23 weeks - work, Montana & Badwater Ultramarathon
Where to start, it’s been a while since I’ve posted…Life sure can get busy. Running fairly regularly again. Work life is returning to normal. So thankful that the worst seems to of passed. What a traumatically awful thing for a body to go through. Thankful that my work was as patient with me as they where, I had to transition a little quicker than I would of liked from working in the walking boot to using just shoes & then to carrying golf bags…I am a caddie after all so that’s what I had to do, I’ve been carrying doubles (2 golf bags) now for the last few weeks, ever since I caddied in the 1st Tee Champions Tour event, we made the cut & finished 4th! My tendon still feels differently than the non-injured one but I can tell it’s strong & I feel as if I’m out of the woods for the most part, as long as I don’t do anything to over the top!
So now on to the vacation, which I sort of looked forward to & dreaded at the same time. Really needed a break after rehabbing & jumping right back into a busy work season, it was time to do something great and fun. We decided to take a family vacation to Montana"s Glacier National Park. Awesome right! We’ll yes & no, no because it involved about 19hrs of driving for me as I went up a few days after my wife & kids left so I could work the big golf tournament. I left late at night so traffic would be light & I could drive the most tiring part in the sun. I decided to double up on my compression wear, but my tendon was still kinda hot (used cruise control most of the way), And my feet swelled quite a bit…I iced up & elevated my feet when I arrived, I was pretty happy with the results as my tendon really didn’t give me any real trouble…Had a couple of nice runs while I was there…a 12 miler & a 2 miler on the trials with my daughter 
After all the awesome time spent with the wife & kids in Montana it was time for me to hop in the car with my daughters while my son & wife stayed a few more days in Glacier…The Girls & I headed back down south this time to Death Valley for the Badwater Endurance Race the 135 mile Ultramarathon through the desert from Badwater 282 ft below sea level over 2 mountain ranges finishing at the Mt. Whitney Portals 8,300ft. The drive was an adventure in itself as a 20hr drive turned into a 25hr ordeal…Things were very smooth until I hit Western Nevada, driving toward some 6k ft summit I saw a huge lightning storm going off on the horizon & my route took my right into the heart of it & it was a huge light show with a lot of heavy rain…as I came down the other side I noticed at about 4am that the highway was getting increasingly wetter I was a little concerned & reduced my speed to about 40mph, when all of a sudden my headlights hit what appeared to be an end in the road…I pulled to stop & exited my car & saw that I had stopped about 30 ft. short of an impromptu river running across what should of been Highway 6!…So I hit the detour button on the gps & it lead me to a little dirt road about 2 miles back the way I had come from…Faced with either waiting out the flash flood or heading down that road I decided as the sun was coming up to take my little scion out into the great wild wild west! We drove down this rutted road until it took us to the Extraterrestrial Highway which we hoped would route us around the flood, well 10 miles and an hour later! It did! Only to find that although we circumnavigated the flood we were left squarely behind a mud slide! Ended up waiting there for 4 more hours in the desert! Until the road was cleared by a construction crew just enough for us to sort of off road a bit more and then, freedom a couple more hours of driving & we finally made it to Death Valley!
My tendon responded much better on this trip even tho it was a longer trip…We had a blast! I was able to basically have a front row seat to an epic race between The eventual winner Mike Morton(he of Western States legendary fame) & my friend Oswaldo Lopez, last year’s Champion! After driving around all night and witnessing this epic event it was time to return home…Through all the sleep deprivation, the time running, driving returning to normal work duties, I have to say I believe I’m very nearly fully healed! I’m very thankful & have even registered for my next race the Steven’s Creek 50k in September…The next step for me is to increase my endurance. It’s been a very difficult injury especially in the 1st half time wise…Very painful & stressful…A lot of uncertainty & what a sad sight when you first see your leg outside of the boot…My advice, have faith be diligent & don’t be afraid to keep moving forward to the next step of recovery! God bless you all! You will get through to the other side of this thing!
Oswaldo & Mike Morton at the finish after all day & night running...I have a whole lot more if anyone is interested on my Facebook Page, Michael Jimenez...I love spreading the word about 2 subjects, God & His mercy, and Ultrarunning! Heal well all, God bless.
A pic we took from the race, Oswaldo early on.
Little runner Girl & I about to hit the Montana Trails!
Getting it back! God's been gracious!
Best I've felt, been a long time...Thankfully the time does pass!
Nevada mud slide! Tendon withstanding the driving test!
Oswaldo's team van!
July 25th, 2012 at 7:41 am
Ultrarunning– You are doing fantastic with recovery! Very inspiring! Thanks for sharing your vacation story. Sounds like quite the adventure! Great pics, too. Congrats to Oswaldo for that awesome Badwater finish.
Do you mind if I ask about your “return to running” program? I have my 4 month appt with my Ortho next week, and he said that I should be given the “green light” to start running then. I don’t have easy access to a treadmill, I’m thinking of starting back out on the flat/smooth rail-trail that I’ve been “hiking” on. How soon before you were ready for “regular” trails? (I know, New England trails and CA trails are NOT the same beasties! You have big hills, we have roots, rocks, mud)
Vermont was this past weekend, and the weather was perfect for them. sigh…next year!
July 25th, 2012 at 11:39 am
How long from surgery to your first run? I was training for a half marathon which is in October of this year! Not that I am going to be able to do that but to give me some idea of time scale. I will be 4 weeks post surgery this Friday! Not that I am counting every day
July 29th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
You are are such an inspiration ultrarunning316! Congrats on such a fantastic road to recovery, too! I’m starting week 8–hoping to take my first step soon and like eastcoastrunner & pauls I can’t wait to get back out there running! Posts like yours show it can… and will… be done! That pic of you hopping over the log just made my day, too. bring on two strong ankles!!
August 2nd, 2012 at 10:36 pm
My apologies for not being around the blog…Let’s see, I am really blessed to have a treadmill, mostly because it allowed me the ability to do a lot of walking that I could control the speed & incline on. To me those many miles & hours of walking we’re exactly what I needed to help build and prepare a new base fitness level + some core work…I walked as much as I could at least every other day and I walked intently but with an understanding that I would push it but I wouldn’t cross the line & would back off if I had any real fatigue of twinges or if anything felt not right.
I let my bodies energy and my legs tell me when I was ready to run…I recall the exact moment, I was walking hard and just felt this little bit of giddy up in my legs and I went with it but only for a few strides
but it was an awesome indicator…The next night I ran a 1/4 mile on the tready, then I just increased the next session I think to a mile might have been a bit more, but remember I had worked my supporting leg muscles & core into a fairly good shape so it wasn’t like a raw jumping into the pool with both feet type of thing if anything I may have been ready to go for a week previous…
Running on the treadmill was to me like having a safety net because I could step off at any time, I didn’t have to worry about running out the door a few miles & then feeling like I shouldn’t continue & then risking re-rupture on the way back…But if I didn’t have the treadmill I would of probably just run repeats in the neighborhood just to be close to home. I always ran at an easier pace than I felt capable of say 70%…Even now I’ve only really thrown down nothing faster than 6:30 M/mile & that’s as close to the line as I want to get right now. I’ve matched my pace to my distance pretty well my last semi speed work was 6 miles going out around 9:00 - 9:30 min pace coming back I negative split the last three progressively 7:30 to 6:30 min, but my last long run (my 1st 20 miler post injury) was done at a 11:10 min/mile ave pace something I would of had no problem holding a 8:10 min pace pre injury…So just start with light miles, take extra rest days(rest is part of training), keep a light pace(easier than your capable of), and low volume with a steady build in all areas…Just remember to continue to rest & listen to your body…I’m still fluctuating between 20-30 miles a week, getting ready to raise that up to 30-40 m/week. I would say a mini cycle of 3 weeks of building miles to 1 week of rest no running(light walking), would be a good pattern with a building week looking like walk/run, rest day, walk/run, rest day, light running, rest day, rest day…building from there. Right now I’ve built to where I plan on a certain distance for the day if it’s a day I want to run & run as long as it’s fun. If I feel the tendon tiring or feel like my form is not great I cut my run short…So just don’t rush your recovery, take it in steps that progress naturally.