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Me Time
Swimming Becomes a Fit Escape for One Mom
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Not only did I decide to run seven days a week, but I also believed I didn't need to follow a regimen for properly bumping up mileage to reach the 13-mile goal. I just figured I'd add miles to my run when I felt like it. It seemed it would take a while to get from three miles to 13 miles. So instead of increasing my mileage incrementally, one morning I tested my stamina and tacked on two miles to my daily jog.
Five miles felt easy and great, and so I jogged another five the very next morning. It was that afternoon I began experiencing shooting pain up and down the outside of both calves, from my ankles to my knees. Of course, I ignored the discomfort and just limped out of view of my husband and friends. And I kept running my usual three miles, thinking I'd just work through the pain until it went away and then resume my training.
I have a high tolerance for pain; I gave birth to two babies without an epidural. But it got to the point where the knife-like jabbing up and down my lower legs prohibited me from walking up and down the aisles of the grocery store without limping, let alone wincing, with every foot fall.
My primary-care physician diagnosed tendonitis in both ankles. He suggested I take a break from running – maybe two, three weeks off – and down prescription-strength ibuprofen to control the swelling that had developed and keep pain at bay.
Soon, the stabbing subsided in my left leg and ankle. But not in the right.
When the internist's remedy failed, I literally hobbled in to an orthopedist's office. In the exam room, he poked gingerly at my right ankle and took an X-ray. The photo of my lower leg revealed a clean, hair-thin crack in my fibula, the bone just above the ankle. No, it wasn't tendonitis, but a stress fracture.
