Tomorrow

I have been anxiously awaiting tomorrow for the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow is my follow up appointment with Dr. Anderson to see if my compartment syndrome has improved. To be honest, I am scared to death and excited at the same time. I am scared for two reasons:

1. He is going to tell me I can run
2. He is going to tell me I can't run

Why I am scared he is going to tell me I CAN run? I am scared because I don't want my foot drop to reappear and I am petrified that running will make the pain in my leg come back. I have been dealing with this injury for such a long time. I just want to be better. I just want to run. I need to have a plan. I need to have a fall race to look forward too. I need to get back to Boston in April 2013. I have some serious redemption on that course that needs to be taken care of.

I am scared of him telling me I can't run because I have Ragnar coming up July 20th-21st. Meeting my Nuun Kids on the Block teammates in Seattle over the weekend made me that much more excited about running with them. I have been looking forward to Ragnar for weeks now and would be absolutely devasted if I wasn't able to run. I don't care if I am slow at Ragnar, I just want to run! I want to get to know these wonderful women even more.

I am feeling pretty optimistic about tomorrow. I have been good. I have followed "the plan". As of tomorrow I will have not ran for a solid 38 days. 38 days and ZERO miles. I have gone to my PT and chiro appointments and I have worked on strength and stretching plan that Matt created for me. I have worked really hard at trying to strengthen my left leg & hip. I am starting to work on my running form to see if I can correct my bad form habits I have developed due to my over compensation. I am hopeful that once I can start working on some land based drills that I can drastically improve and get faster. If I can run and train for TWO marathons with compartment syndrome and still lay down solid times, I know that I can break 3 hours. I KNOW IT.

Here is my mileage break down since Eugene:
4/29 Eugene Marathon 26.2 miles (missed PR by less than 4 minutes)
5/6 Bloomsday 12k 7.82 miles- included warm up (PR by 13 seconds)
5/12 Hippie Chick 1/2 13.1 miles (ran with Amanda)
5/14 4 miles
5/16 4 miles
5/17 2 miles
5/18 3 miles
5/20 RNR PDX 14.1 miles- includes warm up
6/6 2 miles (compartment syndrome test)

That is a grand total of 76.22 miles over the last 2 months. I obviously won't be smashing my goal of running over 2,000 miles this year. This also includes 2 missed half marathon races (Helvetia & RNRSEA).

I am interested in seeing how Dr. Anderson will evaluate my progress tomorrow. I am hoping that I won't have to get the compartment syndrome test again. Having big, long needles poked into my legs isn't something I want to have to endure again. Of course it could make a could vlog.....or not. I don't want everyone to see me cry like a big baby.

Today I feel great. My left hip pain is entirely gone. I haven't limped for close to 10 days know. It doesn't hurt my shin to flex my foot up and the tenderness on the outside of my calf has subsided. Today, I feel like I could run so I am hoping that this is all a good sign that I am well on the way to being 100% again.

It is currently less than 24 hours until my appointment. Please keep me in your thoughts and I promise to update everyone once I found out what Dr. Anderson says. I am pretty sure that I will be able to avoid the fasciotomy surgery (GRAPHIC link), but I am still keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

In case you missed my diagnosis post, you can read it here: http://healthydivacooking.blogspot.com/2012/06/diagnosis.html

You can read about my "team" here:
http://healthydivacooking.blogspot.com/2012/06/when-can-i-run.html

I know that I haven't been blogging much lately. It is hard to have a running blog and not be able to run. I do have a fun post in the works from #RNRSEA that will be posted later this week. :-)

Questions for you:
Have you ever had to miss a race (s) due to an injury?
How do you pass the time when you are anxious for an important appointment?
Have you ever had a "redemption race"?

--Tasha