Training Log Archive: AliC

Run around the block. Less ankle feeling weird than last week, so that's good. Has turned to fall here in Portland, rainy, windy, but not that cold.

My cold seems to be on the retreat, woo!

Hammie exercises on exercise ball at 8s and pushups at 6 real/14 knees. 3 sets of each.

And then I got a bad cold. So now trying to also recover from that, such a major blah! But ankle was mostly ok in Zumba, which is great news. However, no hoping on one foot yet, that was too much. Throat is still sore from cold.

Pilates. Nice to get back to!

I think it's ok to try running. Ankle isn't having any sharp pain in everyday getting around anymore, which is pretty great. Also can do much more extensive ankle circles than I could about a week ago. I'd say ankle circles are at 1/2 full radius, as opposed to <1/4 a week ago.

And the break of ankle? Based on what bones were reported to be involved in the X-ray, what they called a fracture is more likely from a past injury, when I bashed my ankle bones together during my awesome relay leg in WOC Switzerland. There's extra bone growth there, which makes sense given a lot of things. So operating under the tentative hypothesis that there was no new fracture in my ankle with this sprain, just a pretty awful sprain.

C • X-rays ... 3

Core.

Hmph. They replaced my really old oil furnace with a gas one over the summer, but it doesn't seem to want to turn on. Back to the electric heater for a smidge...

Pushups - 3 x 5 real, 15 on knees

Heard all about the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P from Joel Parker (SWRI) at Toledo's colloquium in the evening. Most notable things:

1) Rosetta had the largest area of solar panels of any spacecraft to date.
2) Rosetta was picked up as a dangerous near-Earth object on one of it's flybys of Earth, boosting out to Comet 67P.
3) All those crater-looking things on the comet aren't actually craters, they are sinkholes as volatiles underneath the surface evaporate and surface caves in.
4) Deuterium to hydrogen ratio is very different than the other 2 Jupiter-family comets that have been characterized. Soooo - not uniform origin for these comets? (Hypothesis has been they all came from Kuiper belt.)

C • Rosetta 1

Core at AirBnB in Toledo while Tom ran.

3 x 15 on-knees pushups after a whirlwind day of seeing people at UToledo.

Followed by catching up with Liz at the Attic.

The plan. What am I doing? Kinda feel at a loss from having a really distinct goal (run my first marathon!) to being injured and without any sure thing to be training for.

But that's actually ok, it means I have nothing to rush the healing of this ankle for. It's feeling better without running on it like I tried last week, and really it's got to be healing. But it is slow and I'm sure will be very weak for quite some time after 4-6 weeks of essentially no running.

To try to not go completely insane, I'm going to alternate core and push-up workouts for this week, while I'm traveling. Then next week, I'll start swimming at the Reed pool (with leg buoy, if ankle flexion is painful still). Hopefully I can then start biking without pain + swelling afterwards and later on, to running. Main goal of the immediate future is just to stay happy by getting some endorphins in and let this silly ankle heal!!

Will fixate on some other competitive goal when it seems appropriate.

C • Remember water jogging. Did... 4

Ok, not happy. Just got a *letter* in the mail that says:

"Your ankle xrays shows the possibility of a small fracture; the foot doctor will discuss with you further."

But, in appointment on Monday, foot doctor *did not* discuss with me further. And now I'm flying to Michigan/Ohio for the week.

Will try calling foot doc tomorrow... Seriously, do they not have my phone number? Is there some patient confidentiality thing that says you mail letters to people when they may have broken bones as opposed to calling them up? Pretty sure I got my Lyme test results over the phone. Not cool.

C • maybe they tried to fax it first 1

Hah, some activity! Elliptical again, but for 30 minutes this time, watch out.

Went to ankle doc today, and no bone issues, woo! And only seems the one ligament with issues, not the middle or back ones. So that's all good news. She recommends PT. The question is if I have enough time for PT at an actual office or whether I can do enough on my own since time is soooo limited...

Joint feels slightly swollen after this workout, but no ligament pain either during or after.

C • Ankle healing 2

Walked around the Wedding-O at Melissa and Cristina's Awesome wedding. Lovely little map and course (thanks Ed!) and just fun to be outside in wonderful New England fall weather. No sharp pains in ankle for the duration, some dull pain once in awhile. Swelling is a lot down and have been keeping an Ace bandage on. I think now I should be able to bike without issues this week.

Pilates, being very careful with the ankle. Mean I had to skip somethings or modify (push ups on knees and such), but good to just be a little bit active, nearly going insane!

Core at home.

3rd law of thermodynamics day. Short statement: T=0K is the twilight zone. Entropy stops decreasing, which means that no system can ever (read: in finite time) be motivated to actually *get* to T=0K. So that's cool.

But there is debate, it seems about whether S -> 0 as T -> or if just S -> C where C is greater than or equal to zero. From a stat mech standpoint, it depends if the ground state is degenerate or not. Apparently it is in systems known as spin glasses, but I don't yet know much about them...

Ankle was swollen past two nights, so taking it easy again and hoping for more recovery. C'mon body, HEAL!

C • healing 13

Cheering/spectating ride! Woke up at 6:15 am, break fast and hopped on my bike in the gloaming to go cheer on the Reedies who were racing the half or full. Staked out my spot where the half and full haven't yet diverged and I could see them both coming and going on a dogleg out in the industrial district.

It's awesome making people happy by just cheering. And what tickled me - the woman winning the half was the same as beat me in it last year. And she recognized me and asked why I wasn't there, pointing by her side. Gave her the honest response of an injury. Til next year. Showdown. =)

C • aw - that's cool :) 2

Soo, without the marathon on my plate for the weekend, free to get in a long bike ride! Did 2 x my Happy Valley loop.

Luckily my clip-out foot is my left, so the good ankle. So the right ankle just pretty much stayed in the same position for the whole ride. Didn't hurt when standing for hills, but did with sudden jostles on uneven pavement downhills. Confirmation that not running tomorrow was the right choice.

And the decision: I won't marathon. Definitely bummed, but the idea of doing more damage to the ankle is too scary. It still hurts with any little jostle just walking around, therefore it's pretty clear that running 26 miles on Sunday, while possible, is just a bad idea.

Thanks for the healing up wishes and advice. I wish there were another marathon that fit well in my schedule, but travel plans for the next few weekends are going to prevent another marathon for right now. Until the future sometime!

C • Bummer 13

Elliptical. So dull. Hard to even stay 20 minutes. Watching silent news of Umpqua shooting, not uplifting.

After, jotted down to Salem to give a talk at Willamette University. First trip to OR state capital too. Warm welcome and people seemed to like the talk.

C • Boring 7