My Bum Leg

If I could switch out my right leg I would in a heart beat. My entire life this leg has given me problems.  Growing up I complained of knee pain and was in and out of physical therapy to try to fix it. It wasn't until 1998 when they finally realized I needed surgery to clean up and repair my torn meniscus. Unfortunately, what should have been an easy procedure turned into a nightmare when I developed a blood clot after surgery. Not just a little blood clot but a major DVT blocking my vein from my knee to my ankle. As a result I became an expert at injecting myself with blood thinners and got pushed around the mall in a wheel chair. People are very sympathetic when they see a young person in a wheel chair and I even got to use the handicap dressing room.  After the wheel chair came a cane, which made me look oh so stylish walking around college campus. When all was said and done I suffered some pretty good muscle atrophy and couldn't bend my leg more than 45 degrees. Physical therapy fixed me up but the leg has never been the same.

I now suffer from time to time with what I call "dead leg." My leg just feels funny and tired and the only way to describe it is "dead leg." It's not painful and doesn't keep me from doing anything; it's just annoying more than anything. And the calf and ankle of my right leg is also much smaller than my left. Sounds like a lot, but there's even more...

I have an extremely painful bunion on my right foot. My big toe is growing so far under my second toe I look like a freak. The pain used to be tolerable but now it hurts while I'm running, sitting at my desk, laying around, etc. The pain has gotten so bad that I'm starting to think of a good time to work surgery into my training schedule. And I swore I'd never let the right leg go under the knife again.

I also suffer with IT band issues in my right leg. It completely seized up and kept me from running after Philly marathon in 2008 but since then I've kept it under control. I have to be very diligent with stretching it and using the foam roller or the pain sneaks up on me out of no where. Like it did last week because I got lazy. Back to rolling every day.

Then there's the Achilles injury I had last summer. When I told the Physical Therapist about my history with this leg, he seemed to think it was more than a coincidence that everything happens to this leg. I've been really good about stretching the Achilles before and after every run because it's still a little funky from time to time. No pain, but I can feel it get tired (for lack of a better term) and it's a little tender.

And lastly, and hopefully nothing else comes up, I'm suffering with some plantar fasciitis right now in my right foot/heel. Self diagnosed but 99% sure that's what's going on. Determined to nip this in the bud I started rolling on a frozen water bottle last night and a golf ball. It hurt like heck but I'm going to do whatever I can because I will NOT let this get in the way of me and Shamrock.

So that's the story of me and my bum right leg. Are all of these things related? I dunno. But it definitely seems weird that it all happens to the same leg.

Here's my schedule for the week:
Mon - 5 mi, cross train
Tues - 10 mi w/ 3 ladders at 6:58
Wed - lift, bike
Thurs - 10 mi w/ 6 mi at race pace (8:10)
Fri - lift, rest
Sat - Frostbite 5 miler
Sun - 17 mi