Obligatory Whiny Post

Last month my PT and I came to the same conclusion, there was nothing more she could do for me. I was better than when I started but progress on the Achilles had all but stopped. So we bid each other a fond farewell and I went off to revisit the Ortho to see what could be done. Several X-rays (now in digital!) later she pretty much said that I was a good case for some minor surgery. Ok, not pretty much, she flat out said that it was the best idea at this point. So I walked five feet over and made my appointment with the podiatrist happy that I could finally move forward and fix this. Except that her first appointment wasn't for another two months. God dammit.

Two freaking months. Which of course means that I would get to see her in two months, then there would be another huge delay to schedule surgery, if she even recommends it, then the time to recovery. Which means I'm looking at some huge amount of time still not running.

Well screw that, I'm going to start call around to other doctors. So I did. And every single one was a longer wait than the last. WTF. You gotta be kidding me here. Seven months after I began treating this thing and I still have to wait at least another two months for a chance to fix it. I hate doctors with the passion of a burning star.

Well, not these Doctors of course

2011 Blog Stats

Just for fun, here are the stats for my blog for 2011.

First thing, the amount of people following me has swelled from 7 to 7. So at least I'm consistent. My Feedburner feed though has 19 subscribers. Interesting.

There were 2849 pageviews. One notable mention, my race report for Baystate garnered over 900 views by itself. Ah, the power of Reddit.

66.14% of visitors were new. 1,311 total unique visitors.

The Greater Norwood Running Club website is the biggest referrer to my site. (excepting the Reddit bump). Keep up the good work!

But the single most interesting stat is that apparently you can reach my site by Googling this:  بريثي زينثا
Seriously, someone reached my site that way.

2011 Year In Review

Alright, I've put this off long enough. Here is my Year In Review for 2011.
Queue fanfare:

That was pretty much the highlight of this post so feel free to stop reading now.

I've covered most of this before so it will be brief.

As 2010 ended and 2011 began I found myself steadily recovering from a really ouch-tastic injury.  The Old Fashioned Ten Miler was another great race for me.

Then I set my sights on the Hyannis Marathon and cruised my way to a respectable 3:19. This wsa a pivotal race because I began to think bigger and to realize that a BQ was definitely in my grasp.

Now it was time to get serious. I enlisted the help of Mary to apply all of her knowledge as the founder of TriMoxie Multisport Coaching to make me a serious running machine.

Unfettered by a weird leg pain I flew down the streets of Boston during the Corporate Challenge to run my first ever sub-6 race (5K or longer).

Then came the New England Relay. But to make it interesting and to give the other teams a chance we ran it as an Ultra. And we still beat everyone but two teams (two full, 12 person squads. Not 2 other Ultra teams)

Time for a break so I ran up a mountain and through a bunch of mud.

Back to serious training. The Providence Half Marathon at which I alternately screwed myself and dominated at the same time. Now I knew that a 3 hour marathon was completely in my sights.

CVS Downtown 5K; my yearly tradition. Yes, I crushed it. And I would have done a sub-18 if it wasn't for that dang hill!

Finally, the Baystate Marathon. The one that I had been training for all year. Could I grab a BQ? Could I run it in under 3 hours. Yes, yes I could. Yeah me!

And to round it all out I threw in a duathlon just for fun. And got 3rd AG.

So all in all I would say this was a pretty successful year. Unfortunately I injured my achilles way back in March. Although I was still able to run with it I have been completely run-free since the duathlon in October. No running for a long time is starting to make me a very angry (non)runner. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

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Nothing to report

Seriously, nothing. I went to Ortho today on the advice of my PT and their only advice is to wear a heel lift. Great. That's totally going to make it heal up really fast now! I figure I should be ready to run again just as the temperature turns from an unusually warm winter straight into -20 degrees. Being injured sucks. Being somewhat injured but knowing you can't run because you'll make it worse is just an excruciating agony.

So since I can't run I suppose I will be

Still Not Running

It's been a month since the marathon and I am still not running due to the issue with my Achilles. (ok, I ran once) It is still swollen and sore so I'm still icing, stretching, going to PT..blah, blah...I even got a Strassburg Sock on the advice of my therapist. And here I am still waiting. And getting fatter. And being super-pissed that it is 60 degrees outside and I'm not running.

Time to get back on the horse (figuratively of course) and get back to training. 2012 will be here soon and I've got big plans for the next year. I can feel all that speed just flowing out of my legs and fading away. Need to run!

Four! Four weeks of not running! Ah ah ah ah.