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One Step Forward - A Few Steps Back

2015 is proving to be a weird and wonderful year so far.  

The week before Christmas, I managed to jam my right pointer finger, damaging the tendons.  The condition is call Mallet Finger.  Look it up if you are interested.  

The treatment for Mallet Finger includes mobilizing the affected joint for 8 weeks.  

If you haven't realized how important your fingers are, try wearing this for 8 weeks.  It makes typing, opening boxes, turning keys in locks and using your iPhone a little more difficult than usual.  

The good thing is it is was not painful.



After wearing this for a few weeks, a running buddy was kind enough to knit me a finger warmer.  Because the splint is made from plastic, it made my finger quite cold.  


The finger cozy got more attention then the splint did so I had to limit its use to running outside.

As time went by, I started to have fun with the splint after a friend mentioned it looked like a hat.


Two weeks ago, I was given the OK to start taking the splint off for 1 hour per day and build up to 4 hours a day in 4 weeks.  I am up to 3 hours per day.  I have also been given physio exercises to help get the joint moving again.  

Silly me.  I thought I would take the splint off and my finger would be good as new.  

Nope, not the case.  The joint is very stiff and may never fully recover.  Basic function has returned so I am happy with that.  

In other news, I discovered I have extremely low iron (ferritin) levels.  This was confirmed after a pretty horrible feeling January and February.  I would wake up as if I had never slept, my workouts were very fatiguing and getting out of bed some mornings was challenging.  I had entered a few trail races and a half marathon.  I completed them all but was VERY discouraged about my performance and how I felt during.  After completing the First Half Marathon on February 15 in my slowest times ever feeling like I had no more to give, I decided to go and get checked out.  I was pretty sure something serious was wrong.  

Good news was that it was just low iron.  I am almost two weeks into taking an iron supplement daily.  I'll be taking this for 3 more months and have my iron retested.  Might just be a placebo effect but I am starting to feel better in my daily life.  My workouts are still laboured but I am feeling stronger.   

And to top it all off, I had a 'suspicious' mole removed from my leg requiring 2 stitches.  It came back benign but it prevented my from swimming for the last week.  Probably a good time to take the time off anyway.  

Well, that is all for my aches and pains report.  

My focus:
St. George 70.3 - 8 weeks away
Challenge Roth - 18 weeks away
Challenge Penticton - 25 weeks away

Happy Training!

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