Working Out the Kinks

The little hip/abductor pain is still there slightly. The good news is that after a couple warm up miles, I can run 100% pain free. I am also feeling a little top ankle pain on the opposite leg. That bother me, too, b/c I'm just wondering why this is happening? Actually, I do know why this happening- changed/added stimulus to the body. So, instead of give up on the speedwork approach, I am merely doing what I can to stay off the injury bench. I'm letting my body work the kinks out, especially in the area of my gawdawfully slow recovery runs. One perk of being the track coach is that I can get free medical advice from the trainer. I discussed the hip/abductor thing with him on Sunday, and he told me some stretches to do, along with a heat/ice regimen. Yesterday, he actually looked at the tendon that is on the front of my shin/foot. He said there was a SMALL amount of swelling. Once again, he showed me some light stretches, along with icing/heating regimen. So... last night I did a tempo workout, followed by basketball practice, and I was really feeling both things. (I will save that whole basketball thing for another post, crazy, yes.) I came home, did my stretching, then used all the frozen veggies in my freeze to ice myself down. After that, I dozed off into the comfort of my electric blanket.

I am also working out the kinks with the track team. One of my secret (well, not anymore) goals is to quit putting up with crap. Not that I'm ready to just tell someone off, but speaking your mind for the good of the world is never a bad thing. Through that, I also learned that I need to quit asking permission! Part of the reason we had trouble scheduling track meets was b/c I *asked* if we were allowed to miss two professional nights and teacher conference night. The answer was, of course, no. "All school activities are canceled those nights." You can imagine my surprise when K showed me the calendar with ALL the sports' schedules and there were softball games, tennis matches, and baseball games scheduled for those nights!!!! WTH? So much for trying to do the right thing.

I also decided to make the middle school team wear the old high school uniforms. The new uniforms will be purchased for the high schoolers. I totally admit that's kind of gross, but if anyone has an answer for us to come up with a couple grand, let me know. Haha. The Shoe Fairy also came to practice this week. Followed by a message from me, "Tell anyone where you got these shoes and you will never run again." Haha. We actually had athletes on our team wearing their school uniforms to practice in, including loafers. I just couldn't stand to see that. I also had my 2nd day of practice on my own. Coach D has been deployed for a bit, so I've been managing distance runners, sprinters, and throwers for 2 days. The first day was a bit rocky, but yesterday I did a MUCH better job on managing the system. 40ish kids are hard to deal with and organize! I rallied the help of some responsible high schoolers to keep their "group" on track, while I oversaw the whole deal, and did a little timing. The next challenges on the tablet- relay batons & hurdles. EEeeeekkkk!