Minor Triumphs

Today was pretty busy, hence me not posting anything until 11:41PM. Swimming went really poorly today. I started out the workout hungry, started to get heartburn halfway through, and for some reason all the good form I learned the past week completely disappeared.

Since I felt like crap afterwards, I decided to focus on the little triumphs today:

• I aced another assignment I swore I bombed
• I touched my toes without bending my knees for the first time in over 22 years
• I finished an assignment that I procrastinated way too long (see #4 from yesterday's post)
• I shared a lot of useful information on running with a girl at the PT's office who is planning to start running soon
• I stuck with the swimming tonight no matter how frustrated I got
• I have enough self control not to run until Wednesday, despite feeling truly injury free today
  

Debut Delayed

Well, running is delayed another week. But, in all honesty, it's probably for the best, right?

I had another appointment with my PT this morning, and he's telling me to take it easy with the running until I go home for Thanksgiving next week. So I have one more week to wait, although deep down I think I'm glad he's telling me to wait. He's the first person who has told me I need to hold off on the running. Until now, everybody else has been saying I need to try it out and see how it goes, even though I haven't felt like my body is ready for it. Maybe this extra week will be enough.

But I do have even more exercises to do now, just more to keep me busy! Right now I think I'm actually spending more time on my fitness than I was when I ran 40 miles a week. I have 90 minutes a day of stretching and PT exercises per day, ab workouts 3 times a week, and swimming about 5-6 hours a week. All in all we're talking about 18 hours a week, man does it add up fast!

Thats almost as many hours of training spent when training for an Ironman.

Crap, I said it out loud.

Winter Goals

This was the first week I had to bust out my winter coat. That means its time to bust out my winter goals, too. Everybody else is doing it, what are you waiting for?

Here they are:

• Stick to my list of physical therapy exercises/stretches as if it was a religious document and I was the pope
• Regain the 5 lbs of muscle I've lost since graduation
• Make ab and core workouts a habit
• Slowly rebuild my mileage up to 40-50 miles per week. Slowly being the key word.

Thats it. Four goals. But each one is doable and will have a significant impact on my running and general fitness. The gaining of weight is probably a very foreign topic to most people. But I, apparently, live in a very different part of the galaxy! Gaining weight is a very difficult thing for me to do; my metabolism is naturally very fast, I (ideally) run 40-50 miles per week, and don't eat much junk food at all. I'm sure you'll agree with this goal after looking at the before picture!

Although I am not part of SLB's Running Through Th3 Wall Challenge, I am going to post my before pictures. It'll help keep me on track. And as usual, no smiling is allowed in the before picture, because that makes the after picture look that much better! Seriously, have you ever seen anybody smile in a before picture?


Putting those running shorts on for the picture sure felt good. They haven't been on for a while. In fact, I still have them on. Call it nostalgia. Maybe I should go grab my mylar blanket from Chicago too?

Notice that none of my goals involve races. Not yet. I am not looking at any races until I can painlessly run 25 miles in a week. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it. Previously, I was considering the Myrtle Beach marathon in February, but it definitely isn't happening due to the amount of time I have needed to take off. The half at Myrtle Beach is a possibility, but I am not even considering it an upcoming race until I can run pain free. My goals listed above are much more important than any race, for now!

The chips are on the table. Its time to get to it!

A. R. T. -- The End

Today was my last day of A.R.T. for this round of injury. Although it didn't fix my hip, I am still convinced it is a good technique to know about, and to have in my arsenal the next time an injury rears its ugly head! I have a feeling our paths will cross again sometime in the next year or two.

I don't know what hit me last night; perhaps a combination of waking up early, starting ASTYM, and not wanting to do my homework. I decided to lay down while icing my legs, and I was out like a light from 8-10pm. When I woke up I was in "what the hell just happened?!" mode. I wasn't even planning on sleeping. I got up for a little bit, took care of some email, ate some food, and went to bed. For another 11 hours. Eleven freaking hours! At least it gave my leg some good time to recovery from my treatment.

I've been sticking with my stretches and exercises pretty well today; even with the rather intensive schedule of stretching four times a day and doing the exercises twice. I decided the best way to do it is to associate them with eating. I can't eat unless I stretch. Since I always eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and before bed this system should work out pretty good for me. Then, I suppose, for two of them the exercises will be required as well.

My legs are feeling really, really great today. If I didn't have my self imposed break from running, I definitely would have put in a few miles today! I actually did jog out to my car today, just to see how its feeling. It didn't hurt. Not at all. It down right felt good! But regardless of this, I'm still off for at least another week. I've been here before. I've felt great and had running tear me right back down to square one!

On an unrelated note, class rocked today! No, not because I learned a lot. Far from it. Most of it was just review. My professor, who is an older, short, Chinese guy said: "If someone say, ahhhh, ask you how you do number 4 on homework 8, you know what you tell them? You tell them, ahhh, you go to hell!" Oh man, I hadn't laughed that hard in a while. I'm glad I have him again next semester!

Physical Therapy: It Begins

I decided to go with KORT for my physical therapy. I like the idea of them being a bigger organization, in case I stump one guy, it should be easy to get transferred to another one without huge problems.

So far, I like what I'm seeing. My PT, Rob, isn't a runner, but he seems to know his stuff. He's also very good at explaining at exactly what is going on with my problems, and the technique he is trying to fix it. I like understanding it, its my body after all! He seemed surprised that I, unlike every other runner, was okay with taking time off. It just took me two months to come to this nightmare-ish realization!

He did some strength tests on my legs, and my left leg is significantly weaker than my right in a lot of areas. Especially when it comes to my abductors and TFLs. Hopefully with some exercises, stretches, and some persistence on my part we can get this part of the puzzle fixed. I'm doubting this is the whole problem, but it is a problem to address.

Also, he's trying a technique called ASTYM. I don't remember what it stands for, except there wasn't a word for the Y. He said I was the first patient to ever ask about that, ha! ASTYM is used to break up scar tissue. I'm not overly enthusiastic about it, because, well, thats what A.R.T. was for too. The main difference is that it is done to the entire leg, not just the problem area.

Man, did that stuff hurt. He put something on my leg, cocoa butter, I think he said it was, and then used these plastic tools to break up the scar tissue in my leg. He mentioned girls don't like to have it done usually, because of how it really bruises up the leg. At first I was thinking "aha! Those silly girls!" but yeah, it really bruised up my leg; no joke! I might take some pictures of my leg later just to get some revenge on Nic for posting the picture of his disgusting toe!

But there is more to the ASTYM system than simply skinning me alive. I also have to drink lots and lots of fluids; but I already have that covered. I don't think I've peed anything with color in it for years. Okay, maybe its not THAT bad! There is a list of 8-10 stretches I need to do 4 times a day, too. I like this, too, because its very specific about what I can do on my own time to help my recovery. Before it was just "well, don't run. Or do. Whatever." Now I have a checklist I can go through. I can be very, very active about my recovery.

I also have a patch on my hip for the next 24 hours or so. Its pumping it full of steroids, hopefully helping it heal up a little bit. The medicine I was on recently was steroidal, and seemed to help. With the patch, though, it stays in this immediate area and is much more focused. Hopefully this change will make it help even more.

For now, I have several days until our next appointment on Tuesday. Until then, just a lot of stretching, hydrating, icing, and dreaming about being back on the roads.


On a completely unrelated note: Marcy, the Google result for "butt massager" was so your fault. The text Google found was from YOUR comment! And yes, when I looked at the search page, there were very, ah, interesting things surrounding my blog. My search was listed as slightly more relevant than vibrators. Thanks Google!

Executing the Plan, With Gusto!

Yesterday I stated my game plan to speed along my recovery this weekend. So far, I'm sticking with it to the T.

After my A.R.T. session really set in yesterday, my hip started feeling really, really good! As in, normal good. I've had periods where it hasn't hurt, but yesterday was the first time it really felt like a normal, functional hip! I can't really explain it, but it just felt a little off these past several weeks. Apparently hitting my glutes was the right course of action to take, because that was the main difference between what he did last time, and the times before.

But man am I sore today. Mike "The Man" Sullivan (thats what I'm going to call him, since he's bringing running back to me!) told me he was really going to town on my TFL and glutes yesterday, since I would have about 80 hours to heal up between visits. Although my hip is feeling good, my muscles feel pretty bruised up, as expected! Its good, though, because it is really encouraging me to stick with the massage, ice, heat, and icy-hot wanna be.

I jumped on the exercise bike again today for 40 minutes and really hammered away, but I'm not going to say how far because I might make Marcy jealous! It felt pretty good to get everything in motion since I took yesterday off. Stretched out really good before and after, too, as prescribed.

All I need to do now is keep at it, and go for my prescribed one mile run tomorrow. Just think, most of the population would complain like crazy if their doctor told them they were required to run a mile, and here I am wanting more! Maybe we really are crazy.

On an unrelated note, I've really started to get a kick out of the referring URL's I get from Google. Some of the most entertaining ones I've seen are:

• runner ice cream
• runner disease
• dirty little cheaters
• caught off guard photo (yikes! who's looking at this blog?!)
  

Round Three with A. R. T.

Well, theres good news and bad news. Lets start with the bad so I can finish on a good note!

The bad news is that my hip wasn't feeling all that great when I woke up. Not horrible, but not good. Maybe the 4 1/2 miles yesterday was too much (too fast) too soon? It felt good yesterday, even hours later. I thought getting out there really helped loosen everything up, but that all fell apart when I walked to class this morning.

The good news? Another problem area was found, and fixing it could help stabilize my hips a little more when I run, which will prevent more damage from being done. Basically, my glutes are two big knots right now. They don't hurt to walk with, but I think when I'm running my body is avoiding using them, which is straining everything else. He started working on them today, and they were more tender than the TFL in my left hip! I was told to stretch 2-3 times a day this weekend, then go for a one mile run to loosen things up and see how it does.

Also, my deductible is eaten up now, so return visits for more A.R.T. treatment are going to be cheap for me! $12 bucks a pop from here on out; hey, I'll take it!

Even though I was a little sore when I woke up today, I think progress is still being made. I felt worlds better this morning than I did a few weeks ago the morning after running. The problems are identified and just need to be fixed. I also know what I need to do to fix them, now all that is left is to execute the plan!

Game plan:

• Keep alternating heat and cold on my hip
• Stretch 2-3 times a day
• Go for an easy one mile run to loosen things up
• 30-40 minutes on the exercise bike
  
• Self massage for my glutes to try and get the knots out
• Put Biofreeze (Icy-hot off shot?) sample on my hip a few times
• More A.R.T. on Monday
• Massage on Tuesday or Thursday

Here's to a weekend of homework, stretching, homework, ice, homework, heat, homework, homework, homework, and rest.

Five.

The weekend is getting closer, and my plans are falling into place. Homework is almost wrapped up, my last assignment is due tomorrow. The majority of my grading is done and out of the way. I have very little stress right now, which is great!

My hip is actually feeling really, really good today. I took some advice my dad gave me: to stop stretching my hip so much. For a while I was stretching it a lot, because it gave it temporary relief. However he thinks it might have been like licking your lips when they're chapped; feels good now, but ultimately makes it worse. I started alternating heat in with my icing too, which is providing a lot of relief as well.

I jumped on the old exercise bike today for 30 minutes too. Nothing notable, just enough to burn off some nervous energy!

The game plan is to run tomorrow with Stephanie, who I've been trying to schedule a run with since I moved to Kentucky two months ago, but somehow our schedules never match up. She'll force me to run a little slower, too. Although I'm not saying she's out of shape; from what I understand she's one heck of a rock climber -- she's gotten a few pro deals before; wow!

Tomorrow is going to be one last test run for my gear before Sunday. I'm wearing shorts I haven't worn since I started using Gu's, and I want to make sure it doesn't cause any rubbing on my leg with them in my pocket. I'm switching because these are shorts with a compression liner in them, which I've heard can help tame certain hip problems; think of it as damage control.

(Warning: This paragraph is very much a rant) On a non-running note, I continue to be really unimpressed by the foreign students here at UK. I finished a project last Friday, which is due three days from today. The professor wanted us to give a demo of it next week, but since I'm quite certain my legs won't be working next week; I wanted to ask him about doing the demonstration early. Well, I had to wait behind a crowd of FIFTEEN students, who were all begging for an extension. I swear, I'm not some genius; I even misspelled genius and the spell checker corrected me. I really think these people either aren't qualified for grad school, or they simply wouldn't know hard work if it bit them in the face (end rant).

To end on a positive note, my energy level is still rising! Watch out! My plane leaves in three days, then I get to hang out with friends and family Saturday, before kicking off the 26.2 mile celebration on Sunday!

Also, the vote for quotes is pretty even. The first and last one are out, the other three are tied at two votes each. In case you're being meticulous and counting, I have people voting at another site too. I'm going to throw my own vote into the fray and pick "Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true." VOTING CLOSED!

And finally, to answer the question that Nancy asked when I was half way through writing this blog: my bib number is........ 2435! If you want to track my progress, there ya go! I have no clue how I got such a low number, but I'll take it!

GO TEAM CICHON!

Nine days

We're down to single digits people. Nine days until Chicago! Thats right, nine days until I try to run more miles in 3 hours than I've ran in the past 3 weeks. Does that make me nervous? Um, yeah. Just a little. Okay, I'll be honest: I feel a little like the average person would giving a speech to 1000+ people, naked.

I'm doing my best to stay on top of everything. Stretching and icing are happening several times a day, and I just got done on the bike. I only went 10 miles on the bike since I'm tapering. Generally I feel like I still have the fitness I had 3 weeks ago. My run on Tuesday didn't feel any harder, nor does biking. Its just that running currently tears apart my hip.

Homework is keeping me crazy busy, which is keeping me from worrying too much about the race. I'm looking at today through Sunday as having about 48 hours to work on everything (8 hours sleep, 16 hours work per day) and feel like that should help me at least make a dent in everything.

Yesterday was really productive; I got my big assignment done for today (16 pages typed) and a good start on my project for Graphics due next Friday. I still have loads of grading for Monday, Graphics homework due Tuesday, and Algorithms due on Wednesday.

All this means I need to stop typing and get to work. I hope everybody's running is going well.

I almost forgot! Make sure you go check out Amy and Tom's runner's lounge; its a great way to meet other runners, they've really put together a great website!

-Doug

More miles to nowhere...

Okay. I admit it. I'm sidelined again.

After my long run Saturday lots of things hurt. If it was between my waist and my knee, it wasn't feeling very pleasant. However, as my quads and hamstrings healed up, one pain stuck around; my left hip! I ran Sunday because it all pretty much blended together. I took Monday off as per usual, and ran Tuesday because it felt better than Monday; and because I'm stupidly stubborn.

Today I decided to stop being so stubborn and admit that I need a break, again. Its really frustrating since I had to take a week off for my ankle just two weeks ago, but I gotta do what I gotta do. Running is only going to cause more harm than good right now, and thats what I gotta focus on!

I've been doing my wonderful icing, heating, stretching, tylonel(ing?) routine the past couple days, and its making progress. Especially since I jumped on the sweat machine (stationary bike) rather than running today. It actually felt good on my walk back from class, which is really promising since it was hurting pretty good on the way back yesterday. Tomorrow will be more time on the sweat machine, regardless of how good my hip feels, its getting the extra day off! I can't afford to take any chances with the marathon in 25 days.

My friend Stephanie also told me she had hip problems a little while ago and a massage fixed her right up. This Friday I have a massage scheduled with the lady she suggested. I figure best case: my hip works again, and worst case: I get a massage. So, um, I'll take it! I have extra birthday money laying around anyways!

Two days ago SLB gave me a motherly scolding about my diet. However, instead of giving him an "I knowwww mommmmmmmmm," I'm going to take his advice. I ordered the book he suggested pretty much right after he suggested it, since it was only $15 on amazon. Honestly, I thought I was doing pretty good for myself, but if I can revamp my eating habits in order to run faster and feel healthier, I'll take it!

Hope everybody's running is going good. Put in a few miles for me :)

-Doug

Rice, Pasta, Chocolate Milk, and Stretching

Ah, Friday. My much needed rest day this week. Because of my fun run on Monday, I've had workouts of some sort Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; three of which were difficult.

Today I'm mostly getting ready for my long run tomorrow; the game plan is 24 miles, the peak distance in my training. Starting last night, I'm making sure everything I eat counts. Nothing like poor diet getting in the way of a long run. This is especially difficult because I just got cookies in the mail from my family, and I had to limit myself to just a few until Saturday!

I can definitely feel my workout yesterday. I'm not horribly sore, but I can definitely feel it in my hamstrings. With a bit of stretching today, they shouldn't pose much of a problem tomorrow, especially since I plan to run the whole long run at an easy pace.

Tomorrow the run will be out at Todd's Road. I'm still trying to figure out exactly who I'll be running with, but someone will probably turn up. Its very hard for me to find someone to run with on these runs, since my relaxed pace tends to be a bit faster than other's. I know there are a few guys who will run 13-ish around my pace, so maybe I'll just end up doing the last 10 alone; I can handle that!

Unless something goes horribly wrong the next two days, this will undoubtedly be my highest mileage week ever. My current high is 52, and tomorrows run will put me at 51 for the week and I still have some miles to put in on Sunday.

Heres to rice for lunch, pasta for dinner, some chocolate milk, and a lot of stretching,

-Doug

Stretching and Injury Prevention

Everybody knows they should stretch. The problem is a vast majority of runners simply don't know how to do it right! For a while I had heard there is more to stretching than I learned in grade school gym class, but I never listened too much. I had my way of doing things. I was stubborn. One day I was at the book store (Borders or Barnes & Noble, not sure which) and finally gave in and bought a fairly cheap ($25) book on stretching: The Anatomy of Stretching by: Brad Walker. Since then, I've completely revamped how I stretch; and it has paid off!

There are several parts stretching which are important, and are very common mistakes to make, here are some pointers:

• Breathe! A lot of people have a tendency to hold their breathe while stretching. This makes the benefits of stretching much less since the muscles aren't getting the oxygen they need.
• Hold it -- The benefits of stretching don't really start until you've held it for 10 seconds. This means 10 seconds should be the bare minimum, I usually hold them for 20. Actually, I generally hold it for 5 deep breathes, this combines the last two points!
  
• Only until there is tension -- Stretching shouldn't hurt! Go as far as there is tension, and hold it there; it will generally get easier, so feel free to move forward as your muscle stretches, but only to the point of tension. If you stretch too far the body has a protective reflex to contract the muscle, which won't help with stretching at all!
• Don't bounce! This is one I actually learned in gym class, but wasn't emphasized much. Let me emphasize this point. When bouncing further, you constantly cause the protective reflex, then when bouncing back you aren't stretching it much. Keep it constant!
  

To me, stretching falls into three big categories, each with their own purpose:

• Before running -- Prevent pulled muscles, injury prevention
• After running -- Aids the recovery process, improves flexibility
• Stretching sessions -- Improves flexibility

Now, let me elaborate a little bit on each of these.

Before running:

You need to be careful when stretching before running. Its a big no-no to stretch cold muscles. If I can borrow a metaphor from Walker, its like trying to stretch an old rubber band; they don't have the usual stretch to them.

There are two ways to warm up muscles: active and passive. Active is just as it sounds; do something active to get your core temperature up a little bit to warm your muscles. You could run for a few minutes before stretching, do jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups; anything to get the blood pumping. Personally, I like to do push ups and sit ups.

An example of a passive warm up is to take a nice hot shower to warm up the muscles without doing work. I opt out of this because I don't like the idea of taking a shower both before and after I run, but to each their own.

After being warmed up, stretch away using the guide lines above!

After running:

The point of stretching after running is to help with the recovery process. This will help your legs not feel like bricks the next day; although it won't completely alleviate it. I usually hold stretches for a little longer after running. I'm not sure why, but I do.

Stretching sessions:

This is something really new for me. I never would have considered stretching except to run, but now I do; imagine that! The point of this is to improve flexibility, which in turn helps prevent injury. Also, I'm 95% sure stretching helped cure some knee problems I had in the past. My knee was hurting a little bit for a few weeks, and the only thing I think I changed in my training was my stretching; and viola, no more knee pain! And this is when running 50+ mile a week on pavement, so I think that says something.


In my opinion, its very important to make stretching a key part of working out; not an after thought, not "oh, if I remember to." Its helped my knee recover from what could have turned into an injury, so its definitely part of my routine now. Plus, its fairly relaxing to boot!

If theres any interest, I might post something on specific stretches I've deemed as useful. Although if there isn't much interest, I'm not going through the trouble of taking pictures of the different stretches. If you want to see specific examples, be sure to let me know! One more time I'd like to recommend the book The Anatomy of Stretching by Brad Walker; it talks in very simple terms and breaks things down very well. I've recommended it to several friends who purchased it, and none have been disappointed.

Happy running (and stretching!),

-Doug