Week 35

Week 1 of Swim with Jill has come to a close, as does week 35 of the year. I'm sure you're chomping at the bit to find out how the swimming went this week.


Ok, here we go.... Here's Tara at our weekly Wednesday swim session. Isn't she just cute as a button? Notice our kickboards? My goggles? My swim cap? And that dumb weight thingie I have been using as a pull bouy because I lost my real pull bouy. Low and behold, after searching the entire house and garage 15 times over in the past two weeks, I found it today in my laundry room in the food pantry. Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery - let's not forget my plentiful A.D.D. moments I used to share....yea, they still occur, I didn't miraculously get a new brain, believe it or not. No Wizard from the land of Oz gave me one from his Little basket. Anyhoo, notice how vacant the pool is? Um, it's NEVER that empty when Tara and I go swim - this Wednesday was a total fluke of emptiness. Usually we're sharing with Snorkel Man, Tattoo Man, Ms Tri Woman, Mr. Olympian, and tons of others less fortunate names which I'd better not mention here with my outside voice. Tara and I just do that - give everyone a name, cuz we're pathetic like that. It didn't take long before the pool filled and Tara and I were sharing a lane again, but for a few brief laps, we were totally ruling that pool!

Usually, Tara and I talk more than we swim. I mean, we have lots of blog catching up to do in the week we were apart. And kids. And husband. And marathons. And current ailments. Oh, plenty of marathon talking!!! But since I'm now Swim With Jill it was time to buckle up and get 'er done - no more lollygagging for an hour at the pool barely swimming! We're going to swim, dammit!! We made the pact to only talk the first few minutes before we get in that frigid water, while we swim kickboard laps, and a few minutes after when we dip in the hot tub to warm up (man that pool is cold!!). I cleverly incorporate some wall pushups after our kickboard laps because we couldn't squeeze in all we had to talk about. Our arms are going to be so dang cut one of these days!!

So all in all, Wednesday was a much better day swimming than my normal Wednesday session. "Better" meaning we swam more than we talked. Go us!! Tara got her foot stuck in the "hole" along the side of the pool (the little hole where the filter is); we both had foot cramps; my goggles fogged up; Tara's goggles leaked (yay, my new blackish ones do NOT leak - major victory...now if I could get them to not fog!!); and my swim suit got a bubble in it and was causing us to laugh hysterically at my size DDs. Other than that, we swam! I vowed I would not leave until I had a mile in the pool. Took awhile with all our little "issues" and many kickboard laps so we could chat, but by golly, I got it done. 1 mile at the pool on Wednesday.

And that's all she wrote for the pool this week. Unless I can count today when I went to the gym, did a boat load of weights then went to change into my swim suit after I realized I forget my swim suit? I dug through my gym bag 3 times and nope, not in the bag. I told you A.D.D was still in full-force.

Ok, so week one of Swim With Jill didn't go so swell. But I have OTHER good news....

Thursday at work, I was sitting there with my knee just irritating the hell out of me. Frustrated. Wondering seriously if knitting was going to be it for the rest of my life and suddenly, I see the Athletic Trainer at our school walk by my office. HOLY CRAP!! Why I didn't think of her earlier is beyond me (Hello A.D.D.) - I mean, she's also a physical therapist and an incredible athlete. I rushed out of my office and asked her if I could pick her brain for a few minutes about my ailments. Here's what her educated guess thought, but mind you, this is just a guess and she stressed that eventually when my insurance worked out (No progress. I'm certain the receptionist at the dr. office dropped the ball. Again. I'm not even going to go there right now) I needed to get an x-ray or MRI but this was her best guess after giving her my total history. Heel: Thinks it is not a fracture but either very bad Plantar Faciitis or a bone spur. She suspects a bone spur and she recommended that if it IS that, to not dink around with it and go get it snipped off or it could come to haunt me for years. If PF then I can do a lot of exercises to help it but that the dr would have more advice on this. Knee: This is a new one for me, but she suspects it's Plica Band Syndrome. WTH is Plica Band, you ask? Um, me too! I've run for the majority of my life and I coach cross country kiddos and I have never heard of Plica Band. Here's a little link for those who have tons of time to waste and want to learn more: http://www.eorthopod.com/content/plica-syndrome. Nevertheless, she was pressing on my knee for like 5 minutes and every time I winched, it was on the very outside midway up of the kneecap. She massaged it awhile and then told me to come to the training room after work and she's deep tissue ultrasound it awhile. So I did. It didn't feel any better but she told me it may just take time and to just keep coming in for some untrasounding. Ok. She also told me that running on it probably wasn't going to exacerbate the thing and to just run when I felt better. It wasn't going to feel better until it was healed but it was just strained and would be until it felt better, no matter what I did.

The Plica Band was, again, just an educated guess by her, but I spent well over 30 minutes researching the dang Plica Band and I'm here for you souls out there if you're ever diagnosed with this - I know all there is to know about it now :). Anyway.... my A.D.D. selective hearing ONLY heard "You can still run and not do any further damage...." and I took that literally and that very day after my wt training class, I popped on my treadmill and ran 3.5 miles. The knee (aka: Plica Band. Aka: PB...not to be confused with peanut butter) hurt and I laid in bed all night worried to death that I did further damage to it.

Argh!!!!

But guess what??!!! I woke up Friday morning and I could walk. Walk PAIN-FREE!!! I weight trained and ran on it the night before and it hurt the entire time and I wake up the next day and I had no piercing pain stabbing me on the side of my knee when I walked!!! Not that I'm complaining...but I was totally baffled. All day at work, I walked cautiously, trying not to turn suddenly or twist it sideways, or bend it unless absolute necessary. I took Friday off from all exercise (I promise I was going to go swimming, but I was so baby-sitting that knee, I didn't want it to start swearing at me if I tweaked it kicking dumb laps in the pool. A very valid excuse if I've ever heard one!). Saturday

Saturday, with temps in the 40's when I took a little knee test run over at the state park near where I live, a place which is a staple in my regular running routine. I kept the pace at an ungodly average of 10:14 (omg!!!) so I'd keep my HR down ... but my HR was still up (158). I'll blame it on the hilly trails I was on. And the wind. And the fact I'm not really in shape. And a slew of other excuses. I cranked out 8.88 miles and stopped only when the knee was starting to feel "weird." Took the ole ice bath when I got home (oh ice bath how I've missed you!) and had no problems with it later.

I'm being cautiously optimistic but so far so good. Keep the fingers crossed. Now, if we could just get this heel to behave...but after 8 months of this mess, it's a constant and I'm just going to have to deal with it. With my whopping 14 miles for the week, it seems to be happy - that always changes with mileage so we'll see.

I'll continue on with my swimming and to see if I can get up to at least 2x/week (how can I pass up Snorkel Man weekly??) and my weight training, which I'm starting to actually love (did I just say that??!!) but I'm also going to try to pick up the running mileage slightly and see what we can see. I feel like it's the right time to make a move. So hang on...who knows where this little ride will land us next week!! Just as long as it's not knitting!

On another note, I used to report weekly along with a 5-things gratitude list but sort of got out of that routine when I was in a total slump. So here we go, let's see how long I can keep it up. If nothing else, at least it takes the weekly guess work out of a blog title.

Week 35:
Running: 14.18 miles
Total 2010 miles: 1196.2
Weekly pounds down: .2 (that's actually good, considering all)
Swim: 1 mile
Wt train: 3 times
HCC: 3

5 Things Gratitude:
- No Knee Pain (I did not just jinx that since I confessed my gratitude for it. That's a written law, you know)
- The weather is cooling down and night time sleeping is heaven!
- Ryan ran a 22:04 in his cross country meet Thursday - a 2 minute PR. Woohooo!
- It's Candy Corn season!! You might not think that's a good thing, but trust me, it is!
- The college daughter starts back to school today - YES! Now she'll be "busy"!!!