Running with a Baby and Fracture

First things first, last Thursday morning (the 17th) Michele and I welcomed into this world a beautiful baby girl. AEY and mom are doing fantastic. Dad on the other hand is back in the office wondering how in the hell he's ever going to catch up on sleep, hang out with family and run. Seriously though, I'm still on the highest of highs since monkey entered our lives.

Over 2 weeks ago, I fractured my left radius bone near the elbow and feared that I wouldn't be able to hold our little one. Well thankfully it wasn't an issue. While holding her, the pain seems to just go away.


As noted, it's been two plus weeks since I busted up my left wing and there's still a good amount of discomfort. Thankfully the pain I dealt with immediately after the fracture is gone, but the discomfort annoyance is something I deal with all day. The annoyance stemming from the lack of a normal range of motion and strength.

Therapy/Rehab is going great but I'm not out of the woods just yet. The fracture doesn't seem to want to set correctly and the insertion of pins still might happen. More will be known in a few weeks.

With regards to running, lacking any normal range of motion and the swelling has had its impact. Pain is also evident when I pull on my socks and tie my shoe laces. At least I can look at my watch now. The rotation of the left wrist was painful at one point and now just requires full and slow attention for the rotation to be completed.

Thankfully the running has come around. What started out as time off transitioning to slow jogs with Bisbee has finally turned into productive outings. And of course the new found motivation that comes along with being lucky enough to be a father doesn't hurt one bit.

If It Ain't Broke

...but hurts like a mother focker, then it's likely fractured.


Believe me, the brake in the pic above hurts really really bad. The great news is no surgery is needed, no cast is needed and that I can run within the week. The bad news is I have to deal with the pain since the only way for the elbow to heal is by moving it.

Long story short, I slipped on some ice and used my left elbow to cushion my body from the pavement. Slightly longer version.

I went out for a run Monday night. Goal was like 7 miles and to make home in time to cook dinner. All was going smoothly till just over a mile left. I hit an intersection and debated for about 5 seconds which way to go. Straight or go left. Either route would lead me home. No route was longer then the other. At the last second I decided on the left hand turn.

For almost 6 miles, I paid attention to damn near every slippery step I took. Focusing on balance and body position to help minimize a fall. This is something I've been doing over all my years of running on icy conditions. However, for this brief second I didn't focus on balance. Upper body going straight, lower body going left.

As quick as I went down I was right back up. Still running. Flexed my arm in a curl position a few times and all felt fine. Just a tad stiff. Didn't think much of it. Then I thought I'd look at my watch to see if it broke and that's when I felt it. Rotating my left hand so I can see my watch led to a few clicking noises in my elbow and a lot of pain. I just knew something was wrong then.

Ran the last mile plus home and within minutes the wife and I are headed to the ER at Porter. 3 hours later we're back home. The wife tired and me in a sling. Wednesday morning the sling was gone with the update being the one I started out this post with.

Next Monday I meet with a hand specialist to work on rehab with a recovery time frame of 4 to 6 weeks. I'm aiming for 3 with a goal to run sometime next week. Running at I'm sure will be a slow conservative pace.

Sharptail Ridge/Roxborough State Park - Snow Filled Trails

I got the opportunity to run with some more fast folks Saturday morning. So how did I get ready for this run you ask? By rolling my ankle the day before along a snow covered sidewalk that magically ended without me knowing about.

WA put out the invite to meet up on some trails I never knew existed. The meeting spot would be the Sharptail Ridge Trailhead just east of Roxborough State Park.

Pulling into the parking lot at 7am, WA and JP were waiting patiently. Soon after SJ came cruising in. From the start, the trails were covered in snow and it was obvious any distance we tackled would make for one hell of a work out. The morning temps felt cold initially but were extremely comfortable.

Now I have no idea when we exited the Sharptail Ridge area and ventured into Roxborough but the views were just amazing the whole time.


The snow was untracked and got really deep as we ventured further west. It made for tough running as we headed uphill but the downhill sections were a blast.

(SJ on the left and JP camera blocking WA on the right)

After some time, we made it to the high point of the run. Carpenter Peak. Even with a low ceiling, the views along the front range were magnificent.

From here we headed down some great single track which led to me taking a huge digger and getting my bell rung. I think a small animal took out my legs.

I was mentally strong today, just really enjoying the day out. However my running was just out of sync. I wasn't tired or fatigured, but the whole body was just tight. Not sure why. WA on the other hand was crusing with his new found trust in them microspikes. JP, other then farting in my face (or did he step on a duck?) was strong as usual. SJ, along with having one of the cooler last names, was just smooth.

It was a great time out with these three. Gotta thank them all for getting after it this morning and letting me tag along. Mileage was something just over 15 miles within a 2 hour 45 minute-ish timeframe.

January 2011 Summary

Runs - 26
Workouts - 7
Injured - 0

The Bad: The month started out damn cold and ended the same way. Most of my month from a running perspective transpired in a dark and cold setting.

Work for a two week stretch reared it's ugly head with huge hours logged in. How I found the time to run much less be a good husband is beyond me.

Baby classes. While extremely informative, 8 hour classes on back to back weekends were brutal.

I still suck at running and peeing at the same time. Why I continue to try is beyond me.

The Good: I can't take all the credit for this cause the wife did lots, but completing babies room with 3 weeks to spare deserves some props.

With all the pink splashed around the room, we're hoping the doc is right with her predicting a little girl for us.

This was easily one of my stronger months of training I've had in some time. My mileage this month easily exceeded last January and February mileage combined. Gotta love being healthy. All my runs had a purpose as well. I wasn't running to just log in miles, but rather was running to work on speed, tempo, aid in recovery or build on the long run. Each run left me extremely satisfied both physically and mentally.

I gotta thank PG for motivating me on a few long runs. We ran a loop early in the month from our hood that I've since termed the Hobo Loop (incorporating the Platte River and Cheery Creek paths). He also put together a group run including some cool and fast kids. More can be read here and here.

The gym continues to be a part of my cross training. Up to 90 minutes is spent pushing weights around, working on the core and stretching between sets.

Looking forward: The goal is continue putting in the miles and hitting up the gym as much as possible till baby is due. The docs say the 20th of Feb is expecting date. We're hoping for a 27th due date. So I'm sure that means she'll be coming out much sooner then either the wife or I expect.