Since it’s been about six months since my last post, I’m checking in. I know you’re still reading — or at least some of you are! I got 92 hits last week alone on my wildly popular post “How to lose weight when you’re 46 years old and genetically disadvantaged.”
I’m still chronically injured. I run 2-3 times a week, 6 miles tops, for a few weeks and then I get injured for a few weeks. Rinse, repeat. I have faked myself out several times and planned out elaborate training schedules after the period of “basebuilding.” As if this was what facing reality looks like. No, there will be no training. There will be no basebuilding, even. There’s just week to week, seeing what my body will do next.
There’s some kind of weird imbalance issue on my left side. Everything that’s wrong is on the left side: left foot tendon issue, left Achilles, left sciatic nerve pain. So I don’t really know what to do except wait and see and make it a goal to try to run when possible.
It sucks. But I have other things going on in my life and new ways of defining myself, so it’s not the disaster it was a few years ago. But it still sucks. Silver lining: I’ve discovered how pleasurable it is to walk. And I’ve only gained 10 pounds.
See you next year.
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Races Like a Girl 
don’t gooooooooooooooo………………………….
What’s 10 pounds?
I’m sure you’ll get the weirdness sorted eventually. Hope it’s in time for your base-building for the 2015 5th Ave Mile.
I am new to your blog,… I admire your perseverance! Do NOT ever give up! At various seasons in my running, I’ve had to literally STOP running for months… IT band in 2002, severe hip flexor tendonitis in 2006 (with arthroscopic CT scan to rule out hip capsule tear), ankle tendonitis 2009 which eventually in 4/10 I had MRI showing tear, and got surgery with no weight-bearing for 8 weeks, then tons of PT to resume running 5 months later… ran 1st marathon in years in fall 2012 and going back to Boston this spring. Right now, I have some chronic hamstring stuff which I’m nervous will not work itself fully out before I begin training. YET… I’ve seen an ART (Active Release Therapist)/ chiropractor and it’s helped a lot and have done some pilates-based PT, too. I’m noticing that when I really devote the time to the core, then the hamstring/adductor muscles stay loose enough and I run pain free… stop for a sec… BOOM… pain is back. I sit, too, with my job and if I lean forward to type something into computer… boom, hamstring tightens up. I wonder if any ergonomic type checking for you might help… our posture totally impacts our muscles in the legs, hips, and back. Anyway, you might know all this and have been trying things… oh, wait… I also have friends who do “aqua-running” as they recover from injury… they swear by it! Anyway… you might know much of this… and yet, I feel for you! It can be sooooooo discouraging to feel like you have to (or literally actually have to) give up running for a season. I recall crying as I sat outside my sports med facility at Duke, looking down at the track where Kenyans were practicing, and thinking, “I might NEVER run again…” some hard times. And, like you I have had some pretty big, nearly relentless personal struggles in work/relationship realm, that also have made it tough to have the mental toughness to want to push through and be committed to my core work so as to run pain free. It’s tough. DON”T give up, though. I hope that you can figure a plan for really getting at the essence of what strength discrepancy/instability issues are occurring so you can come up with a more effective plan for healing up FULLY before you build up mileage. Although I don’t know you, I certain hope you WILL return to running pain free and enjoying some super races. Keep your chin up!
Hi all — Just saw these comments since I rarely visit my own blog anymore, let alone post. Thanks for the thoughtful (and in Amy’s case, detailed!) posts. I’m now on month three of doing no exercise whatsoever. The good news is, with the exception of slight tightness in my left hip, the ailments that have plagued me even just walking around (hamstring, achilles and PF) for nearly two years all seem to be gone. I hope. So I’m going to start exercising again. I am starting at zero in terms of fitness. But I am starting. I’ll be working on gaining basic aerobic fitness again, with an emphasis on non-running fitness: exercise bike, elliptical (and weights). Will then start running 1-2 days tops until I’m back in reasonable shape. Then I’ll focus on being able to run consistently while avoiding injury. Competition (and the hard training required) is a pipe dream. But it’s still a dream. I miss running so much.