Boston Base Building Week 4 & 5

It's Holiday Season and man the weeks are flying by.  I thought I could manage running a few days a week even thought I was experiencing some pain in my shins that indicated the botox was wearing off... But after finally getting running back I couldn't just stop! Both curiosity and excitement drove my decisions. I'm in somewhat uncharted territory. McGinley has treated over 1000 people at this point, but all of us have different severity and different goals and sports and backgrounds. I created a few theories that have no evidence... but I assume based on the support group that my running background is a bit more serious and intense than the majority of people he treats (though I do know some others that are National Caliber level... we are in the minority) .... The path to permanence with botox relies on the body recreating firing patterns for muscles... I have a few things stacked up against me here:
1. I wasn't able to run until I was already in the window where the botox was waning, so I wasn't able to rewire muscle patterns as well as hoped.
2.  (This is just my theory), I've run tens of thousands of miles at this point in my life... More than most people....I'm theorizing that it's going to be harder for my legs to just "forget" what they've done for decades. I feel like my muscle memory is going to be hard to override and that as soon as the botox wears off my brain is going to be like "hey! That muscle is back online!" .... BUT Even if I'm not moving, atrophy is still happening in that window that I'm doing nothing... but the relearning isn't happening. These two weeks weren't great, sadly.... But I'm committed to this process now that I got a taste of success... and I'm still hopeful I can do Boston, but now I really am not sure. 

November 29-December 4
Week 4
Tricky week, Matt was traveling babysitters cancel.... I did the best I could to get something in knowing I didn't have much help... But Also with my shins bothering me I was completely fine with running less. 

Monday November 29, Rock Climbing
I had a great session! I haven't climbed much at all lately, but I think CrossFit is improving my strength to weight ratio so I did pretty well. Climbed a handful of V3's and was almost able to send a V4 which I'd say is about where I was before I stopped climbing because of conflict with time etc. I originally planned to go to Crossfit but it was full first weekday after Thanksgiving! Matt took the girls to his moms over night because she was going to fill in for our babysitter and keep them overnight for a few days. 

Tuesday November 30, CrossFit
I was sooo happy with this session because I was able to jump! I know I'm somewhat walking a tightrope with this. Returning to activities that typically bring on symptoms at the same time the botox is wearing off, maybe not smart.... but I'm at peace with the process of ebbing and flowing in and out of symptoms now that I'm seeing some relief. Before it was just no relief at all and that was hard. Everything I do I catalog as part of this single subject research experiment... and this recent breakthrough with my legs is helping me stay on the McGinley course with more confidence. 

Wednesday December 1, 3 miles
Enjoyed this run so much! Cold air, a bit of trail, I had a lot of days off so my shins felt really good and so much less worrying! Just what I needed before I went to get the girls from my MIL. Matt still was in Texas at The Running Event (TRE) So I still had lots of solo parenting ahead of me. I knew I wouldn't get much more workokuts this week so I was glad to frontload the week a bit.

Thursday-Sunday
 I basically did nothing the rest of the week. Raea got her Vaccine Friday, Saturday Matt was home and we did a bit more decorating of the house, and then Sunday we went to an Outdoor Christmas event in the town nearby... I wanted to run but also just was sore in my shins... I talked to my husband about moving our goal of going to Wyoming up to mid January. At this point I'm sure I need to go ASAP but with Holidays I don't want to risk getting covid. I'm hosting and if I get it and a kid is positive in a few days we have to cancel Christmas even and that's just not fair. 

Week 5
Im not allowed to forget we’re still in a pandemic, and this week was reminder after reminder….

​Monday: December 6, 3 miles
Turns out I was a close contact for Covid at school. Let the test and stay every student in my class begin! The nurses office was packed... THe City I teach in is only 42% vaccinated (even thought the state is much higher) .... so Thanksgiving cases are popping up, and it's that time of year where you don't know if it's cold, flu or Covid. ugh. Help us all! I'm vaccinated, boosted and wear a certified N95 most of the day but during phonics its really hard for the kids so I have to keep pulling down my mask so they can use lips to figure out sounds. After this I brought my clear masks for phonics. I originally planned to do Crossfit, but made the decision after today to not go until after Christmas. We don't wear masks at CrossFit, so just to be on the safe side so I don't need to cancel Christmas, I'm sticking with running and maybe climbing since masks are required there and it's easier to distance. I really like CrossFit so it's a tough decision, but it's the best I can do to protect my unvaccinated kids and my family. But I'm tired of ALL of it.

Tuesday: WOD from home. I'm still on the CrossFit app so I did the Workout of the day at home. My husband had a coworker over. I stayed away from him because I'm still a close contact and just went downstairs to do a workout and he was gone before I was done.

Wednesday: Rest. My legs are sore.

Thursday... Stair repeats ;) 
I had to finish my classroom window for the Light up the Night holiday lights display. Matt had to work in Rhode Island so I had the girls with me. I had to go up and down the stairs about 10 times to get my window just right. The display is on Friday but I needed to make sure I didn't need to buy anything else! 

Friday: Matt’s coworker that was over Tuesday tested positive for Covid… so we’re all close contacts except maybe me… but I’ve been testing everyday at work anyway, we have our PCR tests on Monday and took negative home tests so far. I went running and BAM calf lightning. Ugh. What a day! I knew I needed to get to Wyoming sooner rather than later but hoped I could maintain a few days a week for my sanity…. Ahhhh! It seems to never end. Onward!