Week 17
Planned: 12:30 total hours (1:30 swim, 7:00 bike, 4:00 run)
Completed: 12:06 hours (1:31 swim, 6:50 bike, 0:00 run, 3:45 crosstrain)
So I totally thought that I'd be running again next Tuesday. My foot had recovered from my too-early 2 miles, and I was even giving it more time beyond when it felt ok. I really thought I was playing it safe, and it would be ok. And then I went to buy new running shoes - cushy, normal, non-minimalist running shoes - on Thursday, and testing the shoes out on the treadmill hurt. Completely threw me for a loop, and nearly into a complete breakdown.
Now I'm scheduled for an MRI on Friday to get a clearer picture of what's going on, I'm hoping to see a podiatrist, and I'm reassessing the whole damn thing. Based on some more google research, it seems like the damn 5th metatarsal is not a happy healer. Poor blood flow = slow to heal, sometimes not healing well at all. Crap!!! So there are differing possibilities / thoughts on what's going on - it's not healed at all, it's partially healed, it's healed and there's just some residual discomfort, it's going to be ok to run on it, it's going to break through and through if I run on it, I'm not going to be able to run on it even if I want to.
I think that as long as I can push through the 13.1 and mostly jog it - slowly, with walks every mile or so - I'm willing / wanting to do the race. But if I'm going to walk for 12 miles that would kind of suck. What sucks worse is that I THOUGHT I WOULD BE BETTER BY NOW. I've trained my f'ing ass off, and here I am less than 3 weeks out and I have no idea if I can do the race. F%&$!!!
It also sucks that dwelling on all this takes away from the fact that my training is going pretty well.
My rides are solid, I've put in a lot of time and distance and I think it's paying off. My swimming isn't great - not as great as last spring - but it's solid and I should have no problem in the water. And I've been pretty damn dedicated to that horrific elliptical and that should do wonders for my running fitness given that I haven't run in 6 weeks. But I can't feel great about any of that, because my stupid foot won't heal and it puts everything into question. It's a huge shadow, and I hate it.