On the Road Again

 
     So finally after a month off of physical therapy, resting, cross-training and counting the days I get to run again. I have to hold myself back a little as my excitement is bubbling over a bit but I am doing the right things. I have been continuing my physio exercises, dynamic and static stretches, keeping the runs pretty short for now and am back to Maffetone Method. One of the things I know now I was doing wrong was starting to run hard again.
      Every time I start to ramp up speed I end up getting hurt somehow. When I take it slow and steady and keep to my heart rate training I seem to be just fine. Even though that means taking longer to run, which just gives me more thinking and picture-taking time anyway, and probably running most times alone, which I got used to over the last year or so training for my ultras so I know the drill on long, solo runs....podcasts, music, deep thoughts and a bit of zen PLUS the occasional cool picture.
    It is nice to be back among my running group again. I had missed them all. Even though it wasn't forever or anything when you get used to seeing your friends at least once a week and then nothing for awhile it can make you miss them terribly some days.
    I learned many good things from physical therapy too! I learned my glute medius is as weak as a newborn kitten but it is getting stronger every day. I learned some great hip, glute strengthening exercises. I learned how to do a proper pistol squat after much practice and I learned how to listen to my body even better than before. I can scan it now and make adjustments as to what I am doing, how I am moving, when I have to slow down or stop. I have learned my limits and how to make myself stronger.
    I also learned that there are an awful lot of nice people out there who care about me and want me to do and be my best. That is always the best lesson of all. 
  

Ways to keep positive during injury recuperation

       I have now not run since the Monday after Eagle Creek Marathon unless you count the too-soon test run of my hip I did a couple of weeks ago with high hopes which were then dashed and I was sent three steps back into having trouble just walking, doing my PT exercises and getting on and off the bus. I felt so frustrated and angry at my body.
      I felt like yelling at it "Why won't you just stop hurting, calm down and let me do what I want to do???" My body's response was a continued ache and fatigue that lasted for three days. I ached to run. I watched the cool mornings pass by without me, lovely nights where I could have dashed a bit by headlamp or some bright enough without, hazy trail running......it just started to get me down.
      I was down on my body, down on my age, down on my training and how if I had done something differently maybe this wouldn't have happened and I could be well on my way to getting my training in the bag for Flatrock.
     I have decided I am definitely going to Flatrock. I am not getting any younger and opportunities like this don't come around for me very often. I will go either as a cheering squad for my friends, perhaps help crew a little, offer support or I will see how well I am by then to do the 25K. If I feel like trying for the 50K I will make sure my hip is in total agreement that this is a decent deal and no harm will be done if I take it slowly, I will bring a headlamp so I can run through the dark if I need to and if I am not going well enough to continue can always drop down mid-race.
     I know there are going to be loving, concerned friends out there who will say this is stupid. But if I am okay with all three options then there is no reason to skip the party entirely. I can still go to Kansas, be part of a cool event, maybe even pick up a volunteer job if I truly can't run at all and maybe see if I am up to trying for it. So this may be a very weird kind of training----mostly depending on Eagle Creek  to bolster up my self-esteem since I finished that recently and it went well even through all the problems I had. I may do more cross-training, run as I can and if I feel well enough try to fit in maybe one pretty long run before it's time to chill before the race.
   I promise all who love and care for me I will listen to my body. My physical therapist told me that today. She said most important was to "listen to your body". It will tell me what path to take if I just turn off that nagging voice that says "go..go...go....go...go..." and just repeat "rest...be still.....do as I can...listen to what  I most need to hear....take the path of least resistance."
  Also in the meantime I have classes to teach, clients to train, things to do to keep me busy. I do miss my running friends and having fun at group runs but I know if I am patient I will be back there soon. We can run through the streets and I can hear their funny stories. 



              Just a little longer....................

The life of a runner who has to take time off

    I have been having some hip problems lately. It started about two months ago on a simple 14 mile long run. About mile 10 I started feeling this niggling little ache in my right hip. I pushed on through as it didn't seem horrible and finished the run. The next day I ran and it hurt again and then my left hip got in on the fun.
   I decided to go see my awesome bone and joint doc and see what he said. He diagnosed me with bursitis of the hip. When I went to physical therapy I discovered my glute medius muscle (the one that is on the outside of your hip) was very weak. The first day my PT told me to do 2 sets of 20 side lying leg lifts and I could only do 10 and it was fatigued. You don't realize the places you are weak until you actually start isolating them. They had me do some exercises that were surprisingly hard for me like these things called Monster Walks in which I would have my feet in a circle tubing and then walk forward with legs going out and in. They also had me doing sideways squats where I again had the circle tubing around my feet and had to walk sideways with the resistance. Oh my god were they hard! It took me 2 weeks to get up the point where I could do one way down and one way back twice.
   They gave me small resistance bands to use to do clamshells and side lying leg lifts at home. We foam rolled and stretched out my calves and they did some deep tissue massage by scraping my hip over and over again with a hard plastic thing that resembled an ice scraper.
   I was getting better and then I ran a marathon. The marathon was fine with the hip...some pain but not bad enough to stop or anything just a little nagging thing I had to baby with a bit of pigeon stretches and things along the way. Then Monday night I got greedy. I went to run group and decided to HIT IT with a fast, hard run. Fast for me anyway....8:30 miles and such. And then I felt a wrenching pain my hip. Uh Oh!!
   I went back to my doc and he said he would give me an MRI and make sure it was not a stress fracture. I was sweating it out for 3 days waiting on the results because he said if it was a fracture my 50K at the end of September was OUT...completely. He got back to me and said no fracture but it was a little tendonitis so keep up with PT for another couple of weeks and no running.
   NO running????  Wow. What does a runner do when they are not running? I had been training pretty consistently now for over 2 years for marathons and ultras. Though I had given myself a "training break" for a month or so in the summer I was till hitting 25-30 mile weeks. Long runs on the weekends.
   Now? Nothing. Last weekend for the first time in a VERY long time I did NOT run a long run. The weekend seemed to go on forever. I cleaned my house, read the sunday paper, went out for coffee, did my laundry, watched Netflix and still seemed to have way too much time on my hands. I got all my prep work done for my classes and clients which was good and used up some more of the time. But I was jealous of my friends out running the trails and such and wanted so badly to lace up and go.
   But I am nothing if not obedient so I will wait it out. I am going to go aqua jogging tomorrow and maybe a couple of times next week, I rode my bike a lot yesterday and today got up and did my PT exercises and foam rolled. I believe Flatrock will go alright. I did just run a marathon and it is not my first Ultra plus maybe a couple more weeks of rest and cross training will be good for me. Work and strengthen other muscle groups. And when I start to run I will still have a good month left to train.


In the meantime.......I guess I will keep busy with work, books, art, alternative workouts and having some fun on the side.