In early-July, I blogged about my acute case of plantar fasciitis, and mentioned taking a week off. In addition to that week off, I took the advice of my former coach Betsy and visited a new doctor. Dr. Brittani Young is a DO in Upper Arlington. She practices a method called Airrosti. When Betsy first recommended I see Dr. Young, I checked out the Airrosti website and was immediately skeptical. They talked of "curing" people of their pain in an average of three visits. Ummm... whatever. But curiosity got the best of me, and when I found out that the visits would be covered by my insurance, I figured I'd give it a try. I would describe Airrosti as a combination of deep tissue massage, chiropractor-type manipulations, and physical therapy exercises. My first visit was pretty uneventful. Airrosti doctors spend a full 60 minutes with their patients at each visit, and I really liked Dr. Young. After my appointment, she said that she thought one more visit would be enough. Still skeptical, I came back 5 days later. I wasn't pain-free, but I felt a bit better. I'd been resting, though, so I wasn't surprised. However, within 48 hours of my second appointment, I realized that the pain was gone. Like, totally gone. Yes, I know that I had also taken a week off from running, so I wasn't going to shout my praises of Airrosti from the rooftops or anything. I was soooo happy to be able to run my half Ironman without pain (well, without the pain of PF at least!). A couple of weeks after the half Ironman, I had some soreness in my hip flexor. I was immediately concerned, and called Dr. Young. She fit me right in, and what do you know... after just one appointment, the pain was gone. I lovingly call Dr. Young my "voo-doo medicine doctor". I have no clue why what she does works, but she's amazing. I have referred several friends to her. I wanted to go before my marathon, as I just knew she could fix my injured calf (more on that in a minute), and made an appointment. Unfortunately I was out of visits per my insurance. Self-pay would be $250/visit, and that wasn't going to happen, so I had to cancel. Dr. Young is so sweet, though; she e-mailed me after my race to check in on me!
As I mentioned, after my half Ironman I had a little hip flexor soreness, but it went away quickly. I told my coach George after the race that I reallllly wanted to do a marathon in the fall. He agreed when I told him that I wasn't interested in speed, but merely wanted to finish it respectfully. My goal: "start healthy and finish happy!" So we slowly started to ramp up the time I was spending running. Things were going really well. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have enough time on my feet, but I have learned to trust my coach, and I knew he'd have me ready to go on race day. On September 29, I finally pulled the trigger and registered for the Indy Monumental Marathon, taking place on November 4. It had taken me awhile to figure out which race I wanted to do... lots of debating with Tamara on this one! Should I do Erie (only six weeks after my half Ironman)? The Columbus Marathon in October? Indy? The Philadelphia Marathon, which wasn't till November 19? I obviously decided on Indy, as I felt the timing was better than the others... and, of course, I ended up having a group to travel and race with, which tipped the scales greatly in the favor of this race!
The day after I registered for the race, I felt a twinge in my left outer calf. What the... I couldn't believe it. Seriously. I had waited and waited to register, and when I finally commit and pay the $108 entry fee, this happens. At first I just figured it was a twinge and nothing more. After a couple of weeks, though, I realized it was definitely not just a twinge. I saw my doctor (Dr. Natalie Dick at MaxSports Delaware) on October 10. Her advice was to take off a week or so. This happened to coincide with my family's annual trip to Hocking Hills, so it worked out for the best. My calf wasn't 100% upon my return, but I was able to get some runs in, and by the time the marathon arrived, it was feeling about 80-90%. The funny thing is that it never hurt at all during or after my race... and hasn't hurt since!
After my race, both of my ankles were very tight. I attributed it to post-race soreness, but after a week, my left ankle felt fine... and my right was still sore. Dr. Google said it was posterior tibial tendonitis. The pain was in my inner right ankle area, around the bone and radiating a bit up into my lower leg. I consulted with my doctor, and she recommended I see a foot and ankle specialist. I saw my chiropractor who said that he agreed with the posterior tib diagnosis, and suggested I have his nurse practitioner give me a couple of steroid shots (rather than see the foot and ankle doctor). I took him up on it. I did have to take a few days off after the shots, but they seemed to do the trick! No pain ever since.
I wish I could figure out why I have all of these different injuries all of the time. My chiropractor said it comes with running. I just don't get why my friends aren't in the same boat as me. I don't even run that much, especially compared to them. *sigh* I am an enigma, that's for sure.
Up next... my traditional New Year's blog :)
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