Quick Update

I'm in Maryland until January 5th, so I won't have much of a chance to post or read blogs, that just means that I'll have lots of reading to do when I get back! 

Anyway, Christmas was great! I hope you all have a Happy New Year and I'll catch up with you all the first week of January!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! I know I haven't blogged lately....not too much to blog about! I've just been working, Christmas shopping and cleaning. You know how they say that when a woman is pregnant she "nests" and hustles about cleaning and organizing (NO i'm not prego)? Apparently the same thing happens to me when I face the fact that I'm going to be laid up for at least 6-8 weeks and not able to put weight on my foot! I want to get rid of as much junk as possible before the surgery, which will most likely be the first Thursday of February. 

I did manage to do some activities.... last weekend I got certified to teach Zumba! Great, so glad that I signed up for that over a month ago and now won't be able to teach it for the next 6-8 months!!! It was fun though and a kick ass workout (in total we "danced" for about 4 hours that day). Then this past Monday night my Mom was teaching Zumba at a new gym so I went for "moral support", and let me tell you....she did not need me there! My Mom is the freaking BOMB!!! Keep in mind, she has danced her WHOLE life, owns a dance studio, has been teaching Zumba for over a year, currently teaches Zumba 4 times per week plus teaches dance plus weight trains 2-3 times per week, and she is 62!!!! She had at least 25 people in the class and everyone was sweating and smiling the entire time, it was awesome! 

Well, here it is 5am on Christmas morning and just like when I was little I've been up since 4am! I'm sleeping at my parents house tonight, and I can see that "Santa" already came and put the presents under the tree and I'm counting down the minutes until it's an acceptable time to wake up my parents (seriously, I'm 32 years old???)!  I'm totally clueless as to what my gifts could be....leading up to Christmas I told my parents "I don't want any 'stuff', all I want is to be able to go to all of those 1/2 marathons in different states, so a note from you that says 'This is good for a roundtrip ticket to Seattle and San Jose' would be perfect!"....then my ankle decided that it didn't want to travel the country doing 1/2 marathons (lame ass ankle!LOL) so who knows what I'm in for....kind of exciting though! 

Well, I still have a good 2 hours to kill before I can make enough noise to accidentally wake them up....hope you all have a Merry Christmas! 

100 Things....what have you done??

I took this off of one of my friends blogs....the things I've done are in BOLDED in purple!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53.Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Thanks Everyone

Just wanted to thank you all for your kind and supportive words on my previous post, you blogfriends really are something special.
I went to the Dr on Monday morning and saw the MRI, it was so interesting. There you could see everything so clearly, the tibia, the nice cartilage, then the the tear in it, and then the cyst that I think looked like it is above the tear (something about synovial fluid leaking out and forming the cyst). You could also see the tendinitis and the other general "funkiness" of my ankle. The good thing is that I am a very "visual" person, seeing it all helped me to understand (better, I still have questions, but I have a better grasp on it) what's going on in there, what needs to be repaired, and that it has to be repaired (it won't just go away).
I had the corisone injection (I think the reason for that is because I won't be having surgery until the beginning of February and that maybe it will help to "calm" it down and slow down the leak of synovial fluid so the cyst won't get bigger....I think). It hurt like a BE-YATCH!!!! Today it's still feeling pretty stiff and sore. I'm supposed to "take it easy" this week, and can do the elliptical next week.
The Dr felt that it was totally reasonable for me to think that I would be able to do my 1/2 marathon plan in 2010, so that's good. I just don't want to wish away 2009 before its even here! Overall most of today I have been feeling very thankful that I was able to do the Marine Corps Marathon, I didn't think it was possible that I could appreciate my experience with it more than I already did.....but I can tell you that as of today, I absolutely do.
Thanks again everyone, your words meant a lot to me!

Uuuugghh....Seriously???

Ok, this is some sucky shit. A little history....I ran my first Marathon on October 26. During my training I had a few minor injury issues (mainly hip pain that was pretty much fixed through a lot of PT, and the random broken rib). During the marathon everything went pretty well until about mile 17-18 when my right ankle started to kill. When people asked how it went I told them everything felt pretty good until mile 17-18 when it felt like my someone "stole" my ankle joint, leaving me with "bone on bone" (my visual demonstration for this was making my hands into fists and hitting them together....bone on bone). In the days/weeks following the marathon my ankle still hurt, some days were worse than others. There were times that it would feel like it got "stuck" really deep in there and if i put weight on it, it would hurt bad, but then it would go away. Finally one day while I was out shopping the pain got pretty bad and I could barely walk on it, so I headed to Med Express for an x-ray (thinking it was a stress fracture). They didn't see anything but also said that it would probably need an MRI to see it and to call my ortho dr. So I did that, he couldn't see me for 2 weeks, so I waited, then had to cancel my appointment because of work drama and re-schedule the following week. During those 3 weeks it felt pretty much better, just sore on the outside. So when I went to see him he did a basic exam and said that I had tendinitis and gave me a prescription for PT. Cool. But them I went to cardio kickboxing that Saturday, and during the "jumping jack and shuffle" my ankle "went". It felt like someone opened up my ankle and put a "jack" (you know, the pointy thing that you play Jacks with) in it then I jumped up and landed on it. PAIN!!!!! I had felt this same thing after the marathon, but just kept trying to get passed it, and eventually it faded out, but it was BACK. I couldn't put any weight on it, then it went away, then came back, took 2 steps, it came back, finished the class barely putting any weight on it, walked out of the room to the weights, it happened again and had to sit down. Finally I managed to leave, and it was gone for the rest of the day except for a few steps. Over the next couple days it came back sort of on and off. In the meantime, it was Thanksgiving (I did the Turkey trot), everyone was busy, blah blah blah (I didn't make a Dr's appt right away).

Fast Forward to the Jingle Bell Run, everything went well, except that my knee hurt and my ankle didn't feel great. I was fully trying to ignore that there might be something wrong and I didn't want to go back to the "Above Dr". However on Monday of last week I decided that I needed to get everything checked out and made an appointment with a different Sport Medicine Ortho for Thursday. At the appointment she was super thorough with my knee and ankle, even addressed a weakness that I wasn't aware of in my quad and hip and gave me a scrip for PT, along with the tendinitis in my ankle. Then back to the ankle, she felt that there was "something else" going on deep in there, possibly a stress fracture or torn cartilage, and set me up for an MRI on Friday morning.

Friday afternoon I heard back from her...........upon initial review of the MRI it's apparent that there is cartilage damage in the ankle joint, comparable to a "pothole" in the cartialge (WTF? am I going to need asphalt dumped in my ankle???) that would most likely need to be addressed surgically, often they drill tiny holes into the bone to make it "bleed" and make new cartilage (**I'm sure I'm off on some of this....if you know more, feel free to chime in!). Hmm, tiny holes in my bone, YEAH!!! That sounds GREAT!!!!

"Luckily" for me, one of my best friends just happens to be engaged to the "THE" foot/ankle surgeon here (and the same one that this Dr would refer to me). So, I called him and he went and looked at the MRI yesterday. In addition to my "pothole" I also have a cyst on the tip of my tibia, which he told me "is a rather unusal place for this type of cyst" (cool, i'm so unique!). Most likely I will need the surgery to address the cyst, cleanup the cartilage, and repair the "pothole". My next question was "What's the recovery like?" Believe me, you don't want to know. 6 WEEKS non weight bearing on crutches (and I forgot to mention, it's my FLIPPING RIGHT FOOT, aka THE DRIVING FOOT, which means NO DRIVING), then 6 weeks "intense" physical therapy, and basically "you're looking at about 6 months until you are getting back to "normal". WTF???? That doesn't mean that in 6 months you'll be ready to run a 1/2 marathon, that means that in 6 months you might be able to do a 5K.

HOWEVER - Since I said that I would want to wait until after the Holidays to do the surgery he suggested that we at least try a cortisone injection first, just to see if somehow I can avoid the surgery and to also help in seeing if this is really the source of pain. So, he's fitting in me in at 7:45am Monday for the injection. After the injection I need to take it easy for 1 week, then return to normal activitiy (along with PT) and see what happens.

Bottom line, I am hugely disappointed. I cried forever on Friday, I kept thinking about my "Rock Star Plans" for 2009 and how much I was looking forward to becoming a "better runner". I know that this is all still possible and maybe it won't be in 2009, maybe it will have to be in 2010, but I wanted it now. I was finally feeling like I found something that I enjoyed, that I could work on and get better at, I love all of the running friends that I have made and I was looking forward to getting to do so much more with everyone this year. If it all happens to work out and the injection "fixes" everything, I will have an even bigger appreciation for it all, but if the injection doesn't work.....that is just going to suck.

So, anyone have any experience with this? Anyone have a spare ankle? Sorry for such a shitty post, but it's where I am right now.

Jingle Bell Run - I WON -

......the Costume Contest! Here is a picture of the lovely plaque that I won!

It was such a great time! In addition to winning the "individual" costume contest, our group "The Team in Training Reindeer, Santa, and Snow Princess (me!)" got runner up in the best "Team" costume!

**I ended up being the "Snow Princess" as opposed to "Mrs.Claus" because our "Santa" is really married and I didn't want their to be any confusion....I was hoping to come across a potential "snow prince", but no luck!

The run was great, but it was FREEZING!!!! Seriously, it was only 19 degrees!!!!! There were a lot of people dressed up, and everyone had on Jingle Bells, it sounded so pretty while we were all running. I ended up with a finishing time of 31:40, not too bad considering it hurt to breathe!!!

My favorite other costume was a guy dressed up as Elf....

So funny!!! After the race our whole group headed to Eat N Park for breakfast, sooooo good! Some of my teammates had to park kind of far away from the race, so I loaded them into the back of my truck and gave them a ride....

They were such good sports with their antlers, it totally looked like I was kidnapping them!

Hope you all had a good weekend! We've got some snow here, just in time for the Steelers to whoop the Cowboys!

December Goals

I can't believe that December is here already! I'm "borrowing" the goal idea from The Gazelle, so here we go!
1. Get into the gym 3 times per week. I can take a class, run on the tradmill for 30 minutes, lift, spin, anything!! Just get in there 3 times per week.
2. In addition to the gym time, run for 45 minutes (outside if weather allows, or as an additional workout at the gym).
3. Make more progress with getting rid of "stuff" at my house. Wait, that is too "broad". Each week I need to get rid of 1 large trash bag of clothes (donate) or general junk.
4. Would love to lose the 5 pounds I've been carrying around since the marathon, so that means START COOKING AGAIN!!!!!! Get in more veggies and drink more water!
5. For this one I'm just going to say - Do what needs to be done. I don't really care to elaborate on this right now, but I know what it means.

In other news I've got a Happy Hour planned with my TNT Girlfriends on Friday night, and then we are doing the Jingle Bell run on Saturday morning! There is a "Holiday Costume Contest" at the run, so I'm totally working on a cute "Mrs.Claus" type costume!!!

Hope you are all having a great week!