For those who read this,

I want to stop in for a quick update, and to make some things clear. :) First off, recovery is going 50% fantastic, 50% ehh. After three weeks of ZERO exercise at all - and by zero I mean no swimming, biking, walking, weights, core, etc - my ankle has no pain at all. My femur, however, is taking its sweet little time. I still can't sit cross legged or on the edge of the chair, and if I spend too long walking around the grocery store I have a solid throbbing ache for the next few hours.

That being said, I want to be sure I make it clear that it is not my training plan which has caused me to get injured so much over the past several years. I've had several people call me out saying I ran too much or too hard or I came back too quickly from other breaks. That is simply not the case. My husband and coach is very knowledgeable, experienced, and well-versed in the proper way to progress training safely. Likewise, I'm not some crazy reckless running addict. :) I know when to push and when to back off; but based on my experiences I've found that sometimes it's worth it just to run on and take the risk that comes with it. It all comes down to what's important to you at the time, what's on the line, and how far-reaching the consequences are of taking that extra risk.

So for those who have taken the time to read this far, I'm going to share with you a tiny bit of what's been going on in my body the past three and a half years. :) Simply put, many systems have kind of gone kaput. :) In 2009, several of my blood levels randomly dropped, I lost about 30 pounds over three months or so, and a slew of other symptoms came along with that. After years of poking and prodding and tours of new medical offices, we've had a handful of successes. First off, my absorption of nutrients is very minimal. Meaning, vitamins, supplements, minerals, food nutrients, etc are not able to do their job in me. As a result of this my ferritin is very low. Additionally, my reproductive system shut down altogether when everything started. Another star on jacket is osteopenia.  Sounds like a recipe for a running prodigy! :) Thankfully, though I have a great team of doctors working together to at least put pieces back together, even if we don't find out what caused them to fall apart. I'm getting Iron Sucrose infusions weekly and using an intradermal form of birth control to increase estrogen and strengthen my bones. These are both perfect for me since they do not require absorption orally. The hope is that once I get the Ferritin levels up, the WBC and RBC also go up, and hopefully, the bones will build back up with this new birth control!

This was a bit of a different post for me since I generally use this strictly to record my training, but I want to be sure no blame for this gets tossed in the wrong direction. :) I hope everyone's training is going fantastic! I'm planning to start some upper body weights next week, so I will be back soon! ;)