I didn’t even trip and fall this time. Nope, not a stumble. Amazing, coming from me, the queen of falling during easy workouts! Yet somehow I managed to injure my right foot while running the second to last day of our training camp in Lake Placid. We were trail running and suddenly my right foot was hurting so much that I had to limp back to the car, and couldn’t put weight on it without pain. The PT’s at the training center didn’t know exactly what was wrong since it was such a sudden onset, and the x-rays showed no break, so we put a boot on my foot and with the help of crutches, I took all pressure off my foot for a couple days.
I’d never gotten an x-ray before…or had to visit a hospital room, either. This sure was new!
This was really, really hard for me, because the first step to healing an injury is admitting that you’re hurt in the first place. I guess that’s fairly obvious since it took me so long to write this post! And usually, pushing through pain is what I’m good at. Endurance athlete, right? But when it comes to actual injuries, I think we’re all a little paranoid, with good reason. When your job centers around your ability to make your body go as fast as possible, any little detail can easily derail that, and ignoring a small injury can quickly escalate it into a big problem. I found that out last winter when I decided that bone spurs weren’t a big deal…until they really were! So when I felt a different kind of pain in my foot, I decided that as embarrassing as I felt the crutches were, I would do whatever the PT’s told me to get it better fast, and not take chances. I could spin bike without pain, so I did a lot of spinning, and upper body strength with my boot on.
Still determined to get my training in!
Luckily for me, I was planning on flying to Park City anyways, for a good long altitude block and our next USST camp. If you’re ever going to get injured, Park City is a good place to do it, because the Center of Excellence, where we do a lot of training from, has multiple PT’s, a recovery center, and lots of non-weight bearing modes of training like pool running, Ultra-G running, swimming, and spinning. So it was the best case scenario! Honestly, flying with crutches was a pain but what really annoyed me was all the looks of pure pity I got from strangers. Although…yes, I suppose I WILL take the free bag at check-in…thank you!
So, upon arrival I started meeting every day with Adam Perrault, the PT that Nordic works with. I got an MRI from US MRI, who has been helping out USST athletes for a long time. The MRI reading showed that I had a strained muscle in between my third and fourth metatarsals. It amazed me that such a tiny muscle could cause such a problem! But it’s been healing really fast, and throughout the end of the week I gradually started working back into my usual training modes. I can now skate without any pain and double-pole, and I can run on the Ultra-G treadmill with 60% of my body weight! The Utra-G is pretty fun, because you basically wear these shorts that you zip into the bubble over the treadmill, and the bubble inflates and lifts you up so that you can run at much less than your real body weight. Which means that you can be cruising along at a 6 minute mile pace and barely break a sweat! It’s pretty fun. Especially when Gilmore Girls comes on the TV.
Ultra-G running at 60% of my body weight
The plan from here? To keep doing PT with Adam, and meet with a doctor and double-check that nothing is out of the ordinary and my foot is healing the way it should. Then start getting back into plyos in the pool…I’m excited to get back to jumping around!
In the meantime, Park City has been it’s usual amazing self. I’m living in the condo up by Empire Pass with Liz, and we’ve had dinner with friends nearly every night! Really getting my social butterfly going here. Not that I’ve ever been an unsocial moth, though. Especially since we have some Fast and Female events coming up – a Power Hour in Soldier’s Hollow tomorrow, and a full Champ Camp on October 6th. I can’t wait!
Instead of deer blocking the road, here you get moose!
I love being out west in the fall because while cold rain starts coming down most other places, it’s usually still sunny here, even if the wind is getting colder. We have a couple different roller ski loops, and once I got cleared to skate, Cork and I did a sweet workout down in Salt Lake. Direct quote from Cork: “Dug deep into my suitcase of courage supporting intervals on a road bike today. Jessie managed to stay L3 on rollerskis, though, and led the session by a narrow margin.” We started down in Salt Lake and climbed over 1,500 feet through neighborhood roads while doing 3×15 min L3 intervals. It was hard, especially since it was day 5 at altitude! I was most impressed that Cork biked the whole thing at roller ski pace though, since it would have been much easier for him if he didn’t have to stand up and go slower to support my intervals! I guess I don’t feel that bad about missing Climb to the Castle anymore, since there was somehow a wicked headwind the whole way up, darn it.
It’s a great view over Salt Lake from the top!
Time to go ice my toes again!
