September Recap/Stats

The (doctor approved) Xtrain Xtravaganza continues this month with:

Meters Swam: 3,600 m

Miles Biked: 40.28 M (On a stupid stationary bike with no resistance ..::snore::..)

Miles Walked: 14.5 M

Rest Days Planned/Taken: How ever many needed / 14

Xtraining Workouts Planned/Ran: As many as possible / 16

Most Enjoyable Workout: The Cooley Law 5k that I walked with Spike. (Who finally wrote a new post!)

Current Reads: (Reading) Blindness by Jose Saramago; "A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women... A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness is a powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weakness" Considering I recently saw the movie "Contagion" (where Spike made sure to cough violently at the end of the movie when the theater was dead silent and necks snapped in our direction with looks of alarm, jerk) this book is freaking me out! That is not to say that it is not worth reading, it absolutely is as I can't seem to put it down, but you need a strong stomach to make it through what happens when society breaks down. Worth mentioning is that the author writes in a run on style, without identifying who is actually speaking so at times it can be hard to keep up with who is talking.

(Finished) Run Like A Girl, How strong women make happy lives by Mina Samuels; Review and giveaway to come next Tuesday! The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; I thought this book was ok, maybe I would've liked it more had I read it rather than listened to the audio book. I wasn't overly fond of the narrator's voice. Also, I originally thought this was a true story about a book thief I had heard about on NPR but notsomuch. It wasn't until the very end that I got emotionally involved enough with the characters to really enjoy the story.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Pumpkin Spice Scone from Starbucks *Hangs head in shame.*

Current Obsession: Pumpkin flavored everything. I specifically can not wait to indulge in THIS when I visit Florida next month. Pumpkin pie shake? Yes please. Thanks Monica for posting about this!

Current Drink: Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte

Current Song: I've been uber schmoopy lately and loving "By and By" by Brett Dennon and "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson

Current Birthday! Wish-List: With October bringing an upcoming milestone birthday for me, here's a few things I've been eying to pick up for myself (or have gifted): The Magic Bullet Blender (I had a blender but it was a huge POS and I keep slacking on picking up a new, *real*, one), The Grid foam roller (for when I'm back at it), these pinktastic Halloween socks, any one of these books, I also wouldn't mind a few more of my new fav Adidas tank (Especially in the dark heather grey).

Current Need: A bone stimulator. EDIT: I just got a call and I am getting one on MONDAY!!! PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!!! I'm so happy right now I could cry!!!

Current Triumph: Making a new friend! I know this might sound silly but I have not had any opportunity to make friends in my new town. (That I moved to last November!) It's a very small town and not very many people around my age. A few weeks ago I noticed an injured girl wearing a race shirt at the gym and decided to chat her up. Lo and behold we have a whole lot more in common than just being injured; she moved back from Florida last year and got injured during her marathon training too! We've hung out a few times now and it's been so nice having someone to aqua jog or go for walks with, and especially, having someone that truly understands what I am going through to talk to and laugh/cry with. EDIT: Add to this getting a bone stimulator next week! Morgana the Red wins the day!!!!

Current Bane of my Existence: This.

Current Goal: (Repeated from March, April, May, June, July, and August) To stay positive and focused on active recovery/xtraining so I can hit the ground running sooner rather than later. Later being the obvious winner here...

Current Indulgence: See above "Current Shame-inducing Guilty Pleasure" and "Current Obsession"

Current Blessings: The continued love, encouragement, and support from my family, friends, readers, and especially, Spike.

Current Excitement: October is pretty much my favorite month of the year! First off it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Save the Ta-ta's! Make sure you support the cause by sporting PINK at your races this month!), fall is in full swing around these parts and it's breathtaking, I'm celebrating the big 3-0, then re-celebrating it again a week later with all my Florida fam, and finally, rounding out the month by heading to D.C. Halloween weekend for a mega girls weekend / spectating the runnerds at MCM. It's going to be a pretty action packed month and I hope I can survive it all! EDIT: Add to this hoping the bone stimulator is the answer to my prayers!!! Healing FTW!

How'd your September shape up?!?!

Running is what you make of it, make it an Adventure!™

Morgana the Red

Before I introduce you to Morgana the Red let me first announce the winner of the YMX Giveaway...

Drum roll please...

And the winner of the Tribal Sea Run Tee is: Running Laur! Congrats girl! Please email me at redheadrunning (@) gmail with your shirt size and mailing address so I can pass it on to YMX!

Now back to the topic at hand: Morgana the Red.

Who is Morgana the Red you ask?

I'm sure many of you have heard tales about redhead's having fierce tempers right? And I'm quite certain you've also heard the age old adage "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?" Well Morgana the Red is my ultra-angry, alter-ego and when she is feeling scorned... well let's just say you don't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath! Typically speaking she is buried deep within the peppy Redhead exterior and very rarely, if ever is unleashed. I like to imagine she looks a bit like this, only a tad more modest and a fiercer "mean" face:

Today, Morgana was stirred from the depths because after three weeks of waiting, I found out that the insurance company has denied approval for the bone stimulator. You know, the one the surgeon at my second opinion prescribed me as my last resort before it would require surgery to fix my never ending stress fracture. Yeah.

LOOOOONG story short (so long I wouldn't even know where to begin anyway), the surgeon referred bone stimulator rep failed to acquire and submit some pertinent medical information to the insurance company in a timely manner and as a result the approval for coverage was denied. Mind you the only reason why I even know this is because I have been stalking the pending authorization on the insurance's website.

And this morning the status read: "Disapproved."

Needless to say I left various nasty gram voicemail's to the appropriate people then I called the insurance company for more information. Thankfully the representative I spoke with was incredibly helpful and informed me that the denial letter I would soon receive would outline the exact reasons why it was denied and also how to appeal the denial, which I full intend to do.

Morgana the Red is enraged beyond belief.

Here she is unleashing her fury on masses of incapable bone stimulator reps.
I wonder if her rage shields her from catching a cold in this get up?

So what does all this mean and where will I go from here? Well I am currently awaiting a return phone call from both my surgeon's office and the bone stimulator rep to get answers to my many questions on how this situation played out the way it did. Until then I have been researching alternative options I can take on my own to acquire a bone stimulator ASAP. As soon as I receive the denial letter I plan to begin the appeal process with the insurance company and submit the information they requested but never received myself. While all of this is taking place I will also be hoping and praying that a lead I have through a friend on a used bone stimulator pans out. There is also the option of picking up a used one off of ebay but this makes me nervous as a bone stim unit only has a certain amount of charges and you have to take a strangers word on the amount of charges they claim their unit has left on it. Alternatively I could pick up a new one tomorrow if I had $3-4k lying around, which I do not.

I truly do not know how much more I am meant to take, or can handle, with this injury. As I compile information for the appeal I calculated that I have been injured for 205 days or 29.5 weeks. It's sickening and ridiculous. All I want is to heal, put this injury behind me, and get on with my life. (As I'm sure all of you want as well, as I can only imagine you are just as sick as I am of hearing me go on and on and on about this effing thing... I can't thank you enough for enduring this with me over the last 6 1/2 months!)

So my friends now you know who Morgana the Red is and why the bone stimulator rep should be very, very afraid because hell really hath no fury like a Redhead scorned! RAWR!

Do you have an alter ego and if so what is his/her name and where does he/she derive from?

Tuesday Trial: YMX Product Review and Giveaway!

What do you get when you have products to review but are injured and can't put them to the test? The worst product reviews ever! Yay!

Typically speaking my reviews for products are done after extensive testing but in my current injured state all the products I've received to review lately came ill timed thanks to late breaking developments with said injury. After great debate, I decided I didn't want to sit on these products forever waiting to heal, especially with a giveaway involved, so I decided to rigorously (and by rigorous I mean, not rigorous at all) "test" them during my recent 5k walk. Lame I know.

So without further ado please humor and forgive me for these truly lame "reviews." Your patience and humor will be rewarded with a giveaway, so make sure you gut it out to the end!

First up, Columbia sent me this Omni-Dry Peak Power Shell Jacket. It has an ultra-light laminate membrane that's over 50% air, making the jacket insanely breathable and lighter than other 3-layer shells like it. Because they sent it to me in June, I didn't really have much, if any chance to use it until just recently.

My thoughts: I've now worn it in everything from a chilly 50* to nasty rainy wind-gusting weather and it definitely performs; It's a solid rain jacket, uber light, and all around perfect Spring/Fall jacket but... but... it's SO LOUD! As in every single movement makes you sound like you're a cat in a paper bag!

So. Annoying.*

(I'm not the only one who felt this way)

I considered wearing this to keep warm race morning but it's so freaking loud I thought I might distract the other runners and mess with their mental game. While I am truly thankful for the opportunity to test this jacket, at $350 a pop, I would never personally pay to buy a jacket with such an obnoxious personality. Thanks, but try again on this one Columbia.

*Fear not feline-loving friends (Sun Runner), no actual cats were paper-bagged for the making of this post.

Moving on...

Even further back, in March, just before I ended up with this lovely injury, everybody's favorite compression performance apparel company, Zensah, offered me the chance to test out their newly re-sized arm sleeves after I left them a message on their FB wall wondering if they were ever going to get size XS arm sleeves. I was so stoked to get these and had planned on rocking them for the Martian Half Marathon in April, but alas y'all know how that played out and since then, I haven't had an opportunity or need to wear them.

My Thoughts: Since it was a bit chilly race morning I decided to double up my new sleeves with the bolero I'm about to review below. Obviously it's not much of a test drive, but I have to say that they do in fact fit SO MUCH BETTER!!! As in I no longer have to ghetto rig them with safety pins to keep them up where they need to be like I had to with my old pair of size S/M sleeves. I can't vouch for how they ultimately perform but just the mere fact that I don't need to roll them over to safety pin in place gives me confidence they will work well in action. Oh and they still feel just as soft and tantalizingly smooth as my old pair, which of course makes me want to wear them around just so I can pet myself. Anyway, check out the new fit:

Doing my best Vanna impression

Thank you Zensah for letting me try out the newly re-sized sleeves, they fit so much better and I can't wait to give them a proper test drive when I'm back at it!

And finally, time to get to the review that also features a giveaway!!!

So as if getting the previous two items ill timed didn't suck enough, the awesome people at YMX by Yellowman saw that I was getting my ride on all summer with Leela and sent me this awesome cycling jersey and this extra awesome bolero... which of course I received the day after my doctor told me I could no longer ride Leela. You do not even want to know how sad I was. I mean look at how awesome these two are AND they fit me, WELL! I had been having such a problem finding cycling jersey's small enough to fit me. Needless to say, I'm not getting much use of them these days with all my stationary biking .::snore::. so that's when I decided, eff it, I'm wearing them for my 5k walk!




My Thoughts: As you can see above, the cycling jersey ($98) has a flattering, snug fit, and is a nice long length with pockets in the back. The zipper is flush so when it's zipped up you can't even notice it's there and unzipped it goes down to mid boob range. The fabric is super comfortable and breathable as I learned when I started to break a small sweat walking in the sun. It's priced competitively as far as I can tell, as most jersey's I looked at online and in stores came in around the $80-$120 range. I think they'd make a killing if they lowered it to the $50-$75 range, being that my personal shopping habit is almost always driven more by price than print and I think most people's are too, BUT I will def make an exception now that I know their product fits me so well and the prints are so much fun.

The pockets in the back were perfect for storing my camera and gloves. LOL!

The bolero ($59), or shrug as I call it, is perfect to wear for a ride that is/gets chilly and/or a run because you can so easily put it on/take it off. I think it's a little over priced since most people would compare this to sleeves which usually come in around $30. That's not to say that it's not totally worth it as you can so easily wrap it around your waist whereas when I am wearing sleeves I never know what to do with them if I get too hot and end up tucking them in to the back of my shorts and then they drive me crazy flapping around, hitting my back and butt. In the end it's a personal preference whether to choose the sleeves vs. bolero, I think I'll have a hard time deciding one over the other because I really love them both. And with that being said, guess what time it is?

Y'think I could get away with wearing this bolero on a regular basis?!?!

~GIVEAWAY TIME~

I warned YMX that this review of their products would be especially lame and they responded with "Not all of our customers can be totally extreme all the time!" and encouraged me to post the review and giveaway for a Tribal Sea Run Tee (I imagine if a dude wins this they will pick an alternative men's product) to one of you for putting up with this extra lame review! (Just another reason why they are so awesome.) To enter for a chance to win;

1. Like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter @WearYMX and let me know in a comment below.

That's it. But, if you'd like a bonus entry you can do any/all of these in separate comments:

• Let me know if you like the idea of sleeves or bolero better and why.
  
  
• Tell me a story about an item of clothing/gear that had an "obnoxious personality," like the cat in a bag sounding jacket I described above, that you could not stand.

The giveaway will be open until my next post at which time I'll announce the winner. Since I am no longer on a set schedule for posting this could be tomorrow or in a few days, either way get your entries in today!

**Contest open to U.S. residents only please. (Sorry! Their rules, not mine!)**

Disclaimer: Per FTC Guidelines: Columbia, Zensah, and YMX provided these items at no cost to me for my personal review and the (lame) reviews are entirely of my own opinion. YMX has also agreed to provide a Tribal Sea Run Tee to the winner of the giveaway at no cost to said winner or myself.

EDIT: This post has been closed for additional comments and the winner of the giveaway has been announced HERE.

Cooley Law 5k "Race" Recap

Way back in February of this year I signed up for the Capital City River Run Half Marathon with plans to use it as my A-race Half Marathon for the year. I had a score to settle with this race as last year I was unable to race it because I was coming back from an injury. Go figure. Fast forward not even a month from registering and I sustained the injury that would take me out of commission for the rest of the year to date. CCRR was the fifth and final race I had prematurely registered for this year and after missing the Martian Half (spectated), B.A.A. 5k (spectated), Cleveland Marathon (spectated), and CRIM 10 M, I decided I was not going to let this one get away from me, especially when it features a sweet long sleeve tech tee! Thankfully this event also features a 5k distance so I dropped down to the 5k and made plans to walk. Spike has been regularly "walking me," as we joke, so I knew I'd be fine to complete the distance and he even agreed to join me.

Pre-Race: Bright and early Sunday morning Spike and I suited up for the chilly weather and headed on over to downtown Lansing. The Lansing Center/Cooley Law Stadium area was all abuzz and despite my injury status and "race" limitations I couldn't help but get a little jazzed up. My one and only race this year was back in January and my last 5k race was in December of last, I have missed the race atmosphere!

Start Corral: For the first time in my life, and probably Spike's too, we lined up as far back as we could. I'm not going to lie, it was a wee bit demoralizing lined up so far back, but I kept telling myself that this was only a temporary location, someday I'll be lined up front again.

The Race: So the best part of this event is that the two races start facing each other about 100 meters apart on opposite sides of the road. When the horn blows both sides face off and become one until each side fades out going their respective directions. I was able to pick out a few familiar faces in the Half crowd to cheer as we waited, and waited, and waited to finally get across the start line. By the time we got there I forgot all about starting Hermes so you'll just have to believe me when I say that we totally negative split this race. We estimated that we shaved off about a minute or so each mile and somehow slugged our way to the finish in under 60 minutes!

So apparently our "power walking" looks only slightly ridiculous...

Why yes that is new YMX gear,
check back tomorrow for deets and a giveaway!

It got pretty crazy out there on the course, the Playmakers Over 50 Couch to 5k ladies were out in full force and we got to chat and encourage quite a few of them along the way. The race support and volunteers were great, humoring us as we ambled along proclaiming "there's still a chance to win!" A few times Spike had to reel me in for being "reckless" aka pushing the pace too fast, I certainly didn't feel reckless (although my leg would tell me otherwise later), but we did end up managing to pass quite a few people along the way. After forever, because 3.1 miles certainly seems forever when you're walking (major props to all you race walkers out there that do the longer distances!), we made it to the finish, hand in hand, smiles on our faces, thoroughly entertained by our little walk around the capital city area.

Coming down the finishers chute

Final Chip Time: 55:50 / 17:58 P
867/898 Overall - 93/96 AG

(In case you're interested my 5k PR is 22:19 while my 10k PR is 50:20, that's twice the distance in less time. Yeah.)

Stoked to be done sub-60!

Because I've never walked a 5k before this was an automatic 5k Walk PR!!! AND I somehow managed to avoid last place overall or in my age group! Woo hoo!!!

Post Race: I had really wanted to stay and cheer in the Halfers as I had a lot of peeps out racing but we had to leave straight away because of family obligations. I do know that most of them had a great race, with more than a few PR's on this picture perfect day.

Post Race Thoughts: Obviously this was not how I had envisioned this day would play out, but if I've learned anything this year it's that nothing is certain and the only thing I do have control over is how I handle the situation. As I said in my last post, I'm not done fighting, and I think we made the absolute most of a beautiful morning. I truly hope this is but the start of my return to running in the months to come...

WWKD

Kara Goucher recently blogged about her day at the World Championships over in South Korea. Going in she knew she had a nagging injury that might cost her the race, but she went anyway with hope in her heart and a "never give up" mentality. There are so many reasons to find Kara inspiring, but for me it is the humble and sincere manner in which she accepts the bumps in the road. Something she said in that post struck a cord with me and I wanted to share;

“… When I got lapped by the lead pack with about 2-1/2 laps to go, I cheered, “Go Sally!” and then kept going. I ran as hard as I could. In fact, I hobbled past two people in the last two laps. I was 13th, and way off a PR, but I hit the goal I had set for myself. I absolutely never gave up in the race.

After the race, as I changed out of my spikes and into my sweats, I told Shalane Flanagan that for the next two or three weeks I am “wearing my mom jeans.” I am only two days in, but already having a ball filling my day with Colt.”

I’ve been feeling especially burnt out lately, and between my second opinion yesterday and reading Kara’s post I realized why... I’m burnt out by the obligation I feel to this blog and all things “CAUTION: Redhead Running.”

Every since I became injured I have felt this sense of duty to maintain the brand, be as supportive as possible of everyone else with their training and races, reading and commenting daily, posting miles of any form to keep that zero off my weekly training log on Dailymile, coming up with content here on the blog, in short, trying to be some kind of injured-blogging-superstar to “prove” to everyone that I… that I what? That I was still working out? That I was diligently doing my PT workouts? That I was keeping my head up despite setback after setback? To what benefit? All of it was/is unnecessary pressure I’ve placed on myself and I really don’t know what I was trying to “prove” now that I think about it. I don’t have to “prove” anything to anyone.

A scab does not heal if you constantly pick at it right? So how can I expect to overcome this when I force running down my throat 24/7? I am strong and I will never give up fighting, but even Kara isn’t “on” 24/7. I am human, I have feelings and emotions. While I have genuinely been excited for each and every one of you and your accomplishments these last few months, there has also been a part of me that can’t help but get sad for myself, that gets jealous, that feels left out, that longs to be out there running and racing too.

And that's the thing, I know I’ll run again, I’ve never doubted that, but I’m not doing myself any favors by dwelling on it day in and day out. After reading her post the other day I asked myself “What Would Kara Do” if she were in my situation?

While I don’t have any “mom jeans” to wear, I do have “me jeans” and I think if Kara found herself in my pink trimmed Asics 2160's (Don't worry Nike this is strictly hypothetical) she would focus on recovering both mentally and physically from the injury. I think she would put on her “me jeans” and give herself a break.

So that is exactly what I intend to do; from here on out I'm giving myself a little break from posting, logging, tweeting, etc... cuz I've got this bone to stimulate. Heh. I hope y'all understand and I can't thank you enough for your never ending support through all of this.

The Second Opinion

Today I had a second opinion on my never-ending stress fracture with a surgeon. Why a surgeon you ask? Well when I had my follow up call with my regular sports doctor he suggested as much as my leg has officially gotten to a point that is out of his range. After further review of my various scans it was determined that a more invasive approach may be necessary to finalize the healing as I'm experiencing a Nonunion fracture situation. For those of you unfamiliar to what a nonunion fracture is,

"Nonunion is a serious complication of a fracture where the normal process of bone healing is interrupted or stalled....

Since the process of bone healing is quite variable, a nonunion may go on to heal without intervention in a very few cases. In general, if a nonunion is still evident at 6 months post injury it will remain unhealed without specific treatment, usually orthopedic surgery. A non-union which does go on to heal is called a delayed union.

By definition, a nonunion will not heal if left alone. Therefore the patient's symptoms will not be improved and the function of the limb will remain impaired."

My doctor gave me the heads up that the best case scenario I was looking at was being set up with a bone stimulator and/or worst case I would need surgery. As I am now at the six month mark with this injury, I'm long past the point of ruling out any and all options that could finally put this injury behind me so I walked in to my appointment as prepared as I could be after extensive online research of both scenarios. After going over my injury history with a five person staff that made up the surgeon's team, my scans were then reviewed, and a huge breathe was taken before the diagnosis was imparted to me;

I am to begin bone stimulation daily for the next three months. If at the end of that three months the bone still has not fused together surgery will be my only option. I am allowed little to no xtraining during this time, with approved xtraining being swimming and stationary bike with no resistance only, no more than a few days a week at most. I will have a follow up appointment the beginning of December to determine where we go from there.

Worst Case: If the nonunion persists a titanium rod will be inserted down the length of my tibia through the knee, pins will be screwed into my bone to hold said rod in place, and I will be looking at a recovery period of six months to a year. Long distance running will become nothing but a distant memory as the point of entry for the surgery will cause me lifelong knee problems, but I'll never have to worry about another stress fracture in my left leg ever again!

Best Case: If the bone stimulator does it's job and my bone cooperates I will, at long last, be able to put this injury behind me and finally be able to regain my once upon a time, active lifestyle. (When applied over a fracture site, a bone stimulator produces an ultrasonic wave, which delivers mechanical pressure to the bone tissue at the fracture site. Electrical stimulation therapy has been found to be effective in healing Nonunions.)

And that is that. I don't really know what to say, feel, think, or even do at this point other than to get the bone stimulator, hope my insurance covers it, and pray that it will get the job done in the time specified to avoid surgery.