perfect timing

during friday nights' race, i landed nicely into a squishy puddle of mud, well hidden by leaves. My shoes and socks were left with a nice mud stain.

But today, I got new shoes.  Free shoes! Yay! What can be better than that!  In July I won the ExtraOrdinary Runner award from Runners' Lounge which won me $100 to spend at Online Shoes.

Having already spent a small fortune in shoes, trying to find ones that will work for me, I ordered a second pair of the ones I've been using, the Saucony Progrid Guide.

Having less than 100k on my first pair, and my mileage increasing very slowly, I should good for shoes for a while :)

Weight training yesterday morning, 1600 meters in the pool last night, 5.22 run this morning, the intervals are slowly starting to be more like actual running!  15 min run, 2 min walk, 15 min run! Next run wednesday.

So far the leg has been feeling good! I still have those phantom like pains once in a while... still icing just to be preventive, but I still fear reinjury. No pain at all while running, and i'm sticking with the post-injury plan, and doing lots of cross-trianing. Marlene's hubby made a comment last week when we were spectating at the marathon... that when he had his injury, he "had to get his head out of his leg".  So very true.

Is there a doctor in the house?  If you boys out there don't want to read any further, it's gonna get pretty girly for a bit... sorry.  But I am trying to understand something.  Brief story.

When I first went to the sports physician, he told me to up my calcium, which I did. 1200mg/day along with my usual multivitamin. When I saw him the final time, he had an intern with him, so me and 2 male doctors.  He said I was healed, ready to start training again slowly.  I asked him if I should continue with the calcium... he then asked me a question. Being that there were 2 males in the room, I immediately clammed up being the moron that i am, and was unable to tell the truth -- just to avoid talking about it!  I am such a loser.

Me : Should I keep taking the extra calcium?

Doc : It's hard to get enough calcium through diet alone.  I don't see the harm in taking the extra calcium, but you don't have irregular periods do you?

Me : No (face totally beat red, embarrased....next topic please.)

Total lie.  I do have very irregular periods, had this checked out previously, cervical biopsy showed nothing abnormal, was told I could have an IUD implanted to help regulate my cycle a bit since I am not planning for more children, but opted not to do the surgery, and live with it. No big deal other than an inconvenience from time to time, or so i thought.

So here's my question.  What is the link between irregular periods and calcium? Why would increasing my calcium have any impact on my cycle?  This started years ago, even before i started running, not just since increasing my calcium.  What prompted the doc to ask me that? I've heard of elite runners and athletes that no longer have a period at all due to low body fat percentage. Well, I'm quite the opposite, I am "on" more often than not, and certainly have enough body fat ;)

I have googled it, didn't find anything that seemed related, asked my mom who is a geriatric nurse, she also didn't know.  She said i was silly for being so shy/nervous/embarrassed... they are in fact doctors.  I know.  So I've made an appt. for an ART session tomorrow evening with my first sports injury doc.  I want to talk to him about these little twinges from time to time, make sure that's normal, and I will get up the courage to ask him.  If there's something else going on... like something with bone density or something else, I want to know.  I have a lot of years ahead of me, and want to be able to run for many of them, so it's time I suck it up and ask.