Still Moving Forward... I Think

Wow, two days into another week and I'm still alive.  I'm happy to report that swimming is going quite well, although considering the fact that that was the only thing I could do without interruption all summer, that's not much of a win.  Tomorrow I'll head out on a pretty decent bike ride, planning on hitting the road early and hoping to beat the rain that is supposed to move in since lately it can't be sunny for more than half a day at a time.  I went on another run today.  Thirty-five whole minutes.  I head out the door, start running and feel awesome just to be out running.  It's great.  I realize I missed it. 

And then I get about as far as the end of the driveway before it dawns on me how difficult it is!  I'm breathing hard, I'm slowing to a point that feels more like pumping my arms in a running fashion while walking not particularly fast, but I have to keep going.  Then I occasionally feel good again on some downhills, but it has definitely not gotten easier yet.  I need to constantly remind myself that it does get better, it's just always so hard to see it in the beginning. 

There is no pain from my foot although I'll admit I'm in constant fear of it.  The last x-ray still showed a visible line but I was given the go-ahead and told to hope for the best.  Aside from that, my foot now looks like this:

I apologize, because I hate it when people post picture of their feet and I know mine is not especially attractive but at least there are no open sores.  And due to lack of running for once I even have all of my toenails.  You see the way my big toe points inward though?  Why am I suddenly so exceptionally deformed?  I didn't notice it looking like that until after I raced Mooseman and I know it hasn't looked like that for long.  I would've noticed.  I feel like this new deformity should've been a more gradual thing.  So now visions of surgeries are swimming in my head and yet another setback to running that would pretty much put the nail in the coffin on my triathlon career before I even get a chance at my 2012 comeback.  I'm going to the podiatrist on Thursday though.  Let's hope it's something that can actually be fixed.  Scarily, my feet probably aren't even my worst feature. 

Not much else to say.  The weather was nice today for my run but rain is moving in so after tomorrow's outdoor ride (hopefully) I'll probably have to hit the trainer for the first time since.... April?  I honestly have no idea.  Oh, and also I'm eying the waves for the end of the week.  Did I mention I went surfing two weeks ago?  I've had a surfboard since my 21st birthday and since I became a triathlete it is grossly underutilized but I still like to have it for the occasional visit to the New Hampshire coastline.  It's no California and definitely no Hawaii but it's fun anyway.  Friday and maybe Saturday are looking good, so I might sneak in a little visit to the ocean among the rest of the training.  You might not believe me but I'm pretty sure my last trip to the ocean was much warmer than my swim in the lake last week. 

Time to wind down for bed and continue to try and get used to getting up at 5:30 in the morning once again.  It's not as easy as it used to be!