I may have just set a PR for longest time away from my blog. And it's not a good PR. Life has been rather hectic lately, so I will give the highlights of my last two months.
Leg Wounds
In mid-August, I scraped my leg on a moving box shortly before my long run. It hurt briefly but I quickly forgot about it. On my run, lost my HOVER Air self-flying camera in thick brush near a trail. I tried to
retrieve it, but quickly realized it would not be possible after stepping into the brush. The next day, I noticed a dark scab on my lower right calf. I figured it was from scraping my leg on the box.
12 days later, the scab began to puff up and get red. It started to slightly throb. I wondered if it was infected. The next day, it was much larger with yellow pus. I went to urgent care and started taking a mild antibiotic. Over the weekend the wound got bigger and redder and new areas of redness showed up. By Monday, I had four areas of concern and I was back in urgent care. I was given a stronger antibiotic. The doctor assumed it was a staph infection.
Two days later I had a biopsy at the dermatologist. They suspected it might be a reaction from a poisonous plant or an insect bite. So we had two theories: scraped on a box and got infected OR contact with poisonous plant or insect. I had to take three days off from running because the leg kept oozing pus and I wanted all my body's resources to go towards healing. These wounds were not painful or itchy. They felt tingly here and there but that was it. Maybe a 1 out of 10 on the pain scale.
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| Day 1 through Day 18 |
dermatologists, doctors, nurses, and people with personal experiences. Everyone had an opinion! I resumed running, using compressive bandages to keep the wound covered and prevent pus from dripping everywhere. I bought these bandages in multiple colors, matched them to my outfit, and they became an instant fashion statement.
It took over a week to get the results of the biopsy and everything came back negative. No infection. No autoimmune disorder. They said it was most likely contact dermatitis, which is an allergic reaction to a plant. But it seems suspect to me that it would take 12 days after walking in the brush to appear. I had that scab for nearly two weeks and it acted like a normal scab!
Finally, after about two weeks, the wounds started getting smaller.
Paris
I did my last long run for the marathon on Friday, October 17 and then I flew to Paris on Sunday the 19th. The company I worked for is based in France, and this is the second time they have sent me to Paris. I had some meetings with colleagues and a full-day forum with marketing leaders from other companies that
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| Eiffel Tower Track |
were backed by the same private equity firm as my company. I was even asked to present my company's global marketing strategy, which was a great career opportunity.
From a running perspective I was successfully able to flee from the Louvre after obtaining some jewelry running around the picturesque exterior. I also ran on a track that sits right next to the Eiffel Tower. I was only able to fit two runs in during my trip, but I was fine with that because my taper had begun. I didn't fully adjust to the Paris time zone. I think my body landed somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. I was there for five days, so it wasn't long enough to fully adjust, but it was too long to try and stay on my natural body clock.
On the flight home, I was paranoid about getting sick. The person in the seat next to me was coughing up a storm and ordering hot tea. I wore TWO masks, headphones, glasses, and my fleece hoodie for the entire flight. I had trained so hard and I was in the best shape of my life. I couldn't afford to get sick like I did last summer during my European vacation.
Calf
I was relieved to be home from Paris feeling strong and healthy. With just two weeks until race day, my top priority was not getting sick and recovering from all those weeks of hard training. I decided not to push it my first day home and I ran five miles at my easy pace. Everything felt good. I even added in some strides at the end to shake the legs out.
The next day, Sunday, I went out for a 16-miler. Typically I run 16-18 miles two weeks out from marathon day. I woke up feeling groggy and jet lagged, but after walking around my house for an hour, I felt normal. I started running, and within the first mile, I noticed some tightness in my left calf. I didn't think much of it. I stopped briefly to stretch it but that didn't seem to help. I continued running and stopped at a Whole Foods to use the restroom. I noticed that my calf was tight and sore, but it didn't seem to be anything major. I did, however, decide to turn around and head home just in case it worsened. And of course, it did worsen. Instead of calling Greg to pick me up, I figured I could run 4 miles home on it because it didn't really hurt.
I arrived home and BAM - I knew something was wrong beyond tightness. I was shocked. After having such a strong training cycle with ZERO aches or pains, this calf issue comes out of nowhere - AFTER having a very low mileage week in Paris. Apparently when you do a long run streak, your body gets used to the daily pounding. And if you get out of that daily rhythm, the tissues settle. I should have done more of a warm up, apparently. Maybe this is just what happens as you get older. After all, I am almost 47 years old. I firmly believe that if I had just trained normally without the Paris training gap then this would not have happened. But it's actually impossible to know. An 8-hour flight can also cause tightness.
I saw my physical therapist the following Tuesday and he said it was probably a mild strain, but that it would probably be fine for race day. I stopped running entirely except for Thursday when I did an 8-minute treadmill test, and Friday when I tested it again with 2 miles. Neither of those tests were probably a good idea, but I felt 100% walking around, so I wanted to see how running felt. I shut it down completely on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I had dry needling done on Monday and that worked wonders. Today I tested it on an anti-gravity treadmill and I didn't have any pain. I ran at 80% of my body weight, with the machine removing 20% of the load.
My physical therapist also tested for strength and I have 100% of my strength. He told me that I was cleared to run the marathon. He couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be an issue, but he was confident that that it wouldn't flare up.
Eyes
In the midst of all of this, I have been having vision problems. When I am wearing my contacts, I see blurry spots on my iPhone screen and computer screen. I went to the eye doctor who told me that my astigmatism has worsened and I will need new prescription. But he wants me to wait four weeks to see if eye drops help and to ensure that the prescription stabilizes. Thankfully this has not impacted my running.
That was my long overdue update. I plan to blog again after my marathon on Saturday!
