Feelin Groovy

My foot is still kicking my Arse! I have clearance to swim and do pool running. Let me tell ya, pool running is about as fun as going to the dentist. Okay, it's not quite that bad. But, it's not so great. I did purchase a waterproof case for my I-pod and sprang for the 2 day shipping. So, that will be here on Tuesday, and it should make the whole thing better.

I'll let you know how it works.

In the work world, I've had a great week. It started with a three day NYS TBI conference for all the clinical directors and Program Managers in the state. We were joined by our state director, three regional directors and the VP of clinical services in the northeast. The information covered during the conference was fantastic. I felt like it was the best, most productive conference I've been to in a long time. My colleague and I returned to our office with some great ideas for how to improve the quality of care that we offer. We met yesterday and developed our list of goals and our plans to address them.
This afternoon I forwarded the list to my office mates and our 4 supervisors who had organized the conference. Within 15 minutes, all 4 supervisors responded to the email with incredibly positive feedback. Within 30 minutes, the VP of the company had been sent the email, and responded to our office!
I'm so proud of this. In a national organization that provides health care services, it's pretty amazing to realize that we've put together some plans that are being recognized as "Stellar" by the VP. It was a great way to end the week!

Bookin Feet Part 2

A few weeks I wrote about Bookin Feet, the group I created for Girls, Inc. in town. I think it's time for an update.

We've been meeting weekly, and it's been awesome! We've been continuing to read "Sahara's Special" and the girls seem to enjoy it. The group can be as big as 7 girls on some weeks, but there are 4 girls that are there every time, and seem to really love running and reading. The fluctuation of attendance has made the reading a little difficult. The books stay at Girl's Inc for the week,so if some one misses a week, they've missed at least a chapter. I'd love to find a sponsor to purchase a book for each of the girls. Then, they could have it when we're done with the group.

They can now run .8 of a mile with out walking! Since we only meet once a week, I think that's pretty good. Many of the girls live in area's of the city that prohibit them from going out to play and run around safely. That means, they only get to exercise at school and during our sessions. As the weather is getting nicer, we'll be able to spend more time outside. That should help us improve our distances.

I love the enthusiasm these girls show. This past week it was raining, windy, and about 40 degrees out. As soon as I walked in the door, they were begging to go outside and run!So we did!Well, they ran. My foot is still broken, so I cheered them on, and kept time for them.

This week, I'm researching some area 5k's that are scheduled for around the end of our session. Next step, for me to contact a few of the races, and see if they will let the girls run for free. Wish me luck on that!

I've created a Facebook group. In the hopes of branching out and finding some people who might want to volunteer time, or purchase books, or help cover the cost of T-shirts for the race. Check it out and join!

Hey- it never hurts to dream!

Digging Deep

I've been spending time trying to pull some positives out of this forced time off from training. It hasn't been easy, and I'm not finding a lot of positives. But, I am learning some things about myself.
Here are a few of those things:
1. My lifestyle is pretty darned active.
In contrast, Most people my age are not as active as me. Therefore, they don't get why this is a big deal.
2. My kids are pretty darn active.
But,they are content to hang with me and watch a movie in the evening.
3. I have a hard time sitting down to watch a movie.
Even with my kids.
when I'm not injured, I never actually sit when a movie is on.
4. I like coaching/ working with preteen girls.
I've continued to work with the Girl's Inc group that I started. And, it's been great. The girls are fun, and like pushing themselves to run a little better every week.
5. I am not a patient person, when the patience is needed for myself.
I want my foot to be better. Non. I want to be running and biking. Now.
In contrast, I am very patient with the people I work with.
6. I think like a runner/biker.
When I'm driving, I am generally assessing my route in reference to what type of run/bike course it would be. I never really noticed this until now. Probably because it's coupled with the frustration of knowing that I can't run or bike.

That's it for now.
-Heidi

Answers for the Foot Mystery

Saturday I did a scheduled bike ride. It was a high intensity workout to get a sense of lactation thresh hold- meaning that the purpose of the workout was to go so hard that I wanted to hurl. It was awesome! I averaged 5mph faster than my normal workout- and maintained it for 30 minutes. By the time I finished, I could barely walk. My quads were screaming for a break.My knees ached. My feet throbbed. Even Jack and Mack thought I looked and smelled disgusting:)

I showered, and got dressed to go to my Great Uncle Pete's memorial service (More on that later) I popped a few ibuprofen and went on my way.

Then, later that night, I was sitting on the couch with the kids. I flexed my foot, and something snapped. It sent my foot into immediate muscle spasms, with swelling and a bruise. I iced it, took ibuprofen and elevated it right away. But, I ended up crying myself to sleep with the pain.
Sunday morning the pain and swelling were worse. I waited for urgent care to open, and headed over there for some Xrays. Those showed nothing. The Dr. thought I probably ruptured a tendon. So, she wrapped my foot, gave me crutches and a post-op shoe and instructions to follow up with Ortho.

I woke up this morning, and again the swelling and pain were worse. Despite the fact that my drill sarg...I mean really supportive husband made sure that I iced every 20 minutes, and didn't get off the couch all day.
I managed to get in to ortho this afternoon. This is one of the Dr's who consults with the NY Giants when they are in town for spring training. So, I know he's good. Before I even let him look at my foot, we talked about my lifestyle. I told him that it's important he understands that I'm not a 40 year old soccer mom, who's main goals are to wear cute shoes, and shop in the mall all day.
More xrays ensued. Then a diagnosis. Stress fracture with possible tendon damage. Now, I am in this lovely piece of DME:

I'm looking at 2 weeks in this beautiful piece of hardware. I can try swimming in a week, but nothing before that.When I looked frustrated by the news, the Dr said, "of course, if you want to change your personal goals, and just go shopping for some cute shoes, we can treat this much less conservatively."
He does not play fair!

I think the worst part about this, is that the bike ride I had that day was such a high. I got off the bike that day, knowing that if I could maintain that pace in a race, I'd be placing significantly higher in my races this year.

No foot injury is ever straight forward for me.

I've been having some pretty extreme foot pain for the past 3 weeks. Wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes, and if I touch the top of my foot in the right spots; Well, it's excruciating!

But, it doesn't hurt when I run. (Figure that out). So, I finally went to the Dr yesterday. Of course, he took one look at it and said, "hmmm. This is weird, and way out of my league. I'm sending you to a specialist." He sent me for some xrays to rule out an occult fracture...results still pending. Hopefully, I'll get in to see the Podiatrist this week.

In the meantime, my running volume is going to be cut way down.

Oh well, if it was straight forward, it wouldn't be my foot :)

BAnd on Tour...by bike!

Week in Review

First, I got 5 days of training in! That's the first time I've done that in a long time.
I hit 199 minutes of training. The goal was 318 minutes, so I'm still not close, but I'm okay with that, and I'll explain why in a little while. I did increase volume by 62 minutes from the previous week, which is significant.
I have 2 concerns when I look at the week. First, I didn't swim at all. It's not a huge deal in terms of the long term goal, but I should be getting in the pool at least once a week. Second, I experienced some sensitivity to touch on the top of my foot. It doesn't hurt to walk, run or bike. But, if even the sheets brushed over the top of my foot, I woke up in pain. And, the last time I did swim, the water pressure hurt during kicks. I'm hoping that it is related to some shoe issues, and will easily resolve itself.

Now, why aren't I worried about missing my training minute goals? 2 reasons. First, I made conscious decisions through out this week, to put my family first on several occasions. It's what I needed/wanted to do. So instead of scrambling to try to make up the missed minutes, I let them go. Second, I am loosely following a Beginner Triathlete 20 week plan for an Oly distance. But for the swim and run, that is over training for what I need.
My "A-list" race is the Northern Columbia Sprint Tri. However, this is not a traditional sprint distance race. The swim is a 1/4 mile. That's standard for a sprint. But the bike is 19.5 miles, which is closer to Oly distance. And the run... The run is a grueling 4.5 with about 3 of it all uphill. Last year, the run killed me!
So, given that the bike and run are in between sprint/Oly distances, there is no real training plan specific to me. If I chose a sprint distance training plan, I will be woefully under prepared. If I follow the oly plan, I have room to not make all my planned minutes each week.

What's up for this week?
3 runs totaling 11 miles. That should be about 110 minutes.
2 bikes, totaling 155 minutes.
1 swim, totaling 30 minutes.

That's it.
Peace.

Bookin' Feet

I've been keeping a secret.

Now I'm pretty sure my sister is jumping up and down, shouting, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!"

NO! That's not it.

I've been working on a project for a few months now, and it's finally up and running!

In my career, I often work with women who have really had a rough life. Many times, I've met a woman and realized that she has had so much trauma in her life, prior to her injury, that the recovery process is going to be long and difficult.It makes me angry. As I get to know these women, I realize that from the time they were little girls they've been belittled, put down, demoralized, and some times horrifically abused. That's a lot for any woman to get through. Now, add in all the cognitive and behavioral challenges that can occur with a brain injury, and the struggles can seem almost insurmountable. Often I think, "if some one had paid attention when she was a kid,Maybe she'd have a chance now." It's a thought that has haunted me for a long time. A feeling that we need to invest more energy on our children.

Then, back in the early summer, I started to develop an idea. A concept that combines two things I love. Two things that helped me get through tough times in my life. Reading and running. I started to try to figure out how I could work with young girls, combining those 2 activities, to help girls build their self esteem, find a voice, and increase their self confidence.

The idea: To meet weekly with a group of girls, in 4th through 6th grade. We would use a book with a strong girl as the main character. Each week, our time would be broken into 3 segments.
Warm up games/discussion focusing on a specific theme in the book.
Training- some running and walking. Focusing on getting stronger with the ultimate goal of running a 5K.
Cool down/discussion of how our lives are similar to the characters, or how the book relates to our life.

I met with a woman from the local chapter of "Girls Inc" last fall, and pitched my loosely formed idea to her. She loved it. And "Bookin'Feet" was born! I spent time scouring the library for books with girls as the main characters, who are strong in the face of adversity.

The program started 3 weeks ago at our local Girls' inc!

There are 8 girls in this pilot group. I chose the book "Saharra's Special" This week, we will use the book to talk about labels. We'll explore the idea of "Good/bad" labels. I want to expose them to a few concepts:
First, to challenge the idea of "Good and Bad" and suggest the ideas of healthy and unhealthy.
Second, I want to get them to begin to question if any label is actually healthy, or are they all detrimental on some level.
For the cool down, I will ask them about labels other people have put on them, and labels they put on themselves. Is there a difference between the 2 lists? And, how do the labels affect their behaviors and what people expect of them.

I'm so excited to be developing this program. My hope is that we can find a volunteer to expand the program to the Schenectady branch next year.

I have to add a special thanks to my daughter, Shayna. She has been my sounding board through out the planning phase of this project. She's helped me brainstorm for a name, and has listened to my curriculum ideas. She's been supportive and enthusiastic, and has kept me going. Thanks Shay!!

Training Woes

Man, I've been struggling with getting all my workouts in!
Last week, I was scheduled to do 2 bikes, 3 runs and 2 swims. For a total of 288 minutes of training.
I managed:
2 runs, 1 bike and 1 swim. for a total of 137 minutes. OUCH! Geez Louise- that's not good. So, I took a look at what happened, and here is what I discovered:
1.In the training plan I'm following, Sunday is a long day, with a bike and a swim. I missed both last week.
2. The long swim was scheduled to be 40 minutes. There's no way I can do 40 minutes of swimming right now. I'm just not there.
3. I missed a run. No excuses- I just didn't commit to it.

This is what I'm thinking:
1.I'm following an oly plan right now. But, this might not be the year to tackle that. I might have to drop back to sprint training, because of time commitments and constraints.
2.If I do follow through with the Oly training, I will have to accept that I will always be under the scheduled training minutes, because of the swim issue.
3. Unlike most people, the weekends don't work for my long training sessions. Kevin is much too busy on the weekends, and I just cant fit in a 2 hour training session.
4. Even though I only did 137 minutes last week, it's still more than I've done in the past month. So, from a perspective of injury prevention, jumping to 288 minutes last week would have been foolish.
5. Not related to tri training- but it looks like the 1/2 mary I heard was going to be organized for April, isn't going to happen. So, that makes things a bit easier.

I'll see how this week goes, and if I can identify other trends, then make a decision about how to proceed. And, Once Kevin gets settled into the new band, life should get easier.