My Debate With my Body
I must admit I am a bit stressed about my body’s ability to
keep up with the rest of me. I am
confident that I can do this journey.
But I am not confident I will be able to do it comfortably and with
great physical exuberance.
Every good story has a protagonist, and this story has my
right tibia. I ran a marathon last
October. I stopped biking last July and
devoted all workout time to preparing for the marathon. I rationalized that if I was in good enough
shape to run a marathon, I was in good enough shape to bike multiple miles a
day. I still think the logic works, but
I had a little curve ball thrown in.
Five weeks before the marathon I was out on a sixteen mile run. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine
and the perfect temp. I was feeling great; I was starting to really feel good
about my conditioning for the upcoming marathon. Twelve miles into the run I felt strange
sensations in my right leg – from my foot to the top of my shin. It would alternate between tingling, pain,
and numbness. I finished the run and
spent the next week not running while trying to ignore the symptoms.
The symptoms didn’t go away and I added significant swelling
to my list. After a week I made a visit
to a sports medicine physician.
Diagnosis – stress fracture in my right tibia. I discussed with the physician my intense
desire to still run the marathon and to my surprise she completely understood. She told me what to do and if I followed the
regimen I should be able to run the marathon.
But there was a risk – without taking the time to properly recover I may
refracture the tibia. I didn’t care – I
would take the risk – I wanted to run the marathon. So for the next three weeks I wore a walking
boot and worked out sporadically on an elliptical machine. With a week to go before the marathon, I took
off the walking boot and ran two to four miles a day. Not great preparation for a marathon but I
had built up enough of a base and I felt good – so I went for it.
For those of you who have run a marathon, you know the great
feeling: the excitement before the race, the fans encouraging you along the route,
the adrenaline. It was all wonderful - I
was having a great run, and I was loving every minute of it. All went well for twenty miles. Somewhere in the 21st mile cramps
hit hard in my right leg and those strange sensations came back to my shin. I finished the race – it was a bit ugly, but
I finished. Two days later, a diagnosis confirmed I had indeed refractured my
right tibia.
We got this Mark. It's not a race just a ride 🚵♀️
ReplyDeleteMark, enjoying your blog so far. Looking forward to sharing in your journey....a bucket list time for sure!
ReplyDelete