Backing Off

It's been a long time since I've written here, and a lot of water under the bridge since. We've moved to another country--south to Mexico, where I've imagined training along the sandy lakeshore or its paved walkway. This move--visas, packing, storing, travel, immigration, customs, house-hunting-- has taken a much of my energy.

I tried keeping up with the PT's recommended strategy for getting back into running, but the knee was still complaining. I wasn't used to its complaints. My knees had never been a problem before last summer, either of them. And the left knee ached after running--actually, jogging--for two or three minutes.

I chalked it down to something I needed to overcome.

About three weeks ago, though, I was talking to Matt, my friend, former colleague and trainer. He asked me how the knee was getting along and I told him--just what I've written above. Matt urged me to just get back to walking, preserving my knee for the hiking I love, and foregoing running until it felt stronger. He told me it might take a year, but keeping active was much more important that continually stressing something in the search for a trophy.

Matt is a wise person, especially about health. Since that conversation, I've pretty much been doing what he suggested, maybe even slacking off too much, but most of that's down to preparing for this big move I mentioned.

I'm looking forward to the time when I can burst into a run and feel, once again, almost like flying. But I'm not going to push it--not at all.

Hiatus

Checklist I've been using the past couple of months. Just
started a new week.

I spent the first half of the past six weeks adhering to my daily workout and every-other-day rehab regime.

Then came the distractions of preparing for our upcoming move to Mexico, doing some substitute teaching for my friends at school, and finally coming down with a cold as a consequence of spending time in that germy little petri dish.

Mid-May we fly south to spend a year in the sun. I'm going to try spending the next five weeks getting back on track and up to speed.

Adelante!

Recovery Enters Another Phase

Daily walks down this path were healing.

It's been seven weeks since I wrote about the slow progress of my bunged-up knee's recovery. I spent most of that time in Mexico where I focused on healing.

The first three weeks there were in a tiny fishing village where I had nothing much to do except the prescribed exercises and daily walks of increasing challenge. I'd lay off a little if there was any pain that didn't quickly go away, and made good progress until I was brought low by stomach distress.

In the middle of recovering from that, it was time to travel again. We moved our act about 5000 feet up and 180 miles inland, to the small town of Ajijic, on Lake Chapala.

Add to the body slump that comes from being jammed in taxis, airports, planes, and more taxis--add to that another helping of gastric discomfort, abetted by the high altitude--and over a week passed before I felt up to much more than stirring and drinking my Metamucil, and going for easy strolls over Ajijic's cobblestone streets and sidewalks.

Second Station of the Cross...it gets you to thinking about pain, 
and overcoming it

It wasn't more than a couple of days, though, before I was ready for a hike to the five-hundred foot ridge easily visible from our balcony--above a little chapel with stations of the cross along the trail.

This got me primed, a couple of days later, for a hike that was triple the previous distance and altitude gained. Even with a difficult descending trail--steep, with dust and scree--I made it through without my knee hurting at all. I celebrated with my hiking compadres, a huge pile of nachos, and several Coronas.

More taxis, planes, etc. and last week we sadly returned to our wet, cold and cloudy home in the Pacific Northwest. Two days later I saw Kirsten, my excellent physical therapist. She said that I'm ready for the next phase of recovery:

The "Return to Jogging Program" is where, for 15 minutes, I alternately walk and then jog, gradually increasing the proportion of time I spend on the latter, until, by the end of six weeks, I'm just jogging--no walking at all. Every other day, when I'm not on the "Program", I've devised a set of strength building exercises do go with my daily morning routine.

This is where the "Long Run" thinking comes in: I'm not even looking forward to speed training. I'll leave that up to whatever Kirsten thinks I'm ready for in mid-March. Until then, I'll just keep focused on my new recovery checklist, one day at a time.

Onward, or as we say south of the border--"Adalante!"

Twenty Weeks!

It’s been about 20 weeks, almost five months, since I first injured my left knee, and then re-injured it a month later. About eleven weeks ago I visited a sports medicine doctor and began rehabilitative physical therapy. It’s six weeks since my last post.

Recently, in a phone consultation with Dr. Agostini, she summed it up: “You’re making progress, but it’s a lot slower than we’d like to see.”

Evidence of diligence

I do my regular warm-ups every day. Most days I visit the gym. My prescribed exercises, I do religiously, which is to say with mostly successful attempts at observance, but too few to not chronically feel just a little guilty. 

And sometimes, but all too seldom, my legs feel great—strong and supple; I can barely restrain myself from sprinting…In fact, I usually can’t restrain myself, and I guess that’s been part of the problem—I try to do too much, too soon, and tweak something that doesn’t want tweaking. But, damn—20 weeks!

This, too, shall pass, of course, and when it does get better--when some mysterious muscle/tendon/whatever ceases to pulse with dull pain on seemingly random occasions as I flex my knee--when an aching throb just beneath my kneecap, best as I can tell, stops following right on the heels of a short sprint--when all of that is a distantly receding memory, then I will embark on Matt's recommended regimen of push/pull/squat/run exercises preparatory to a Spring, 2015 (2016? 2017??) masters' sprint competition.

Until then...I'll persevere and be thankful for the progress--albeit slow--that I am making.

Onward.

Pain in the Butt-Back, But Onward

This exercise may strain groin.

There's been improvement on the rehabilitation front, although it's been a bumpy road:

• Since my last post three weeks ago, I've spent half that time on vacation, including two full days in airplanes or loading lounges--
• So, slack adherence to the original therapy regimen,
• And not even so much with the usual morning exercises.
• Still, at this week's visit with my physical therapist, I got a thumbs up, along with some new exercises.
• I've been keeping to my schedule much better since then,
• And overall I'm feeling pretty confident in the improved pain-free level.

Which brings us to the Twinges and Tweaks part of this post:

• Hiking near the Blue Ridge Parkway caused me to revisit an ache around my kneecap.
• This pain was exacerbated by many hours cramped in my coach window seat (even if my seatmate was carrying a really cute Golden Retriever puppy).
• At the PT's, as I was rehearsing one of the new exercises, I must have strained something in the groin region.
• I laid off that particular lunge for a few days, and recovered nicely, but a few days later,
• After 20 minutes hunching over the coffee table cursing my inability to connect Apple TV, I stood up to find what we call my butt-back--right side--en fuego with pain.
• For 3 days I couldn't stand up straight without feeling a knife stab.
• I religiously Aced, iced, heated and ibuprofened, and the pain is now almost gone.
• That butt-back has been a common site for discomfort since I reached my middle years.
• I attribute its weakness to severely breaking my femur many years ago when I crashed head first going down a steep hill on my bike...
• Now--just this morning--I woke up with a sore neck; I must have slept on it twisted last night.

There's always something, but--

Onward!

Up At O'Dark Hundred For Therapy

I woke up at o’dark hundred this morning to crawl along with traffic into the city for an 8AM appointment with Kirsten, my new physical therapist. I like her. She was thorough. I like where we’re going with my rehabilitation. 

First, after observing my gait under different conditions—toes out like Charlie Chaplin (good hip flexion), toes in, tiptoes, walking on my stockinged heels (ouch!), even making a movie of me running on a treadmill, fer crissake—she said that poor knee is making a good recovery.

Next, we tried out—discarded one and modified two others—a new set of stretches that she prescribed. She took me off any running for two weeks, and okayed continuing a brisk daily walk and some of my current warm-up and gym exercises.

Finally, I made three more appointments with her, into mid-December. Now Matt and I are talking about coming up with a training protocol soon, and he suggested aiming for some springtime competitions—now that’s something to get my blood up!

Onward!

Back On Track

Okay, I got my act together, saw a sports medicine doctor who is on my health plan, got a positive prognosis--been feeling better since I wrote the previous screed anyway--and have begun the doc's Back to Running protocol.

Yesterday, I walked for half an hour at a good pace with no discomfort. Today I walked at the same rate for four minutes, ran for one, and repeated that three times to make fifteen minutes total. I felt it every time I landed on my still weakened (but no longer Bum) knee, but it seems to have survived alright.

I repeat this for two more days, then increase the ratio of running to walking by a fifth until it's

Good for what ails you

fifteen minutes of just running. Each level lasts three days. Any discomfort, I back off to the previous level.

I've added two more calf and hamstring stretches to my daily warmup, and am trying to complete the prescribed number and duration of kegels to strengthen my "core". I wonder if a slight grimace is the tell that I'm clinching my butt and holding it for ten seconds, again and again and again, while I'm trying to appear casual waiting at the crosswalk, sipping a latte, etc.

It feels good to have a plan, although after timing myself today, I'm looking forward to a comeuppance when I start using the stopwatch for my first hundred meters.

Onward.