The Swamp Thing and the Long Run

Remember when I fell while running on Wednesday night and broke the fall with my left hand? Well it didn't hurt much at all when I went to bed, but then I was up every hour of the night in excruciating pain and couldn't move it at all by the next morning. I quickly realized that I was actually going to have to take a trip to ER since I was in extreme pain when I wasn't even moving my left hand and wrist.

So off to the emergency room I went and two and a half hours later the doctor informed me that despite not having much swelling or black and blues, I had in fact broken my left hand. The scaphoid bone to be exact.

Letter A is the scaphoid bone
Source

And as if that wasn't awesome news enough, he also informed me that I would be rocking a hard cast for the next 4-6 weeks until it healed. Clearly I know how to win in life.

Example of extreme winning-ness

So for at least the next month I will not be boxing nor doing a select set of Pilates moves which require a bend in the wrist. I probably won't be biking either, but I'm not entirely ruling that out. Two days later and much of the pain is going away, even though I haven't taken any of the drugs they gave me (I think running has improved my tolerance to pain), so perhaps when I'm feeling 100% I can maneuver my hands around the bike handles. I'm extremely grateful that I can keep up with the running, since that is whats most important.

I've never had a cast like this before. I sort of feel like I'm 10 years old, except I have to do real life adult stuff that is more difficult with only one hand. I should also mention that I'm headed to Bermuda for a few days tomorrow, so not being able to get my left forearm wet is going to make swimming in the ocean a tad difficult.

Probably the biggest annoyance so far though, has been the serious case of swamp arm that I develop on a run. Being put in a cast in the middle of August is less than ideal since the humidity is still raging. This morning Mike and I headed out for a long run that was thoroughly enjoyable for all parts of me except from my left elbow down.

We are in DC to celebrate my granddad's 90th birthday tonight so we got to run on the Capital Crescent Trail and through Rock Creek Park. We spent several miles on the Valley Trail through Rock Creek, which is really nice and I never knew existed before!

Yay trails!

Mike split off around mile 20 because his ankle was bothering him. I continued on and ended up finishing with just over 25 miles, making it not my longest run ever, but certainly my longest training run ever.

I was definitely feeling some muscle cramping in my hips and IT band from mile 21 or 22 on. By the end of the run, however, I felt no worse than I did after my 20 miler a few weeks ago. This is a good sign. I stuck my cast and left hand in the freezer for awhile when I got back and tried to cool it down. Looks like I will have to tolerate the swamp arm for a little while longer however. At least until the humidity cools down!