It’s hard to believe that exactly 4 weeks have passed since I broke my foot: I literally haven’t walked in a month. In some ways, the downtime has been more trying than even my most intense training cycles. I’ve kept a good frame of mind for the most part. I know that a break from training will be beneficial in the long term – I’ve competed in over 30 events over the past 4 years including 13 marathons (6 ultras), 5 half Ironmans, and 1 full Ironman, and my body was probably craving some downtime – even if it had a cruel way of asking for it. It doesn’t change the fact that my current situation is very frustrating, and I’m looking forward to resuming my normal routing as soon as possible.

I saw the doctor on Monday for my 4 week checkup. I’ve been x-rayed weekly to ensure that my fifth metatarsal is aligned, and fortunately, it’s still in a good position. The bone healing typically takes 6-8 weeks, but as of now, the fracture looks exactly the same as it did on the day of the break: there are no signs of bone healing. It’s too soon to press the panic button – that will only happen if there aren’t significant signs of healing at the 8 week mark, but for now – it’s more of the same: crutches, ice, rest, and repeat.

On to the good news: the doctor gave me the green light to start swimming with the pull buoy, and I made it to the pool yesterday. I’ve assembled a mini home gym in the past few weeks so I can work on core and resistance, but there’s really no substitute for a proper cardio workout. I only went for 20 minutes (~1200m) to ease back into it, but just getting back in the water was therapeutic in itself. It was the first time I moved more than a few feet at a time in a month, and I’m going to try my best to swim almost every day from now on – onward and upward!