle or ligament in my foot. Either way, the prescription was the same. Rest. Ice. More rest. No high impact activity.

It's been more than a week now, and the swelling has most definitely gone down. I can fit my foot in a sneaker, but I'm still not walking normally. It's annoying and painful (though not nearly as bad as before), and I miss working out, though as my mom pointed out, at least I'm missing miserable running weather and not cool crisp fall days.

And in fun news, my softball team hooked me up with the most awesome jersey ever yesterday. Check out the number they surprised me with:

Surprise! This past weekend I snuck home to PA for some much needed family time and some much, much needed time away from DC.



Don't get me wrong, I love DC to pieces, but sometimes I need to get away from the rat race and the endless loads of bullcrap that come with living in a big city.

So on Wednesday morning, I made the spur of the moment decision to take Friday off, and flee the city for some sanity in PA.

My exodus from DC actually started on Thursday night when I fled the 4th of July insanity in the city and opted to watch the fireworks from a friend's rooftop deck in Baltimore instead.

[caption id="attachment_2901" align="alignnone" width="500"] Borrowed from a friend's FB page[/caption]

Baltimore isn't far from DC, but it's got an entirely different vibe, and it was beyond refreshing to be around a bunch of not superficial people who can actually have a real conversation that doesn't start with the immediate "so what do you do, who do you work for, just how high-powered is your job" crap that starts literally every conversation with a new person in DC. (By the end of this post, I'm sure all my DC pet peeves will be entirely clear.)

The party was fantastic, the after party was even better and by the time I finally collapsed into bed that night, I was fairly confident Thursday was the best day/night I'd had in a long, long time.

I hit the road Friday morning to head home to PA. Other than my mom and dad, I had told literally one person from home that I was making the surprise trip. I had every intention of laying low and doing nothing but spending time with my family.

I got to spend tons of time with my parents, watching Phillies games and my dad's delicious grilled dinner, and surprised the rest of my family when I showed up to my cousin's BBQ on Saturday. It was great to see my cousins and aunts and uncles and spend time catching up.

Going home this weekend was what I needed to get my feet back on the ground. I think being in DC makes it very easy to forget how people outside the city live and function. It's way too easy to get caught up in the rat race in DC, where things that aren't that important suddenly become insanely important (based on how the political winds are blowing) and the really important things in life get pushed aside.

Sometimes it takes escaping for a few days to remind me that there's more to life than my little insulated DC bubble. Being home in PA was just what the doctor ordered.

The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Mizuno.

For pretty much my entire running career, I've run in Mizunos. Those shoes have gotten me through 7+ years of running and a million races, including 3 marathons, 15+ half marathons and a ton of shorter races in between.


Just a sampling of my many, many pairs of Mizunos

I've had a chance to meet members of the Mizuno team and every time I talk to them, I'm so impressed with their dedication to customer service and drive to make a quality product that meets their runners' needs.

So when I was given the opportunity to try out Mizuno's newest shoe style, the not-yet-released Wave Sayonra, I jumped at the chance.



Mizuno's newest addition to the running shoe family is billed as a light-weight, every day training shoe.

The women's shoe is only 7.1 ounces and it sits nice and low to the ground.

I slipped the shoes on for their first test run last week, a quick and easy three miler to see how things felt.



The shoe felt light and fast, but it wasn't lacking in cushioning. This definitely isn't a minimalist shoe or a shoe I'd just save for my speed workouts. It'd be easier to ramp up distance in this shoe than in some other shoes just built for speed that leave out some of the extra padding.

But of course, since the shoe is being billed as a speedy shoe, I had to take it out for a test run during an interval workout. So last Friday, while storms were raging outside, I headed to the gym for some hard intervals.



My workout was three minutes on, two minutes recovery. Repeat six times. The shoes held up great. I was light on my feet and had nice quick foot turnover during the entire run.

So how do these compare to my beloved Wave Inspires?


Inspire on the left, Sayonara on the right.

They're definitely different, but the change wasn't too drastic. The biggest thing I noticed was that the upper part of the shoe on the Sayonara was a little stiffer than the top of the Inspire.

You can probably notice in the picture that the ventilation on the top is a little different too, and that the Inspires sit a little higher off the ground.

They obviously both come in fantastically bright colors though!

The Wave Sayonara will be released on July 5 for you to try it out for yourself!

If you're a Mizuno runner, what's your favorite Mizuno shoe?

Usually I'm all rah rah, it's a new day, go be awesome, but not today.

Today I'm more rockin' my inner grumpy cat:

[caption id="attachment_2892" align="alignnone" width="500"] Photo from Grumpy Cat's Facebook page[/caption]

This morning the parking garage attendant yelled at me, the handi-capped doors in my office wouldn't work and being on crutches is the freakin' worst.

(I slipped and fell in the rain the other day. My foot/ankle was the size of a baseball when I woke up the following morning. I've been RICE-ing like crazy, and the swelling has gone down some, but it's still really painful to put weight on so I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to make sure it's nothing more than a bad sprain/some bruising. Heaven help me if it's broken.)

So yea, today the inner grumpy cat is coming out more than usual.

 

So this weekend was fairly eventful. My little brother was in town visiting from Harrisburg, another friend was visiting from North Carolina and one of my good friend's had her housewarming party.

Let's start from the top shall we?

My brother got into town Friday night and I met up with him and his friends down on Capitol Hill. We hung out, caught up and talked about my brother's upcoming 25th birthday party, which is sure to be one heck of an event. We eventually rallied the troops to head out to some of the bars on U Street.


Jason, me (cheesin' like a fool) and my brother


The boys

We hung out for a few hours, and then my friend, Meghan, and I left to go meet up with my other friend from North Carolina. Unfortunately he was out with friends in Arlington, so a rather expensive cab ride later found us in Virginia grabbing food with friends at 1:30 a.m. Service was crap and we didn't get out of that place until after 3 in the morning. Not. OK.


Meghan and me in VA. Don't mind our devil eyes.

It was so far past my bedtime at that point, that I ended up crashing on my friend's sofa, and in true early riser fashion, I was wide awake at 8 a.m.

Luckily, I had plenty of time to nap later Saturday afternoon, before heading out to Annapolis for my friend Tracy's housewarming party.


You probably think this is the only picture I have of me and Tracy since I use it so often

A few months back, Tracy bought the world's cutest townhouse -- 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a kitchen that's spacious and makes me jealous -- and we all got together to celebrate her 30-year debt on Saturday evening.

It was a really great chance to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a long time (probably since football season or so).

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was exhausted,and glad to spend the day relaxing and hanging out at softball, where I did nothing more taxing than keep score.


Sunday softball makes me happy



All in all, I pretty awesome weekend with good friends!