It started with a piggy back ride in Haiti. With a kid on the front and a kid on my back I raced back and forth on the gravel yard against Jennifer who had two other kids from the orphanage hanging from her neck and shoulders. We took turns loading kids, running to the sour cherry tree and back. Those out and backs almost felt better than crossing the finish line at Ironman. Almost.
ECHO Haiti
My functional strength training prepared me for all the squats to get kids on my back. It helped me lift kids over my head. It helped me balance and dance and play duck-duck-goose. I felt a little sore all over later that evening and was pretty sure I had kick-marks on my booty from the piggy-back rides, but overall felt strong. Haiti was good for body, heart and soul.
Fast forward to the week before Easter. I did water aerobics with my class instead of teaching on the deck. I attended a 15-minute boxing demo class at the gym while waiting for my spin class to show up. I did the step climber, too. On Thursday, I put on my prettiest golf skirt and hot pink sweater and headed to the Country Club for the annual adult Easter Egg hunt. The starter yelled GO! and off we went to find the plastic eggs filled with Mega Million lottery tickets, wine vouchers, free dinner vouchers, chocolate and more. I ran 50 yards at a good clip and as I climbed the 18th green I felt the world jolt beneath my left leg.
Hubby has the video and I can see the moment it happened. My arm flies up in the air as I steady myself. I watch as I fasthobblewalklimp to the rough around the 18th hole bending to pick up as many eggs as I can get my hand on. I walked back to Hubby with a slight limp and groan: I think I broke my hamstring.
True story. It's a low grade proximal hamstring strain. Literally a pain in the butt.
It's been two weeks and five days and it is finally feeling better. I've had to drop out of an upcoming half ironman and I won't be running for another four weeks. But, there is good news:
- I can swim without kicking and without pushing off the wall with my left leg.
- I can bike. I haven't pushed the intensity, but Lucinda and I went outside for a ride on Saturday morning. It was glorious!
- I can do Pilates.
- I can write!
One of the benefits of being injured is that there is more time in the day to do the other things that you think about doing when you're swimbikerunning. Whenever there's a run on my calendar, I stretch. I sit on a heating pad. I have started using the COMPEX. I have used my compression sleeves.
Apparently, I think about writing a lot and so.....here we go.