9/30-10/4/15

One day post VT50, I worked my usual shift and then the overnight at Bartlett-Jackson Ambulance. I was in pain ALL day. I attempted to take a walk around Thorn Pond while up in Bartlett, and it took me almost 30 mins to walk around it (less than half a mile) once. I could barely walk. I was almost having to drag my left leg. I was still just happy to get outside for some fresh air and to think about my biggest concern, "How the hell am I going to race Bretton Woods in 5 days?! When one can't walk, how does one run?!" My stubborn self just told me I was going to do it, no ifs, ands or buts. No arguing with her, so I just crossed my fingers in hopes of a rapid recovery.

The next morning, I went back to The Mill Fitness Center at Purity Spring to use the pool. I hadn't used The Mill since winter, but I had a feeling this would be my new home for the next few months. I swam laps in the pool for 30 minutes. It was actually painful, so I couldn't even kick my left leg, but I got it done, and it felt great. I'm actually a pretty good swimmer since I spent about 6 or 7 summers on the swim team as a kid. I'm thankful for this because swimming was all I could do this first week. When I got out of the pool, another swimmer tried to give me pointers on my form. I shut him down quickly when I told him I couldn't use my left leg. I was surprised how easily the swim was for me. Last fall when I had to use the pool, it kicked my ass since I was years out of swimming shape. This time, I felt like I had been swimming all along. I guess that shows the huge improvement in my level of fitness in the last year. Which, sadly, will be diminishing every day, but whatever. I was just happy to be doing SOMETHING.

I went to see a massage therapist Tuesday afternoon. It felt great great, and I walked out of there actually able to walk a little bit better and with slightly less pain. The interesting thing I learned from the massage was that I had no muscle tightness in the left glute. If this was a muscle injury, you'd think there would be some sort of muscle tightness. Huh.

I felt bad since John was with me, and I couldn't do anything with him other than take him to his ninja class. It was hard enough just taking the dogs out to use the bathroom. Luckily, it was a cloudy, gray day so I didn't feel like I was missing out on a really nice day outside somewhere. John wasn't complaining since it meant he had more time to play video games. Haha. Thank goodness for ninja class that night.

Wednesday, I woke up to find myself in hardly any pain at all. I could walk. Only lifting the stretcher at work aggravated it, but it was a fairly quiet shift that meant very little lifting. We even slept all night!
I did take time for some fun at Maine Med while we waited on a jump for our dead truck.

Thursday was right into my 10 hour shift. Fortunately, I still had the same partner, so I continued to have fun with the ambulance by playing "Ridin'" full blast over the ambulance PA as we drove by John outside of Frontside Grind. He got a kick out of that. Not sure about the 100 other people walking through North Conway Village, though. Haha.

We had no calls again that day, which made it slow, but the less people I had to lift the better. I was feeling good and optimistic that I could possibly finish Bretton Woods on Saturday, not too far off of Sarah Bard for the Series win.

That night, I went back to The Mill for 45 minutes of lap swimming with no pain. I could kick with both legs, and I just felt great all around.

Another night of sleep ensued. It felt great to be caught up on it. I woke up Friday morning feeling soooooamazing! Very little pain. I took Spot for a walk at the Albany Town Forest and decided to run a little bit to see how I felt. It was soooooawful! Ouch!! Just a light jog, too. The impact was very painful. Hope for even finishing Bretton Woods became dim. I didn't know if I could run 12 mountain miles in that much pain. I really didn't know. But I was going out and trying it, so I'd just have to do it to find out. The rest of the walk was pain-free, and the day was beautiful. I took Spot home and then went back to the pool for more laps. I felt great. Laps are boring as hell, but I need exercise, so it was keeping me happy.

Friday night, I finally pulled up the map for Bretton Woods so I could plan a tentative course, and that's when I noticed it. The course distance said ~6.7 miles. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. When did this happen?! It had said 12! Oh my god. That changed everything!!!! I could pull off that distance. AND the course had us only going downhill twice! The downhill, my best skill, was now my greatest weakness. There were two long uphills which I felt I could still run up ok. Plus, I knew the navigation would be easy for me, as well. My outlook on the race changed drastically. I knew I'd be finishing it and that I would probably be able to even pull off 2nd woman. The Mountain Series win was going to be mine. I knew it right then. My biggest concern was what kind of damage I was going to do to my injury. I didn't care, though. I had to do it.