True Confessions: Let This Be a Lesson to You

In this week's true confessions post for The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans, I could talk about how I ate all manner of crap on Thanksgiving and had to unbutton my pants, but I didn't-so I won't.  I actually made really good choices and left the table feeling satisfied and not the least bit like a stuffed turkey.  The past few days haven't been as great because I'm a bit down on myself, but not so bad to cause total sabotage.

What I do want to talk about is the need to listen to your body.  I mean REALLY listen to it.  Even when it's telling you things you don't want to hear.  Ready?

• I have had some nagging calf soreness since my 1/2 marathon (over 6 weeks ago). 
• I took a bit of a break with my running (I've run 4-8 miles a week since then), but didn't stop completely.
• Every time I've run since the 1/2, my arch and up into my ankle has hurt.  Not just a little muscle soreness, but honest-to-gosh pain.  Do we see where this is heading?
• On Thanksgiving morning, the hubs and I got up mega early, piled the wondertwins into the car, and headed for my MIL's about an hour away.  We dumped the kids at moms and headed to the location of our 5 mile Turkey Trot race.  We got to the race plenty early, picked up our race bibs (no timing devices-only a clock-that's a whole other post) and sat inside waiting for the race to start.
• 9:00 finally rolled around and we headed outside and were off.  5 miles through some beautiful rolling hills. 
• At about mile 1, my arch and ankle were screaming at me.  Did I mention that it was freezing cold, raining, and I didn't do any of my usual running warmups?  Oops.
• I had told myself for weeks that I was going to run the entire race without walking.  I didn't tell hubs this. Oops. At each mile marker, he looked over at me like, "Seriously?, don't we get to walk here?"  I choose to ignore him and the pain in my arch that was pretty bad, but if I focused on how cold my hands and face were I didn't really notice.
• We finished our 5 mile race, holding hands, in just under 53 minutes (a 10:30 pace, about the fastest race pace I've ever run and the farthest distance hubs has ever run without any walk breaks).   
• Flash forward to about 3 hours later.  My foot/ankle is screaming at me and looks a bit swollen.  I rubbed some BioFreeze on it, but didn't ask MIL for any ice.  Oops
• Flash forward to the weekend.  It still hurts. It's still swollen.  I haven't been icing it.  Oops
• Flash forward to yesterday.  I finally went and saw my sports chiro and he took one look at my calf and said, "That is one angry Tibialis Posterior muscle. Have you had any problems with shin splints?" Um, I guess my shin was a little sore when I started running again within the week after my 1/2, but I brushed it off.  Turns out, the tibialis posterior muscle is the muscle (and it's tendons) that support your arch and run under the bony prominence on the inside of the ankle where all my pain was located. Tightness there can also present as shin splints.  My super tight calf muscle that I didn't let heal properly 6 freaking weeks ago has been torquing on my arch and ankle, making for one very sore me.  Doc did some of his Active Release Technique magic on my calf muscle and the tendons around my inner ankle and heal, reducing me to tears.  I have the bruises today to prove it and my inner calf is so sore that my pant legs rubbing against it hurts.
• The recommendations?
• Ice and massage 3 x a day which hurts like a mother
• See doc again tomorrow for more pain and torture which hurts even worse than the ice and massage
• Maybe he'll clear me to run some short distances by the weekend, but more likely next week.
• Bottom line?  Listen to your body and when something doesn't feel right, or when modified activity doesn't make it any better, go to the freaking doctor!  Just make sure you go to a doctor who is invested in getting you back into your training.  If you go to someone who tells you, "You can't run anymore" or "Just stop running", turn around and find someone else.

I hope at least one of my dear readers learns something from my idiocy.  Thank you.