D.O.A.P.: 31 Weeks

Diary of a Prunner

 

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Our hill group this week!

After visiting the OB on Tuesday, I feel a little more positive about my ankle situation. I had this minor epiphany during my visit with Dr. P. How does my OB visit relate to my rehab?! Let me break it down for you...

 

As a PT, I feel completely silly for not thinking of this. I guess, when it's your own body, some things just don't occur to you. At my OB appointment, the doc asked me how my foot was feeling. I was telling him that the area of my fractures felt perfectly fine, but my ankle was killing me (particularly with intentional exercise walks). He reminded me that the same hormones that are released during pregnancy to loosen my hips/pelvis/back area also affect the other ligaments of the body...INCLUDING MY ANKLE! Mind blown. I can't believe I didn't make that connection. Of course my ligaments need to prepare me to push out a baby, but I never thought about how the extra hormones were affecting my ankle! He basically told me that my ankle may not feel completely normal until after I have the baby.

The rehab doesn't stop.

I was both happy and annoyed by this information. Happy because at least I have an explanation for what I'm feeling. I'm putting in all of this hard work to rehab my injury, and I want to reap the benefits. Annoyed because I'm not completely sure if I'll be able to tolerate running next month if my ankles continue to feel the way they do now. Only time will tell!

 

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• 6/13/16: 2 mile stroller walk, 38:30 (19:15/mile); 1.1 mile stroller walk, 21:45 (19:46/mile). We did our usual Hoff Park trip while the hubs played volleyball. I had no goal in mind regarding distance so we just set out to see how I felt. The first mile felt great! No significant pain. For some reason, when we started the second mile, it's like a switch flipped. My ankle was killing me! It took all that I had to survive that mile and get us back to the park. That mile was 2 1/2+ minutes slower than the first. Ugh. I decided to get out my rehab stuff and do some exercises and stretching in hopes I'd feel better. It definitely worked because our next walk was pain free!
  

  

  My sweet boy loves bridges.

• 6/14/16: 11.8 cycling miles, 45:12; 1 mile walking warm up followed by stretching, 16:38; 2.03 mile walk, 35:49 (17:39/mile). I was pretty happy with today. I had a good cycling workout, but had to cut my intervals to 30 seconds because Baby Boo Deux would push really hard when I was leaning forward for my faster segments. It was making me want to pee in my britches. Today, I intentionally did a warm up with stretching in hopes I could have a two miler that felt good. I wanted to test if I needed to wear the brace during the 2 mile segment. About a quarter mile into it, my ankle was in so much pain. I re-donned the brace and felt much better. I didn't feel perfect today but a lot better than yesterday.
• 6/15/16: 2.07 walking miles, 32:46 (15:50/mile). I met my friend Sarah for a stroller walk with our boys. I think the boys were running their mouths to each other about as much as Sarah and me! I was very happy with our average considering we were pushing strollers. My ankle didn't feel that horrible until we stopped. What bothered me the most was my butt and shin on the good leg. They were on fire!
  

  

  Creepy skies on Wednesday.

• 6/16/16:3 miles, 49:33 (16:31/mile). Not gonna lie...I was giddy about this one. I did the same workout a week ago (only 2.59 miles rather than 3), and my average per mile was 2:30 faster this week!
  

  

  Part of the dam hill.

  I did a warm up of 0.53 miles, 4 hill repeats (took me to 2.38 miles), and cool down until 3 miles. My ankle was iffy for the first half of the walk...particularly going downhill. I really need to do more downhill so that my ankle can strengthen. The uphill felt great and was more of a recovery for my leg. Although, it had my heart and respiratory rates going!
  

  
  

  

  Although I did a poor job of capturing it, the sunrise was beautiful over the water.

  
  
• 6/17/16: 8.10 cycling miles, 30:06; 2.37 walking miles with James, 40:27 (17:04/mile); 1.2 mile family stroll; Shoulder Beasting. This was our first full day in Nashville and I wasn't sure how much activity I would fit in. Fortunately, our hotel had an awesome fitness center and I was able to wake up early for some pre-breakfast cycling miles.
  

  

  A little single leg stance action.

  We did a lot of walking over the weekend that I didn't count towards my mileage, but I was happy with the intentional miles I was able to get. That afternoon, James and I found an awesome bike trail right by a YMCA in Brentwood. We went for a stroller walk while the hubs was working out. The first mile felt great but the rest was a struggle. My ankle wanted to fall off and my right shin and piriformis were on fire.
  

  

  Another walk, another bridge.

   That evening, we walked 1.2 miles at the Opryland hotel (that was just in one section of the place!).
  

  

  Post walk play time by the water.

• 6/18/16: 4 walking miles, 1:13:55 (18:29/mile-first 3 miles were 17:29 average, slowed down the last mile to let James run); Chest/Back Beasting. James and I had so much fun on this walk! The trooper was able to tolerate 3.5 miles of sitting in the stroller while I focused on walking. I rewarded him by letting him "run" the last half mile. He had been begging me to get out and run, and I couldn't resist the sweetness anymore! P.S. I realized a quarter mile into this walk that I forgot to don my ankle brace. I decided to just go with it and see what happened. I had NO ANKLE PAIN AT ALL!! I didn't even have that weird muscular pain in my good leg!
  

  

  Celebrating our long walk!

• 6/19/16: 2.01 walking miles, 34:46 (17:18/mile). We spent the entire day traveling home and hustling to get James worn out for bedtime. I didn't want to go to bed without doing some kind of exercise. I set out at 9 pm for a short 2 miler. I must have been worn out from the day because my freaking right leg (the good one) wanted to fall off. My ankle felt awesome again (no brace), but the opposite shin and piriformis were hurting like crazy. I've got to figure this out!!

 Since typing my intro at the top, things have progressed in a positive direction! I didn't have any significant ankle pain over the weekend. After Friday, I had no pain with my rehab walks (except the good leg muscular pain mentioned above) and no pain at all with casual walking.

 

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I'm only getting bigger!!

How Far Along: 31 weeks, 5 days

 

What Baby Boo Deux is Up To: Surprising me with some painful pushes. All was well at my appointment this week. Heart rate was 140 bpm.

 

Weight Gain: Didn't weigh myself this week.

    

 

Symptoms: None.

 

 

Cravings/Aversions: None.

 

 

Coming Up: OB appointment next Tuesday!