Saturday morning, I had the Donut 5K- where I repped for Athletic Annex for a couple of hours. 

After the race, I got my hair cut & the magenta is a little louder this time. My girl Britney is the best. When I first tried out the splash of magenta, I didn’t know if I could pull it off. I was kind of nervous to ask Britney what she thought about doing it at first but she was all about it.

She is the one who gave Marshall that super cute hipster cut. Now that Glenn is growing his hair out a little more than the usual buzz cut I give him, he might have to see her for a visit. I can do the upkeep, but she might have to get him started.

Then Marshall and I headed to Louisville for one of my best friends sons birthdays. We got home from that at 10pm- he slept the whole car ride but of course woke up as soon as we got home and made me drive around and look at blow up balloons.

Sunday morning, we woke up and got to packing for Crown Point. Whew, that’s a long time to be away from home settled in someone else’s house. We are staying here though Christmas Eve and then heading back to Indy to spend Christmas morning at home in our house. We’ll head down to Bloomington to be with my family on Christmas day.

This is the first year that Marshall is truly excited about Christmas so it’s more fun. I have honestly struggled a lot with how to do Christmas with him. I don’t want to make a big deal about it, but I struggle a little bit with the whole Santa thing. I just want to make sure from a young age they understand why we are actually celebrating Christmas and don’t get caught up in the “I want all the stuff” concept. I know I’m not alone here.

I mentioned to Glenn – what do you think about Santa? Should we tell him from the get go that Santa is pretend, but it’s fun to pretend?  Glenn told me I was crazy though and that I should calm down and just have fun. This is a whole other post for another day and I could write a lot on my feelings on the issue, but for now, we are rolling with santa but not making it a huge deal.

In my running world- Glenn wrote a loose plan for me to follow for these next six weeks. I have already edited it a few times and changed a few things around, but following the basic outline.

Yesterday I did my first “speed” workout. I ran for 40 minutes total and after a 12 minute warm up. (Basically when I felt ready and that’s how long it took) I don’t like to give myself a specific distance or time to warm up because sometimes it takes me 10 minutes, sometimes it takes me 25 minutes. Yesterday it took 12.

I ran 1 minute at 9.0 on the treadmill (6:40 pace- felt like 6:20), and then took 1.5 min easy at 6.8, (8:55 Pace), I even got a little crazy and ran the last one minute at 9.5 (6:20) and extended it to 2 whole mintues. It was hard.

Looking back to where I was back in August, ahhhhhhh. I’m a solid 5 lbs up, my endurance isn’t stellar and the leg speed is hard to find.  BUT. Let’s take a look back at the last few months. Since the grim day when I tore my plantar fascia.

Here’s the Rough Timeline of Events:

Tuesday September 1st – Tore my Plantar Fascia.

• 4 weeks – In a boot

• 6 weeks – First PT appointment
  • start strength work on foot

• 8 weeks – Second PT appointment
  • cleared to run

• 9 weeks – 2 Min run, 3 Min Walk- 25 Minutes
  • Took 5 days off after doing this a couple times because I was nervous my foot wasn’t ready
  • Went to Foot doc- he assured me foot was healed, it was just the scar tissue that felt weird.
  • Prescribed Orthotics
    • A litte note on orthotics. I wore orthotics for 15 years. Got plantar fasciitis wearing orthotics TWICE over the past three years. Recovered from it both times after becoming pregnant and significantly decreasing my miles. (the second time I got it I took 6 weeks off running during the beginning of my pregnancy with Louis)
    • Stopped wearing orthotics May 2014 after hobbling my way to the finish line in Boston with so much PF pain.
    • Ran throughout my pregnancy with Louis with no orthotics and a mild stability shoe- both feel felt fine.
    • Plantar Fasciitis flared up sometime in June- I babied it, icing constantly, rolling my foot, did strength work. It wasn’t too bad, but I tried to listen to my body. Late August I had around 10 weeks to go in my training for the Monumental Marathon. I was feeling great and getting fit. The foot wasn’t effecting my runs, it was more the morning pain and aching throughout the day. The progression of my runs where shaping up to predict I would be in shape to run a sub 3:05 marathon (my goal) with 10 more weeks of hard work. I wanted that so bad and decided I would train through the PF and take a big break after the race. I’d done it before and been fine and it hurt way less this time than it did last time.
    • Tore the PF- and once back to running I decided I probably needed that foot support that my orthotic had provided. Ran my first post injury run with orthotics on Thanksgiving Day at the Drumstick Dash, 13 weeks out and haven’t ran without them since. Feels natural and good. That’s my orthotic story. Back to the timeline of events.

• 10 weeks – 3 Min run, 2 Min walk – 30 Min (3 days a week)

• 11 weeks – 4 Min Run, 1 Min Walk – 30 Min (3 days a week)

• 12 weeks – 30 Minute run beginning of week- 35 minute run end of week

• 13 weeks – Drumstick Dash – 39 Min Run
  • First Run with Orthotics

• HOLD HERE 
  • I felt like I had hit a ceiling for the time being. My foot was telling me I didn’t need to increase my run time yet. So I kept it at 40 minutes for my longest run for two more weeks.

• 14-16 weeks out – 40 Min long run (3-4 days of running/week)

• 17 weeks – 50 Min long run (3-4 days of running/week)

• 18 weeks – FIRST WORKOUT.

We are in Crown Point and this was done in my sister in law’s basement, while the kids (5 of them, our two and her three) ran/crawled around like nuts. I watched Donald Glover stand up on netflix and it was pretty funny. Not my most favorite stand up, but enough to have my laughing while I worked hard. I am obsessed with stand up comedy. It is my favorite thing to watch. Make me laugh and I will love you.

Then I had some cute partners to do some post run stretching and planks with. (That’s our niece Sofia) Marshall is having a blast with his cousins, but that’s not without plenty of fighting as well. Everyone wants the same toy at the same time of course.

Here are a few of my most recent favorite cutie kids pics: 

LOVE. The claw tub. 

Big Lou randomly dressed up making an awesome face. 

Marshall and our Niece Giovanna. Oh my. 

 Merry Christmas Everyone! 

The post Timeline Back from Injury + First Workout appeared first on Lindsey Hein.

Sure, I could write more and get some things accomplished after they’re in bed, which I did last night but I’m trying to make time for what’s important to my sanity and sometimes that’s putting my feet up, drinking beer and watching Louis C.K. stand up on HBO. Ok, let’s be honest, I need that daily for survival.

So, there’s my excuse. Balance. 

Here’s a brief update on my foot: I went to a foot doctor, with one look  at my stupid high arched feet, he informally said I probably have some weird foot problem. (Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Disease). This would be inherited from my dad, as we have the exact same feet- and Marshall too has the feet. The kid has callouses on his three year old feet. Some of that has to do with the fact that I let him go barefoot pretty much all the time, but most of it is how his foot is. Thanks Dad. I guess it’s better than the awesome gene mutation Mom passed down to me though. Dr. Banta also said he was surprised I hadn’t torn my PF sooner.

The one question I wanted answered more than anything was- will running delay the healing/recovery/strengthening process of my foot- or even re-injure it. I started a run/walk around three weeks ago and I keep feeling the presence of the injury on the foot. It didn’t necessarily hurt, but I felt it enough to wonder if I should be running on it. He said NO, it will not hurt my foot. The injury should have been healed up in 6-8 weeks- and now what I’m dealing with is a bunch of scar tissue. This is the same thing Brian, with St. Vincent told me, but I’m just paranoid, ok?

Plan of Action: 

• I have new orthotics coming. I wore orthotics for 15 years, gave them up for a year and am going back. I do think orthotics are probably over-prescribed, but I have some really F-ed up feet, so I believe I’m a good candidate for them. I’m going back to my ways- but a lighter, more flexible orthotic this time around though. (I have gotten plantar fasciitis before wearing an orthotic, so I don’t think running without one was what brought it on- though I sadly wonder if I’d been wearing one if it would have kept me from tearing it)

• I was prescribed some ointment that is supposed to help break up the scar tissue. So I’m begging and pleading with Glenn to put the ointment on my foot and dig into that scar tissue every night.

• I was prescribed some physical therapy also, I want to make an appointment this week but I am hesitant, because insurance only pays for so much, it’s pretty costly and honestly a big headache to try to schedule appointments around staying home with the boys. Would be much simpler if I worked 8-5 and could take an hour out of my work day for the appointment. I also want to hop on the Alter G at St. Vincent, but again carving out that time and managing having someone to watch the boys (more $$), makes it sort of difficult to commit to. Excuse, me would you babysit my kids while I go workout on the alter G? Who am I Kara Goucher?

• I am putting my foot in an ice bucket for 10 minutes every night. No excuses.

• Rolling my foot everyday.

• Basic foot strength exercises 4 days a week

• Run/walking 3-4 days a week right now. I’m at 4 minutes on, 1 minute off for 45 minutes currently.

• Swim/Bike/Row 2-3 days a week but taking days off pretty much anytime I feel like it.

Glenn working on that scar tissue.

I have an ice partner every time. 

The mold for my orthotic. My poor little high arched, rigid feet. 

Marshall and I went on a nice little stroller run/walk on Sunday. Back to our ways. Sort of. Though super slow and I was a little winded, it was refreshing. 

In my last post, I mentioned coming up with a training plan for myself, but I haven’t done it. I think my biggest goal was figuring out if running was going to be ok or not and I got the ok, so I’m feeling happy about that.

Also- I lost my bathing suit. I left in hanging in the shower at the Y last Monday and can’t find it in the lost and found. Super sad about that, because who wants to spend money on a new bathing suit when they have a perfectly good one. So I haven’t swam since last Monday, because Lord know’s I’m not showing up at the Y in my non-working out swim suit. Bikini Chat. I can’t be that person. (My workout swim suit actually is a two piece, but it’s meant for working out TYR) I suppose if I want to swim bad enough before I cave and get a new one, I could just show up in any darn swimsuit. You know as soon as I buy a new suit, the old one will turn up in some random locker I haven’t used in months.

I’ll come up with a plan. It will happen. Right now, I’m adjusting to being able to run again. It feels weird, but I’m hopeful it will slowly start to get better. I’d love to be able to run Carmel in April and then race Grandma’s in June. I’ll see where this next month or two takes me and like I like to do with most things in life- play it by ear.

In the meantime- we went to Glenn’s cousin Michelle’s wedding this weekend- it was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

This is our whole family on Glenn’s side, minus all the crazy kiddos. He has three sisters.

And it’s been so long since I last posted that we haven’t even talked about our Hein Monumental Water/PBR stop at Indy Monumental! Our house is on the half course- just past mile 9, so since for the first time in who knows when, neither of us were running, we set up a fun little stop.

I think it’s safe to say the PBR stop was a hit. We went through the 18 pack that I bought pretty quick and then our neighbors went home and grabbed a 30 pack they had and we quickly went through it. People were majorly dissapointed when they saw our case of beer and realized we were out. Now we know for next time. MORE PRB. Here are just a few pics of the party crowd:

Congratulations to everyone who ran Monumental. I am always so excited to cheer all of you on. We cheered on dozens of people we knew in both the half and the full. I can’t even count, but I would say I knew well over 100 people running between the two races and I just love seeing people out there getting it done. While I’ve been pretty darn positive and content during my stupid injury, fully realizing that it’s not that big of a deal, I was grumpy leading up to the race and just a tad bit bitter on race day.

I have pictured myself coming in that home stretch on Meridian in the last three miles so many times- literally over the past two years- last year I wasn’t able to because I was super pregnant and the year before that I was recovering from an intense surgery. This was going to be the year I ran my PR into the ground. And beyond the PR, when I cheered on runners running 1-2 hours slower than my goal, I would have done anything to be out there running those times with them, celebrating being a part of the race. I just wanted to run. NO FEAR, I’ve recovered and am done moping for the most part. and have my sights on enjoying now and what’s next.

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