Cathartic Thread For Injured Runners, er support for managing injuries. ;-)
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Day 7 in the boot. It's easier to control my appetite now. That's good, because the scale is telling me the residual fast metabolism from marathon training is slowing down a bit, and I cut another 100 calories per day out of my target. Now it's a process of re-learning how to eat at this level.
I found that I can do kettlebell swings while wearing the boot. I was a bit concerned because the boot and my shoe aren't quite the same height, but they were close enough. I may try to do snatches later today or tomorrow. It won't replace the cardio conditioning, but it will help maintain core strength.1 -
@MobyCarp- When I was in a boot for the same injury, my doctor gave me the green light to ride a bike in the boot as long as it didn't cause any pain (of course, you would probably want to clear that with your doctor). Do you have a bicycle? I have a trainer for mine that lifts the back wheel and basically turns it into a stationary bike. You can probably find one used on Craig's list or the very basic ones like mine are less than $200 new.
https://www.cycleops.com/product/cycleops-mag1 -
@lporter229 I have a bike. I wore a boot on the other foot in 2014, and found that riding the bike with the boot on was not practical. I rode the bike in the period when I was out of the boot but not yet allowed to run.
Bike on a trainer is essentially an exercycle, i.e. the most boring form of cardio known to mankind. I doubt I'd be able to do that for more than 20 minutes, mentally. It might be different if I were a dedicated triathlete and trying to maintain cycling conditioning; but I'm not.1 -
@MobyCarp when I was in a cast and wearing a boot a few months ago, I did some of these exercises as my footwear would allow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDRf7bEFNA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-nTG_3OFWs
There's some good stuff in those videos.
I'm currently down with Achilles tendonitis after last weeks hill repeats and a big long run, which included hill repeats. I'm hoping this is short term downtime. Yesterday I had occasional sharp pain, but today I only have occasional dull pain. Rolling my calf with a massage bar seemed to help.
I have 3.5 weeks to my race so I should be back to running by then if I can be smart about this. My goal for that race was just to finish, so that will remain my goal.
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Today I found the heel inserts I used in 2014. Turns out they're just the right thickness to even out the left shoe I wear now with the boot. Put the other one in my right shoe, and it's less hassle to change between boot (for home) and shoes (for driving and shopping).
It's not hurting to walk in the shoes with inserts, with the left foot wrapped as the podiatrist showed me. But I'm still wearing the boot when I'm home.
This morning I'm up 3 pounds from a week ago. The first one is just water weight from being dehydrated the morning after a long interval run. Three more days, and that's all there was. Then it started catching up to me, in spite of cutting 300 calories per day out of my diet. Cut another 100 yesterday, and another 100 today, for 500 calories per day less than the base when I was marathon training. And of course no calories added for running 5 miles or doing speed work.
Working on remembering/recreating how to eat at this level. It's been a while.0 -
@MobyCarp ugh, hope the gain is just water. Surely you've not over consumed, in the ballpark of, 7,000 calories this last week?
Fortunately, I've not gained like that and I've been down a month now. Also, the month leading up to surgery, I sulked and didn't do much running. I'm only 0.2 pounds from pre-surgery weight, and I'm eating horribly. I do have some muscle atrophy, sure thats going to offset some weight gain. Wish I'd have some fat atrophy.
Week 4 Atrophy update. Dh said its not bad. I think it's probably not going to get any worse than it is.
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Probably haven't overconsumed by 7,000 calories in a week; but 3,500 is not impossible. I don't really know exactly how far I need to cut to maintain at this week's extremely low level of activity. I'll just watch the scale and react at the table.
Good news is this morning, the weight jiggled down by 0.6 lb. I know that's water weight, but it's still encouraging that I'm eating light enough to see a downward fluctuation.
So yeah; when I'm unable to run, my obsession shifts to making the weight trend sideways.3 -
Good news: This morning my weight was down to 0.6 lb. above my goal target. That's really reasonable for as inactive as I've been. I don't think I'll need to cut calories any more than I already have.
Good news/bad news: Saw the podiatrist today. I was hoping to be cleared to walk without a boot at Boston, fearful of being told the boot was necessary. I saw this as a make/break; either I could walk, and go to Boston as a spectator; or I couldn't, and I needed to cancel my hotel for whatever I could save. The verdict: Wear the boot for half days, particularly mornings. Don't take a chance on being fatigued by a long day. Metatarsal is still thin and vulnerable, we're waiting for the exocallus to form. Wear the boot on the plane.
So I dithered. Called my sister, who originally booked to watch me and will now do the BAA 5K. She went over her timelines, looked up the weather. Temperature should be fine. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I should be OK with respect to preciptiation. Marathon Monday, we could get rain. Sigh. No rain, and I'll be okay in the boot. Rain, it could be miserable.
Made the call that I'm going. I think I'd rather salvage the vacation by seeing a Red Sox game on Sunday (that I couldn't afford to go to if I were running the marathon), rather than salvage part of the cost by backing out.
Eating on the road will be a challenge. It always is, but usually I'm running enough to repair it within 2 weeks afterwards. I don't have that fall back this time.2 -
@mobycarp Gald to hear your still able to make the most out of your planned trip. So interesting that your foot, will probably heal in about a third maybe even a fourth of the time it’ll take my femur to heal. Two weeks post op there was no visible healing, only a smattering of “bone dust” from being cut. My macrophages hadn’t even cleared all that mess up. So I took it as the soft callus hadn’t even begun to form.
Other than calorie adjustments, have you changed your nutrition any to accommodate bone healing? I added OJ and calcium chews and some additional calories. But I’m weaning off everything but the chews currently. My weight is stable but I can tell there’s a shift between lean and fat tissue.
Good luck. Fingers crossed for no rain and ease traveling in the boot. May your trip be beautiful.
ETA a ball game and traditional treats sounds awfully enjoyable.0 -
Week 5
Pain is more than manageable. Only slightly grumpy and I if I think i can walk without crutches it illicits cranky pain after about 10 steps. Really happy about that.
I think after my next visit I’ll ask about trying some strengthening exercises. Now I’m just working on mobility and I’m probably 80-90% in both knee and hip joints. My knee worries my slightly. I surely don’t want to wind up with chronic knee pain. I noticed yesterday and the day before my left piriformis (sx #1) was grumpy and I had to remember to stretch that out, seems to have done the trick. Last doc mentioned that might be helped with another surgery. I think if I’m aggressive with self rehab, i can manage it. I think.
Dh said I was getting fat. Wow, really? That’s mean. I’m just getting soft. Weigh is unchanged. Perhaps I’ll eat a cheesecake now. Omg.. I had a dream I was eating puffed Cheetos in front of the baby monster and he was try to get them. Haha! Silly brain!2 -
I think you should tell DH to try not being able to do anything but struggle with crutches for 5 weeks and see if he starts getting fat 🤣
I actually think it is great that you are starting to get more mobility and even able to take a few steps without the crutches!1 -
Tested going without the boot for 3-4 hours today and a couple days ago. It's livable, but I can tell it's not yet time to be out of it full time.
Packed for the Boston trip today, fly out tomorrow. Showers in the forecast, possibly rain all day on race day.
Just have to do the best I can. My current thinking is stay in the boot as much as I can tolerate Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the possibility that the rain makes the boot totally impractical for race day. And then be very unaggressive when spectating on Monday in the probable rain. 1 -
In theory, I could wrap a plastic bag around the boot and tape it shut on my calf. In practice, I expect the bag would soon tear open and I'd get wet anyway. Historically, I've done better in the rain planning for how to manage being wet than trying to stay dry.1
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Travel day. Normal breakfast at home, lost track of tracking on the road but I think I managed to be reasonable today. Tomorrow will be an excessive food day.
Got over 12K steps in, for the first time since the stress fracture. Getting from Logan Airport to the hotel was a challenge, and getting around the expo was more than I would have liked it to be. But I got my very expensive tech shirt for not running Boston this year. Spent about 2 hours out of the boot, and I'm clearly not yet ready to be out full time.2 -
Week 5 day 6
Yesterday I tried to do the one crutch thing. I have annoying calluses on my hands from chronic crutch use. I can hobble with out crutches, and even though it’s not ideal, it’s worth the sacrifice not having to clip-clop everywhere. Try not carrying anything or being able to open doors for 6 weeks. Inconvenient. But, I think I’m asking for trouble if I continue to retrain my gait to gimp. So, I guess I’ll get back to using the crutches. I have some cycling gloves I can use to avoid calluses. But then it looks like I’m training for a crutch war.
The one crutch also elicited some newer pain, the knee (of course), low back, neck, piriformis (r), and front of hip (l). This also comes with the surprise workout of the out of practice muscle groups, particularly my right peroneus (fibularis) longus and brevis. Patience.
Weight is still not an issue. I feel like I eat all the time and more than presurgery. I’ll probably show a significant gain when I add exercise back. I think in my down time I should just hang out on a beach and watch surfers all day.
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@Elise4270 - I have just the beach for you! Just need to come to So CA!
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Survived Boston as a spectator, didn't gain weight. Spent more time out of the boot than authorized on Monday, due to rain. Didn't want to have a wet boot liner for the trip home. The foot isn't all better, but it's better now than when I left. I'll take the progress.
Still not time to run, but probably time to do some gentle intentional walking, instead of just walking the minimum needed for daily activities of life.1
