And December ends with an injury


I hadn’t written in awhile because it just didn’t feel right to talk about how great life was going, how warm the glow of friends and family felt, and how happy I was in general after the Newtown shootings.

I know the event is distant (for the most part) to the topic of this blog and/or my life in general, but it was just awful. A psychic rip.

It will take a long time to heal.

***

So here is what December was like for me:

— I ran 85 miles this month. That’s almost 20 miles more than I ran in the whole month of December 2011. It would have been more — I’ve been feeling great — but last Saturday I fell in my parents driveway (running out to the car to get something) and I hurt my knee and haven’t run since.

This is the first time that I have taken a week off since I started running. It’s killing me!

I think it’s an ACL sprain and it’s been difficult to walk or stand for prolonged periods of time, though it does feel better today than it did last weekend. I broke down on Friday and called the doctor to make an appointment. I fear it might be another week or more before I can run again.

Every day I wake up and think, “it’s feeling better!” And then I go walk the dogs and decide no, definitely not.

I’d been spending some time this month contemplating my goals for the next year and I reflected how very lucky I was to not have an injury set me back in 2012, and that I am probably at a place where I can nudge the intensity forward slightly (thank you, Chi Running). Well, that’s not quite the case any more, but its just a little set back.

— I swam four times this month and four times in November, which puts the total amount I swam this year at 8 times (and counting), probably an all-time high for the past six years. Even though I’ve only hit the pool a few times, I feel like I have gotten so much better since I started again in November. I’d really like to make improving my swimming a major goal in 2013, at least the winter.

— Did I mention the warm glow of friends? I am so lucky to have such great running friends. There will have been three end of the year running parties I attended in December.

— For Christmas, Tony replaced my heart rate monitor. It was never quite the same after the Tough Mountain Challenge and it completely died, despite my earnest attempts to resuscitate it, at the All Women and One Lucky Guy half marathon.


He replaced it at my direction with the same Timex Ironman watch (which, btw, if you live in Maine, I saw it at Mardens in Brewer for $40, a steal!). I know the watch well and the price is good — the cheapest HRMs I’ve seen on Amazon are in the hundred-dollar range — but it is NOT waterproof, despite what the company might say. I never took it in the shower or swimming. It first started acting up after the torrential rain at the Women’s Ride in Freeport last June.

I’m convinced this is by design, as I observed during my resuscitation efforts that the gasket in the watch is rather flimsy.

BUT it will be nice to do heart rate training again. In 2011, I used the heart rate monitor to hold me back. In 2012, I needed it more to push me harder.

Location:Hall St,Lewiston,United States

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.