Sidelined

So, I haven’t written about my fitness goals in a while. And, for those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted a Nike+ run in quite some time.

What gives? Well, I’m not purposely slacking off on working out. The sad truth is, I’ve been sidelined — from running.

Here’s the story: I’d been having “problems” with my ankle the past few months and running has made it worse. I’ve been able to deal with the pain and occasional limping but when my fiancée pointed out that my foot looked “off center” from my ankle, I agreed to see a doctor.

I saw an orthopedic doctor, who took X-rays and confirmed that indeed my tendon was getting weak and causing my foot to slide out of place. He referred me to a foot and ankle specialist. Two weeks ago I was finally able to see him.

The result of that visit to the doctor was me being fitted with an aircast boot for a couple of weeks as a conservative alternative to surgery. Seems I’m worse off than I hoped. The tendon is indeed stretched, which is why my foot is “off center.”

The specialist has put me in this boot for a couple of weeks (eliminating my chances of being able to run for a couple of weeks) in hopes that the ankle will stabilize and the inflamation will go down. I follow up with him this week and hope he will take me out of this boot.

The next step to this conservative treatment would be a regimine of strength exercises and perhaps a smaller brace to wear for high-impact activities (running).

Sure, my tendon will never go back to normal with this treatment, but the hope is that I can manage it enough so that it does not get worse (to the point where my foot slide completely to the left and I’m walking on my ankle bone).

What if it doesn’t work? Well, let’s hope not. Because then I would need surgery to correct the problem, which would put me in a real cast for 6-8 weeks.

Anyway, that’s the long explanation as to why I haven’t been able to run so far in the month of August. I’ve had to come up with alternative ways to exercise and have focused on CORE strengthening and riding my bicycle (which, the doctor says I can take my boot off to do).

Here’s hoping I’m back on the treadmill by next week!

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Tags: Goals, Sports, Training