My family and I had a great time in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture over the long weekend with a bunch of close friends. On Sunday we made a long trek to Lake Inawashiro in Fukushima for a fun day of jet skiing.
To cut a long story short three of us took a tumble from a banana boat after which I felt a little winded, but was much more annoyed that the force of the fall had taken my watch from my wrist to the murky depths of the lake.
I had a run planned for Monday evening after we arrived home, to run off Saturday nights BBQ and beers, but breathing deeply caused me some mild discomfort so I postponed.
On Tuesday morning I considered it wise to visit my "major injures doctor". My "major injuries doctor" is a different doctor than my "cold and flu doctor". I visit him roughly once a year and he greets me with a big smile and a "what have you done to yourself this time" each time I walk in the door. My major injuries doctor plays fast and loose with the x-rays which is exactly why I chose him.
The moment I mentioned the term "jet ski" he was already chuckling to himself and warming up the x-ray machine. As expected the x-ray revealed a fractured rib, only a small fracture, but painful nonetheless. He prescribed pain killers and wrapped me up in an elastic corset to restrict the bone from moving about too much.
So at this stage I think I'll be skipping the 10K Run For Vision on October 10th. My doctor told me to expect roughly 4 weeks of discomfort and the Run For Vision is only 3 weeks away.
I have the Toda Half Marathon on November 21, so if I'm back up and running in 4 weeks I'll have exactly 1 month to prepare for that. Not enough time to prepare for a stellar performance, but surely enough to prepare for simply reaching the finish line.
My dilemma at the moment is how to maintain whatever little fitness I had now that I can't run, cycle, swim, do weights, or anything at all? My current plan is to walk roughly 5km each evening, its not going to salvage much fitness, but it will keep my motivation up as I'll feel like I'm at least doing something.
Any cross training tips for someone with a fractured rib would be greatly appreciated.
I just replied to your post on my blog (thanks). In addition to what I wrote, I forgot to mention that the support of the online running community has made a HUGE difference in my (somewhat fragile) ability to stay positive. In the past when I've had a major injury, I've pretty much bagged the idea of running and sometimes missed several YEARS (thus the name of my blog). Now that I have a lot of cyber running "friends", I not only feel more inspired and motivated, but I also get a lot of good input and ideas on how to overcome the obstacles...and I seem to give myself plenty of them.
ReplyDeleteAgain, hang in there and give that rib a chance to heal. Your fitness will return shortly after you get back to running. Good luck!