THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Hello! Hope you haven't all forgotten about me....I know its been a while since my last blog- as usual. I always say I'm going to blog more often and then I don't. Sorry. So what's my excuse this time? Well I'm still injured and haven't raced in almost 5 months so I haven't been very motivated to write a running blog. But that's still a shitty excuse, cause there has still been lot's of cool stuff going on.

Ok lets start with the injury situation, so we can get the no fun stuff out of the way. Last time I blogged right before the Sun Run, I had been dealing with an “unknown” issue in my foot/heel for about 3 weeks. We thought it was either Plantar Fasciitis or a calcaneous stress fracture. I got a CT scan and a bone scan in May and the results showed a huge amount of inflammation, but didn't look like a stress fracture, but still not 100%. To be safe, my physio put me in a walking boot cast for another 3 weeks (at this point I had already taken 3 full weeks of NO running). After 6 weeks of no running at all, and very minimal walking (I didn't work either), my heel was still hurting a bit. If it was a stress fracture, it would have been healing or healed by now. So I decided to treat it as Plantar Fasciitis and began a walk run program. For the next month I slowly got back into running, but my heel was still hurting.

In June I got an MRI, which confirmed a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis, but NO stress fracture. I finally got back up to about 100km a week for a few weeks, with some tempo runs, but it was all in pain. I knew I could not continue running like this. Not only was my heel hurting, but I also developed peroneal tendonitis in the same foot (pain under and around my right ankle. Feels like a sprained ankle). I was trying to avoid the pain on the inside of my left heel (where my Pf hurt), so I was running on the outside of my foot so much, that I was pulling and straining my ligaments on the right side of my foot/ankle/calf. Not cool. So basically at the start of July my foot was a mess and not getting better. I was extremely frustrated, because nothing seemed to be working. I tried all the exercises, the icing, stretching, different shoes/orthotics, ect. I just couldn't kick this injury! Disheartened and feeling hopeless I was wondering if I would ever run pain free again....was this the end of my running career? Something had to be done.

I sat down with Dr. Rose Martel (sports med doc at Fortius), to discuss my options. She suggested a newer therapy called prolotherapy. But- she said there was a long wait so I wouldn't be able to start the 4-6 week treatment until october. I then talked to my physio Chris Napier about the prolotherapy- and he was on board and he actually knew someone that could do the treatment for me starting right away! The only difference was that he was a private doctor, so I had to pay, instead of it being covered by bc health care. (approx $1000 for everything). I knew that I needed to start this therapy right away, so I was willing to pay. However, I am EXTREMLEY fortunate to have one of the the most amazing sponsors out there- Innovative Fitness Kits, who offered to help pay for my treatment! Absolutely fantastic news, and I can't thank them enough for their support. Through-out my injury, the whole IF team have been unreal. Always encouraging me and helping me work through my injury. Not being able to run hard or very much at all has been tough. I miss that feeling of working hard and pushing myself. So its been awesome coming into the gym twice a week and really working hard with my trainer. They always lifted my spirits, and kept me positive.

Ok back to the prolotherapy! What the heck is that you may be wondering? Well here is a definition I stole from the website- prolotherapyhealing.com- “Prolotherapy, also called regenerative injection therapy, is a series of injections which provide or promote the release of growth factors which can help rebuild and strengthen these ligaments and tendons. Once your body has rebuilt these structures, the source of the pain disappears.” So I got my first injection on July 22. Um, yeah it hurt. Even though Dr Bovard added freezing to the injection, it still freakin hurt. And just so you all know I'm a huge baby when it comes to pain, so I was terrified of getting this treatment. However, I somehow managed to survive, and didn't even cry like I thought I would. While I'm getting prolotherapy, I am allowed to run about 5 times a week for about 40-50 mins each time. But no hard running allowed! So I'm keeping busy in the pool too:) Getting a tan in kits pool these days- pool running ain't so bad. But don't get me wrong, I'm still working my butt off in the pool with lots of interval sessions:)

It takes a few weeks/injections before you see any results. It's only in the past week that I've actually noticed improvement. It's still a bit painful when I run, but much more tolerable and definitely better then last month. Progress is slow....but any progress is better then no progress. I still have a a lot of healing to do. I have 1 more injection, next week on the 25^th. I'm hoping by September, I'll be seeing some big improvements. This is the first time in months that I am feeling hopeful! Not being able to train consistently or race has been devastating. I have missed out on 5 months of racing. And its looking like I will miss most of the fall season. But, now things are looking up and soon this injury will be a thing of the past. I know I just have to stay positive and eventually “this too shall pass”. I'm taking things one day at a time, and not planning any races. Once I'm back training consistently, then I will start thinking about racing. But, for now I'm just concentrating on getting healthy:)

The past few months have definitely been a struggle. It's been tough....this whole injury ordeal. Some days I was so discouraged and sad I was near tears (ok i'll be honest, there were lots of tears...I'm a big baby!) But the running community has been amazing. So many wonderful friends, encouraging and supporting me. In particular- Katherine Moore, Catherine Watkins, Dayna Piderosky and Rachel Cliff- you ladies have been awesome. I really can't thank you all enough for always being there for me- whether its to go for an easy run, pool run, coffee, drink, whatever. You've all listened to my endless complaining about my injury, and never told me to shut up! You've kept me positive and helped me believe that eventually my heal will get better! Thanks ladies. Love ya. 

Catherine, Dayna and I:) love these girls!

 

Ok on to the cool stuff that's been going on. I've picked up a few new sponsors! I'm now an ambassador for NUUN hydration and CEP compression Canada. Two awesome companies that I'm stoked (and very fortunate) to be an ambassador for.

NUUN hydration is an American company, just getting things rolling in Canada, so I'm excited to be one of their first Canadian distance runners to be sponsored. I can't wait to get back into my marathon training, so I can start using all my tasty lil NUUN tablets!

I do almost all of my long run/tempos/progressions in CEP compression socks or calf sleeves, so to have them on board helping me out, is amazing. In fact, I wore my hot pink CEP socks today on my run, as I find they are really helping out with my peroneal tendonitis. These CEP compression socks/sleeves have so many functions! What a great product:)

So, I picked up 2 new sponsors, but also resigned with one of my current sponsors. I am so happy that Asics Canada will be keeping me on their roster for another 3 years. In the last year Asics Canada has put together a wickedly talented team of distance runners- Lanni Marchant, Jessica O'Connell, Rachel Cliff, Erin Burrett, Luc Bruchet and Charles Philibert-Thiboutot. I am excited to be a part of such an awesome team of runners. 

 Asics photo-shoot with David McColm

Thanks for the great photo David McColm

Asics Girls!  Lanimal and I!

 

The Beauty of Sport issue of Sporstnet Magazine came out last week. It's pretty cool (and surreal) to see myself all dolled up in the magazine! I had lot's of fun shooting with the Sportsnet team this past May in Lake Louise, Alberta. I wrote a blog about my photo shoot experience for Innovative Fitness. I'll post it on here too. You can buy the magazine at most places that you would buy magazines, so go check it out!

Ok, that's certainly a long enough blog I think. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

Happy Running! 

Here is a link to the TV clip for breakfast tv.  Just chatting about Sportsnet Mag.

http://www.btvancouver.ca/videos/3717094251001/ 

And here is a link to some of the Sportsnet beauty of sport pictures and videos:

www.sportsnet.ca/the-beauty-of-sport/ 

 

Photo shoot fun! Thanks for the awesome photos Chris Thorn!  

 Lanni was in town, so I brought her into Innovative Fitness for an awesome WO

Wicked session with Strength and Conditioning Coach Jon Kowamoto. #BCEP

 

There's definitely been a few nights out with the girls!

Germany won the World Cup.  That was cool.