Tag Archive for toe injury

The lamenting taperer

March 27, 2009 planet3rry 4 comments

Yesterday, my stomach was in knots… today, it’s not much better. I have that “I FEEL SO HUNGRYYYYYYY” feeling in my stomach but nothing is appealing. Well, except for comfort food. And comfort food to me is chocolate… LOTS of chocolate. But I know that what comforts me now, will ail me in the future. Woe is me!

So then, at dinner last night… my toe begins to hurt. Not just ache but HURT! I was surprised how much it hurt. Then when I got up from the table to leave, my big toe was SORE and it was tough to put weight on it. Before I left the parking lot, I had to take my shoe and sock off and see what was so wrong. Apart from being a little red, there was nothing of note.

When I got home, I tried to get the kids ready for bed, but at some point, I knew that I had to see what was up with my toe. I could see myself with a short fuse if I was upset that my foot was hurting and the kids were not listening.When I took a good look at my toe, there seemed to be some debris on the side of the toe, which was the focal point of the soreness. The toenail was in good shape, so that was good.

I found a tool that resembled a dentist’s tool that I could use to pry into the toe cuticle. My toe was already sore and I was thinking that getting the debris out would be instant relief. But I was wrong! It was still sore. I dug and scraped as best I could without yanking off the toenail (it’s been a couple of marathons since I have lost one, so there is good chance I will still have this after the race). It was still tender and there wasn’t anything that really stood out as being the culprit of the pain. All I can think is that some yard debris had gotten lodged in the cuticle just from jostling of my feet and such.

It was about 10 minutes later that I had a bacterial type scare. I thought “what if it gets infected before the marathon”… 4 hours and 45 minutes of “OUCH, Ahhh, OUCH, Ahhh, OUCH”. So, I took some hydrogren peroxide and poured it over the toe. If was manic about my toe, I was ready for the rubbing alcohol to do it’s killing, if it meant extra pain… I was going to run.

The amount of reaction with the hydrogen peroxide was underwhelming. Being unimpressed, I put the Hydrogen Peroxide back and started to leave the bathoom, toe still sore. Untill… “AH HA, where is that Melaleuca Oil?”

I took the pure melalueca oil and poured it over the wound. My toe felt better, less sore and within 5 minutes, I could walk without noticing my toe. And there was much rejoicing!

Today (as in Friday, as in 2 days away), I am in a weird state. I’m still nervous, I can’t seem to eat. I feel dehydrated. I am beginning to wonder if I can perform well on Sunday. I am having Taper Anxiety! Which reminds me… I need to go make my pace card, so I know what I need to be running and be prepared…Fin

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Injured

July 23, 2008 planet3rry 5 comments

I am actually injured on two of my appendages. Don’t worry it’s not THAT appendage, but my two injuries are rather annoying.

The first and less severe is a cut across my index finger. It’s right on the tip, so when I type something with my right index finger like “Y U H J I or N” it hurts. In fact, half of typing the word “hurt” hurts. Oi.

The second and more severe injury is VERY annoying. It’s a good thing that I am taking a break in running because the injury is on the bottom of my big toe. It’s about dime size and is really gross. You wanna know how I did it? I didn’t think so. So here’s what happened. I’ll get you a picture if you want!

The kids love it when we play Hide and Go Seek. In fact, it’s really Hide and Scare the Bejeezus Out of The Kids… and that’s the part they love. The Kids will count to 20 (or somewhere close) and I try to go as fast as I can to hide somewhere in the house. Typically, The Younger will peek to see in which direction I am going. Cheater.

So when I hide, I try to find a place that’s in the open but concealed (like behind a door) so when they get close to me, I can jump out from behind the door and scream “BOO”. I know that I do it right, if The Younger falls over after the Scream. In either case, Both kids love it and laugh hysterically and want to do it again, over and over again.

So there are only a limited number of places to hide. One of the better places to hide is behind the Master Bed, there’s a limited amount of space, but very concealing. So that’s what my “target” spot was going to be. there about a 2′ wide space there between the bed and wall. Enough to laydown on the floor and be concealed, but not a whole lot of room to move around and get in there. It’s actually easier to roll off the bed and drop down into the crevass.

So that’s where I was headed.

I run down the hall and cut into the bedroom. I only have a few seconds to hide and to do it stealthy as to avoid detection of my location. So I run and bounce off the bed. In a Jackie Chan-esque move, I lept off the bed, laid my self out flat and side down the side of the bed to my hiding space. I think I had pulled it off, but my toe hurt since I had hit the metal floor vent.

It took the kids a couple of minutes to find me but they did. They Screamed and Laughed and it was time to hide again. So I dashed out of the bedroom and down the hall into the hall bathroom and into the shower, pinned up against the wall so they couldn’t see me. I can hear them trying to figure out where I must have gone.

While listen to them try to find me, I see a spot of blood on the bathtub. Huh, looks fresh. Listening to the kids roam around, not finding me and then I look down. Woah! A small pool of blood has formed and then I realize that my foot hurts. Oi! As I am in the shower hiding from my Kids, the pool is getting larger. It’s probably about the size of a half dollar. I am slowly bleeding to death hiding from my terror-seeking kids, the irony is that this is a great hiding place so much that when I’m passed out from blood loss, no one will find me.

So, now I need to hurry the kids up and let them find me so I tend to my wound. But I wasn’t going to let this good opportunity to mess with The Kids.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?” The Kids call from the Kitchen. The Hall Bathroom is located in the middle of the house with the Kitchen on one end and bedrooms on the other and being in the tub made for a weird echo-y sound.

“I’m in MOMMY’S ROOM!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Master Bedroom (It is my room too…). I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Kitchen!” Patter Patter Patter from the Master Bedroom to the Kitchen. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in The Playroom!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Playroom. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Living Room!” Patter Patter Patter from the Playroom to the Living Room. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Tent (in the Kid’s Room)!” Patter Patter Patter from the Living Room to the Tent. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Hall Bathroom” Patter Patter Patter from the Tent to the Hall Bathroom. The little pool of blood is about the size of half my foot now. The price I pay for amusement. As The Younger approached the Shower Curtain, I pull the curtain back and yell, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” Laughs ensue. And of course, they wanted for me to hide again, but I needed to inspect the damage. Thankfully, I had a hose that I could wash my foot off to see the injury… ouch. As I went back to the Master Bath where there were some first aid items there, I could see spots on the carpet where I had been.

Oh, and I decide not post any picture of my toe. You’re Welcome!

So it’s been healing for the past couple of days. I want to say that it’s better, but it still hurts. I do put a bandage on it everyday, but I could not imagine having to run on it. It would be a right bloody mess! So, I need to let my foot heal so that it’ll be ready for the massive walking in Dallas next week and then the Fall Marathon training starting the week after (Aug 4th).

Life In General, running ,

The Pain of Speed

March 25, 2008 planet3rry 6 comments

This is going to be a week in review for my running. It’ll be short and sweet and riddled with injury and other pain-like experience that I had… some good, some not-so-good.

So join me…

Last Tuesday, in the morning, I had one of my Nature’s Do Not Call Episodes and in the house of all places. However, I was in the kitchen and wasn’t sure that I would make to the bathroom without calling out “Pilot to Bombardier, Pilot to Bombardier, BOMBS AWAY!” So, I am moving quickly, but not too quickly (if you know what I mean). Well, I swing around our sofa in the living room and the Piano bench is out away from the piano and my left pinky toe WHACKS the bench. I wanted to scream but if I had screamed, I would have lost bowel control… that would not be good (but at least I would be in the house and not running somewhere).

So, I am in excruciating pain, but nothing appears to be broken. It’s red and scraped, but I can walk on it. In fact, I get finished sending the kids to the pool that I sorta “forget” about my foot. In fact, I kinda forget enough not even tell My Lovely and Talented Wife about… after all nothing is broken and if it was, what could anyone do?

I skipped running at work that day because it was Terry Day and I figured that I would let whatever damage heal a little before I ran on it. During the day, it wasn’t all that bad. It was sore, but not making me limp. So, I decided to run on it that evening at Lakeshore. I could do a 2.1 mile loop and bail if I needed.

When I took my shoe off in the car at Lakeshore, my toe was swollen. It wasn’t tender and I could more my toe around okay, but I ended up taping the pinky toe with some packaging tape that was in the car. I did run one loop in 20:32 with little to no discomfort. I ended up only running one loop because I was running late and I felt lazy.

toe

 

and my make shift first aid job

 

taped toe

 

So after the Tuesday run I tried to run over the weekend, but I couldn’t get out of the house. I was trying to aim for a run with the dog at the trail park near my house, but our Au Pair wasn’t working this past weekend, so no such luck and it did give the more time for my foot to heal.

Monday
My foot had healed enough over the weekend, that i felt comfortable attempting some speed work. After all, I have officially dubbed Monday Speedwork day and I wanted to keep that going. It was kind of cold, so I decided to run at the track just in case something did go wrong, I wouldn’t have far to limp.

I chose to do 400 meter repeats with a 200 meter recovery in between. I was about to run a total of 4 intervals with the final being at 1:31 or a 6 minute pace. I can tell you that I was hurting at the end and just trying to will myself to the finish line.

However, last night and today, I was starting to feel the pain from the speed workout. I’m not talking about sore muscles. I am talking about my left ankle being sore, enough to remind me it’s there but not enough to debilitate me. In fact, I ran today at lunch. Today’s run was with a Heart Rate Monitor and it was about the most perfect easy run I have done in a long time. The HRM was really useful to keep me from slipping into my Tempo pace, and thus in essence doing 2 speed days in a row and wearing my myself down and leaving me prone to injury more than what I am I capable of just by breathing.

Today’s 4 miler was done in 38:09 and where I to guess my 10k and 5k time, I would have to say that my 10k time would be near a 54:15 (8:45 pace) and my 5k time would be near 25 minutes. I still have 20 days until the Spring Racing Season’s first 5k Race, the Spring Sprint (you can get information on my left sidebar <—- )

I will make today a 2-fer and run again after work. I would like to do another 4 at a super easy pace. Depending on how it works out I might go on 3rd Creek. If I wasn’t such a slacker and a horrible friend, I would have thought before NOW to ask Soon-To-Be-Dr. David to run with me.

running , , ,

Official Knoxville Training

November 18, 2005 planet3rry No comments

I running up against the clock because I want to get this post out but I need to leave to get home so that Jen can get to her openhouse.

Tomorrow I am particpating in the 2006 Knoxville Marathon Training Program's first long run tomorrow morning. I have no idea how many people will be there or the levels of experience but I do know that it will be run on a familiar course for me, so it's a good way to get in 10 miles of running under my belt. Hopefully, there will be someone looking to run a 3:45 marathon that will push me to run fast and train faster and therefore finish faster. If you go to the website and click the Schedule of Long Runs, I will be doing the “Advanced” section.

This will be my first long run since Chimichanga 10 miler last Saturday. I seem to have passed my speedwork training on Thursday with flying colors, so I should be A-OK to go the distance. My toe is not sore, but looks like crap, maybe a gruesome picture is warranted. I anticipate it to be cold tomorrow morning, so we will see what the turn out is like. That is the bad thing about training for a Spring Marathon… long slow runs in the cold… yucky icky!

Upcoming Races:
11/24 Autumnfest 8k (Knoxville, TN), Goal time 37:30
12/04 Reindeer Run 5k (Maryville, TN), Goal time 21:55
01/28 Calhoun's 10 miler (Loudon, TN)
02/18 Strawplain's 1/2 marathon (Strawberry Plains, TN)
03/26 Covenant Health 2nd Annual Knoxville Marathon,Goal time 3:59:59
(indicates potential Personal Record for distance)

Life In General ,

Toe-Licious

November 15, 2005 planet3rry No comments

After the Chickamauga race, I was pretty exhausted and with good reason. During the race, I could tell that my legs were getting sore, which was one reason why I went into Marathon Survival Mode. It wasn't until today when the residual pain has subsided. It is hell to have to walk down stairs after a long run or marathon. luckily, I wasn't as bad as I have been after a marathon. I was still hurting quite bit but there are things that you can do to speed up recovery. For muscle pain, I try to get a deep tissue massage of my legs after a marathon, this helps recovery by almost 2 days. Also, the night of the marathon, I use one of the back massager on my legs and this also helps speed up the recovery by a day or 2.

After Richmond in 1999, my first, I was still sore a week after the race. Then, in 2001, we were walking through Carolina Pottery in Myrtle Beach (after the MB marathon) and she used one of the massager on my leg. Instant satisfaction! Oh me oh my! Then, after Richmond I used the birthday certificate for a sports/deep tissue massage. It was a little painful at first, but I was ready to go the next day!

If I had planned on doing the marathon, perhaps I would brought the massager, but alas, I did not… so my soreness was compounded with the ride home from Chattanooga (1.5 hours) but I did walk around some and that helped.

What doesn't recovery quickly is trauma to the toes and feet. They take a lot of abuse over the course of a marathon and all the running that you do before the marathon is to toughen up your feet and toes for the whole 26.2 miles. This is similar to a guitarist conditions his fingers to play the guitar. I have lost toenails before from long runs before, that is a common occurrence. I have had regular blisters, blood blisters and tender toes. I could tell while running that I was going to have some toe issues after wards.

When asked “What is the something that a new marathon runner should know before running a marathon that isn't frequently asked?” My first reply is “Toe Nail Maintenance”. You can reduce the toe trauma by making getting your toe nails cut. I wouldn't suggest a pedicure until after the marathon because you want the callous skin to protect you. If you let your toe nail get all scraggly, that over the course of the race, your toe nails can cut through your sock and cut into the tongue of your shoe? It depends on how you carry your toe during your stride…

Below, is a picture of my toe from Saturday. Luckily enough, only one toe was affected. Once I trimmed my nails, it relieved some pressure. The nail was stressed but still seated strongly in the toe, so I know that I won't lose it now. You can tell that I needed to give my piggies a little TLC before the race, but I thought I was only running 10 miles!

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