Injuries Suck. The end.

I tried to come up with a clever or inspirational quote about overcoming adversity, blah, blah, blah, but the honest truth is that injuries just plain suck!

My training for the 70.3 World Championships had been going perfectly and coming off a win at Vineman, I had high expectations for Worlds. My coach had come up with a great running plan to prepare for the suffer-fest of a run course that is Vegas. We built up slowly, did everything right but after a weekend of what I thought was great training I awoke with pain in both heels. I figured it was inflammation due to all of the downhill running so I didn’t panic. I acted conservatively and took a few days off from running and did lots of icing and stretching. I would soon find out this wasn’t an easy fix and I had done quite a number on myself. It all stems from some biomechanical issues that I have been trying correct (with the help of everyone at Altus Sports Institute). My mindset quickly had to shift from trying to heal fast enough to get some running in before the race, to trying to be healthy and pain-free to even consider racing.

This past Saturday was my first attempt at running. It was supposed to be an easy 30 mins off the bike. Everyone was confident that it would go well (including myself). My run lasted 1:30 (as in 1 minute and 30 secs) before the pain stopped me in my tracks. I was devastated, pissed off, and just plain sad. If I couldn’t run 30 mins today how would I run a really difficult run course in one week? The pity party continued into the long weekend and I stopped stretching, etc. and basically just ignored my lame foot. And then something interesting happened-it started feeling better! After 3 days of just leaving it alone I saw massive improvements. A diagnostic ultrasound on Tuesday showed that nothing was torn and the culprit was a stupid bursa sac sitting in my heel.  This was the best news I had heard in weeks. This meant we could “fix” it and I could run.  

This morning I did an easy 30-minute run and even though it wasn’t totally pain-free it was something. I followed this up with my acupuncture treatment (which has been amazing) and I am feeling good. Tomorrow I will have an injection of Traumeel into the bursa sac and that should knock out the rest of the pain. Fingers crossed. That still means my first potentially pain-free run won't be until Saturday (the day before the race). I am hoping I can make up for my lack of training with heart and determination! I've worked too hard to not fight til the finish!