Let me know if this hurts.

Flex your toes for me. Does it hurt when you flex your toes?
No.

Does it hurt when I push here?
No.

How about here?
mmmm, no.

Anything?
No.

Here?
Nothing.

What about here? (He pressed on my leg toward the inside, about 3 inches up from my ankle)
OWOWOWOWOWOWOW!

Okay, well let's just get that x-ray. Meanwhile, you know the rule: If it hurts, don't do it for a few weeks.
How much is "a few?"

What have you got in mind?
I'm signed up to do a 50 k trail run in 3 weeks.

Hmm. Well, let's just see what the x-rays say, okay? Meanwhile, I think you're right not to do anymore long distance running on pavement. And hey, you can still bicycle!

Oh YAY.

...

Fun with Athletes

Since I couldn't do the Elephant man I decided to redeux the aid station with DreadPirate and her people, Courtney, Steve and Orlando. We didn't get the best spot, but it didn't matter, because we offered what the other aid stations didn't offer:

GELS. MUSIC. ICE-COLD SPONGES. DANCING GIRLS.

They just offered water and gatorade. >Smirks<

They just offered people standing around, cheering.
>Snorts<

We were situated at mile 1 and 5 of the out-and-back 6 mile run, and played loud happy music, handed out gels and said ice-cold sponges, purchased with team funds, along with the water and gatorade provided by the RD.

And so it was that I learned the following about my fellow athletes:

1) On a long, hot run they really appreciated happy music, especially the reggae. The loud heavy metal, not so much. Music that made people smile also included Aretha Franklin, Hey Go, Lots of stuff by Black-eyed Peas, Elvis, Bob Marley, and some others. The key was happy, with a strong beat.

2) Some of the athletes really appreciated if I danced and flirted with them to the beat of the music while offering gels. They smiled on this difficult, extremely hilly course, and looked slightly less miserable, and danced and flirted back. Especially, for some mysterious reason, the guys. Go figure.

3) A small percentage took the caffeinated gels, but it was a very grateful number that did. I stood there and yelled, "I HAVE CAFFEINE!" and they veered to me like I was magnetic.

4) The iced-cold sponges, when offered by adorable twin DP's People, were a HUGE hit.

5) Whatever it is you're giving out, you need to yell what you've got. People zone out too much to focus on what's in your hand and process whether or not they need/want it. You just shout, "I'VE GOT GELS!" and thrust it at them. Sometimes they grab it. Sometimes they don't.

6) DreadPirate is, quite often, unconscionably bossy.

Now, I'm ashamed to admit that I did break USAT rules in that I provided a service to one athlete in particular; I let him grab my butt as he went by. Since this is not something I would normally provide to other athletes, I believe it constitutes a violation of USAT rules for "outside assistance". Should he be disqualified? Only the newest assistant ref can answer that question for me...

Anyway, it's a blast, and I've decided that this is what i'm going to do each year at this race. It will be the easiest first place I've ever gotten.

Oh, and to add an addendum to Baboo's post: not only did he race in $25 shoes from WalMart, but his breakfast was poptarts and my patented cheap energy drink: Swiss Miss "Pick Me Up" with caffeine mixed with hotel drip coffee.

Who says you need a lot of money to race? Er, other than the $6k tri-bike, I mean...

...

Planning and thinking out loud.

work: Still waiting for my federal background clearance to go through. So, meanwhile, I'll be doing intake interviews at the counseling center, and working on a parenting skills class that I'll teach one evening a week. I still have a couple clients that I'll see in the evenings.

I'm getting pretty excited about working at the same place as Baboo. We did a practice run of commuting by bike to work from our gym, and it was a little over an ahour for me at a very leisurely pace. Lots of uphills. Baboo can pull it off in about 50 minutes.

home: still working on the surprise for Baboo. More on this later. We continue to hemmorhage money as flyers for senior photos, dance tickets, and senior announcements come home.

training: Following some orthapedic advice commonly given to athletes recovering from an injury: If it hurts, don't do it. I'll kill two birds with one stone by getting up early (I've been sleeping as late as 6:30 am on some days) and attending spin classes at 5:30 am 3 days a week, followed by lifting and swimming. Ride in to the counseling center 2 days. May do some stair-stepping, too. (Uphills don't hurt, just downhills) All this is designed to keep up my cardio fitness while I recover.

Next planned run: Wednesday, October 15th. TRAILS ONLY from now on.

...

Bagging another race. >Sigh<

Timeline of events for my lower left leg:

August 24th: I ran several miles down a (paved) steep incline from the La Luz trailhead and felt the first whisperings of someting going on near my left ankle. Not a pain, really. Kind of a nerve twinge. Week of August25th: Tapering. Two short runs, one of which was intervals. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Rest some more.

August 31st: New Mexico marathon. After running six miles down Tramway Blvd. at a pretty moderate pace, my left lower leg hurt like hell, on the outside, down near the ankle. Went away pretty soon after I finished. Week of September 1st: recovery, and I noticed a faint twinge up above my ankle from time to time. It was like a sudden weakness where I felt like it might give out, more than it was pain. Otherwise, feels pretty good.

September 6th: I decide to bag the Cotton Country Sprint.

September 12, 13: I have three good legs at the Colorado Relay. After the last leg, though, where I descend 900 paved feet in 3 miles, the leg is not happy. Aching, hurting. The pain is wrapping itself around to the front now. Week of September 15th: Resting, no running.

September 21: Trail run on La Luz. New shoes. Leg feels great and stops hurting. I gain a false sense of security.

September 24th: A hard run on pavement and sidewalk over 5 miles of hills in Rio Rancho. Pain. Lots of pain. The last half is nearly impossible to run. For the rest of the week, pain when walking, even, although it's much less. Running is next to impossible. I note, after some experimenting, that the pain comes when I'm flexing my foot, not merely from putting weight on it, so I'm about 99% sure it's not a stress fracture. I think I have a seriously pissed-off tendon.

See the pattern? i sure do. NO MORE DOWNHILL RUNNING ON PAVEMENT!!

September 27th: I bag the Elf Butt Oly, and make an appointment with my doc. And hope the xrays are negative. And try not to eat too much, because I'll only be cycling and goodness knows how much I LOVE cycling, she said in a sarcastic tone and swimming for the next 3.5 weeks, along with icing and compressing. The plan is to see the doc on Monday and follow up in 2 weeks with a cortisone shot if I need it. I mutter my favorite curse-word phrase: Sh**!PI**!FU**!DA**!!!!!!

Next up on the calendar: the 50k at Palo Duro on October 18th, at which point I will no longer be running on roads. Trails only!

...

Ewwww.

It was SUCH a grand idea: One last swim to say goodbye to summer, out at Cochiti. The three of us, Cindy, Courtney and myself piling into my Fit, heading up the highway, laughing and carefree.

We drove the 40+ miles and then parked at Cochiti. It was a beautiful morning, and we laughed and joked and then headed down the beach, kicked off our shoes, tossed our towels town, and then headed into the green shoreline.

You read correctly.

There had been a major algae bloom, and the water was full of algae, so full that it ran in virulent green streaks through the water. Some of the individual algae plants clumped together; as you lifted the clumps, they fell apart and some of them stuck to your hand while the rest slid off. Mmmmm.
The rocks under our feet were slippery. Green bits floated throughout. In water up to our knees, we could just make out our feet through the green haze.

We waded out to about chest deep, eventually, to see if the water was clearer away from the shore. It wasn't. We watched, unbelieving, as Courtney ran out and then dove through and swam about 200 meters out in the green water.

"Let's just think of it as a spa," I said, running my hand through the green water. "A redneck spa. People pay money to plaster this stuff on their skin, you know. Facial masks. Hair masks."

"I'm not putting my face in this stuff," Cindy retorted.

We watched Courtney swim some more.

"I wonder if this is the stuff that people eat," I said. "You know, like chlorella." We stood around, and watched Courtney splash and swim some more way, way out in the lake. Wondered out loud if the stuff was harmful. Waved our arms and hands through the water some more. Watched the green clumps slide off our skin.

We waved to Courtney. She waved back. Then we agreed that, 40 miles or not, we just weren't going out in this muck.

Oh, well.

Goodbye, summer.

...

Grumbling.

Well, I just don't know what to think about my leg. After last weeks' nearly 8-mile uphill trail run, it felt great, and after Wednesday's almost 5-mile road run, it felt like hell. I've come to the conclusion that
1) Maybe the trail running was good for it, but the road running (actually 2 miles of it was on cement sidewalk) was bad for it, or
2) It has become self aware (the pain) and It is letting me know who's boss, or
3) I'm cursed.

Either way I'm impatient or depressed at any given time because I can't run. Also, my eyes are itching like crazy; what's THAT all about??

Other than the pain, the run to the pool was okay. Nice pool. But, they don't offer towels, shampoo, and conditioner, like my club does, so i had to carry items in a small backpack. I'm going to stick to running from the gym out to the bosque and back, and then swimming.

But back to the running. So, this weekend, I will be doing the Elephant Butte Olympic Triathlon, affectionately known around here by locals as the Elf Butt, and CLEARLY, I will be very slow. I may end up walking the 10K "run". We'll see.

Meanwhile, it's the most beautiful time of year for running, and my left leg won't let me. Stupid left leg.

...

Ready for my Closeup, Mr. Deville.

Actually, what I am ready for, is to go back to work.

I'm just not very good at being idle. I haven't taken on any new clients at the counseling center because of the new job at the VA, and so I have a small number I'm seeing each week. There only so much I can do before I just get bored doing it.

I'm just not used to being off work. The last time I was off work and without an income was in 1990 to early 1991, for about 15 months. We had an agreement that I would stay home, and I was pregnant with my youngest. By the time he was born, though, I thought I'd go out of my mind, and 4 months later I was in college and working part-time. Other than that, and this current part-time employment, I've had an income since I was 15 years old.

It's not that I'm not enjoying it; I am. It's just that I'm not used to being home, and so I'm not industrious in all the ways that full-time housewives are. I haven't worked out a system. I still have it in my head that I'm just on vacation, and so I waste time with all manner of nonsense: facebook, Scrubs' reruns, and email take up a lot of time. If I were off more of the time, I'd probably establish some sort of routine that was efficient and allowed me to do all manner of useful things. As it is, I'm just plain idle. I'm waiting for the VA to complete a background check on me so that I can be allowed to work there.

So, for the next couple weeks I'm going to make a list of project to work on and get finished. I'm hoping the ones I have in mind will be especially happy-making for Sweet Baboo, since they center mainly around me getting rid of boxes of old teaching crap.

This morning, I'm going to run to the aquatic center, swim, and then run back. We'll see how THAT goes.

...