Three Things Thursday: Foot Progress, #Whole30 Part II, NYC?

It's not that I've been ignoring you, but perhaps you've noticed, there's a serious lack of running in posts of late. An update on that front in today's "Three Things Thursday."

Foot Progress

For starters, whoever has been sticking their red-headed voodoo doll with pain pins;

"I give up, you win!"

I don't want to lament the injuries, but I can't ignore that my latest; a fracture of my fifth metatarsal is not a mind over matter issue, it was a broken bone suffered on a trail run the end of May in Sonoma. At least I was within reach of lots of pain relief in the form of a fine Pinot Noir.

I was in the ortho's office a few weeks ago, and he said I could get out of the boot, and resume light running in early August. I "half-listened" to his advice and couldn't resist running sooner.

It was a mistake.

My foot seemed to "flare up." I also tipped over on my bike after stopping (perhaps too much time off the triathlon bike) and caught part of the left outside part of my foot when I fell.  The foot seemed more swollen than it had been, so I went back into the boot. Shaista!

With almost three weeks in the boot again, the foot felt great, but still slightly swollen, but I was looking for another medical opinion on where I was at so I popped into my urgent care facility for them to take another x-ray. As the x-rays show above, the (black line) fracture has healed! White lines are good in x-rays showing calcium around the area that's healed. #yippee

#Whole30 Second Trimester

I've often considered my nutrition to be the "weak link" in my athletic endeavors. I have insane dedication to my sport, but I have a weakness to food--an insatiable sweet tooth, love my red wine, and sometimes tend to stress eat. That equates to a poor body fat ratio and literally carrying around too many pounds at times. As I first wrote HERE, my wife and I ventured into a Whole 30 nutrition plan. I'm in the second third of the program and starting to see some of the benefits; my energy seems to be much higher with less "swings" from high energy to a sense of feeling "run down."

NOT without its challenges however.

A family reunion (and neighborhood block party) is literally loaded with "bad things."



Just as I tend to go all in 200% with my training, I've been surprisingly dedicated to the program.

I've NOT eaten a candy bar I found in my backpack in my hotel room on the road. Who would have known? I would have.

My mom gave me a late birthday present treat. A box of Cracker Jacks which I love, but the only allowed ingredient is salt. That went in the drawer of "un-eatables."

I have thrown away bottles of tea that I discovered after one sip had some trace of sugar added. Coffee, tea, and water have been consumed in abundance. Not much else is "legal."

I am now on day #18, and starting to see the finish line in sight. The question is what will my diet look like after this considering the positive improvements I've seen. Can I stay eating healthy? Stay tuned.

NYC?

All this leads to the "elephant in the room," and that's, "when can I run, and when can I race again," and "will I be able to use the injury deferral I have for the New York City Marathon in November?"

I cannot predict that I will "toe the line" in New York in November, but I have a "green light" to run, and am going to try my damnedest to be there.

You might say, you should have started training three weeks ago to be able to get there. I know, but I have been working out an average of five days a week over the last five weeks. More importantly, I "doubled down" on my strength training prescribed by my running physical therapist with an emphasis on leg, hips, and core strength. This includes a lot of leg lifts, side planks, regular planks, and single-legged knee bends.

I feel stronger than I have been in nearly two years.

With that, again, stay tuned as my training progresses. I may use a variant of my run coach's Boston Marathon training plan and a Furman First training plan. The later will raise my conditioning and cardio, but be less stressful on my foot in particular that has been through a lot since last October with the stress fracture followed by my wine country break.

What a journey it's been.

And a bonus "Fourth Thing Thursday!" I made the short list (of 100) in the Runner's World Cover Search contest!!! You have 18 days to vote, and can vote daily HERE.