Last week was certainly an unusual week for this girl that loves to run and workout.  If you recall, the previous week I had minor surgery on my left forearm on Tuesday, and hurt my left foot as I finished up a run on Thursday.  Nothing serious in the grand scheme of things, but enough to cause significant changes in what I could do.

Like any good runner, I begrudgingly stopped running for a week, while trying to figure out what was wrong with my foot.

Monday
I did strength training with my legs (squats, extensions, ball curls – no lunges because of my foot) and unilateral lifting on my right side only.  My core exercises are limited to things that don’t require me to use both arms because I can’t lift with, or put weight on my left forearm.  Oh bummer, that means I can’t do planks…

I had been icing my foot regularly since Thursday, and decided to start on some Epsom salt soaks.  Epsom salt is actually not salt, but a mixture of magnesium and sulfate.  It’s long been used for relief of minor muscle pain by helping to reduce inflammation.  I found a website that suggested making a paste, so I mixed just enough warm water to the Epsom salt to make a paste that I could rub on my entire foot – top and bottom.  I left my foot in the paste for about 20 minutes, and it felt quite soothing.

EpsomSaltPasteFootSoak

On Monday, I also decided it was time to start taking Advil.  I used to pop Advil way to quickly after a minor running injury, but now I’ve migrated to the opposite extreme and don’t like to take anything I don’t have to.  I gave my foot four full days to recover before I resorted to taking my first Advil.

Tuesday
I skipped run/walking with my client and kept her inside for her workout on Tuesday.  My foot was feeling better, but I was afraid that it was the Advil talking, and didn’t want to risk running on my foot if it wasn’t ready.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, I did a strength training workout very similar to Monday’s, and kept it low keyed.

Later in the day, I walked 1 mile at a 15:23 pace to see how my foot felt.  It felt pretty good so I decided to take it out on a short run on Thursday.

Thursday
I went out by myself and ran 3 miles at an 11:41 pace on Thursday morning.  It had been a week since my last run.  I felt like I was working as hard running my 11:41 pace as I had just a short week early running an 8:45 pace.  Ugh!

DebsLegsCrossedOnTrail

Friday
I spent most of Friday in the car as we drove to visit my Mom, and once we got there, Mom and I did a little gardening and walked around looking at all of her flowers, and admiring her little hummingbird friends.

HummingbirdSky

Saturday
I got up early on Saturday morning to run 4 miles on a dirt and gravel road.  The surface felt good on my foot except for the occasional twisting when I stepped on a rock.  I guesstimated that I ran at an 11:22 pace, since I didn’t use a GPS.

Later we attended the first Virginia Tech football game of the season, and walked about 2 miles around campus.  I was a good girl and didn’t jump to Enter Sandman, even though I desperately wanted to!  Jumping just didn’t seem like a good idea on a tender foot…


Sunday
I decided to rest on Sunday, and try to get back to close to my normal workouts on Monday.  Time will tell if I’m truly on the road to recovery!

 

Total weekly workouts:
Running – 7 miles
Run/walk – 0 miles
Walking – 3 miles
Lifting – 2 hours

 

  • Questions:
  • Have you every used Epsom salt after an injury?
  • Who had fun weekend plans?
  • Who’s kiddos go back to school tomorrow?