Major Set-back
From Walking & Biking Across America in Alexandria, United States on Mar 21 '07
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This excursion, which seemed to take off like a shot and purr along swimmingly has now stalled for a week- and for good cause. A combination of ankle pain and bad weather prompted me to find refuge with my family in DC. They were very good to get me quickly off my feet and to a sports-medicine/orthopaedic surgeon. He has assured me, with the assistance of an MRI, that I made a distinct "training mistake." This was primarily the presumption that walking is not difficult. Apparently, for joints and bones, walking a mile is no easier than running a mile and there is a very strict rule- that one should not increase their weekly milage by more than 10%. So if I meant to walk 65 miles in a week, I should have walked nearly 60 the week before instead of, say- 10 or 12. And 50 miles the week before that, etc. etc. Not that I should necessarily regret spending my days poring over maps and campgrounds and books and weighing my every band-aid to the nearest 1/2 ounce-- but my body was caught off guard and I have developed a stress fracture. My bone is not actually broken, but it is full of fluid and I will need 3 months of rest for it to fully heal. This is not what I had in mind for week 3 of my grand adventure. I will now spend week 4 re-evaluating my plan and deciding what to do and where to go next. I am certainly disheartened, but I am not in the depths of dispair. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and love. It will be a hard decision to make, but I have to come in from the cold for a while. For now, I'm keeping my foot up and watching a lot of Jane Austen.
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