It's All Good

I have some catching up to do...

A LOT of walking, physical therapy, and yoga throughout February, in Florida. Physical therapy finished up, but I am to do all the exercises on my own, which I WAS doing... until coming to L.A. to visit my pregnant daughter and her husband. She's 18 weeks and I got to go with them to the ultrasound appointment and... it's a boy! We've been baby shopping and having LOTS of fun!

I was in Wisconsin all of last week; not terribly cold, and I did get out a couple days for some walking, but mostly I spent time on the elliptical. The hip/leg are somewhat better. I didn't realize just how bad my hip was. Just running a few miles, the other muscles take over and can handle it, but jack up the mileage (like I was doing), and everything breaks down. The specific exercises I did (and am supposed to continue), plus the yoga, really show me where I am weak, and thus what I need to work on.

So, it's all good. Being balanced is soooo important--that is what I am learning.

Piriformis Syndrome and PT

I decided not to wait two weeks before going to a doctor; saw an orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday. First, let me say that I've had ongoing pain since the hip surgery over two years ago, after almost three months of physical therapy and both the surgeon and PT giving me the okay to start running again (see first blog - Aug 16 '09). The pain would not be too bad, but would get worse as I would try to move up my mileage and/or speed. So, I would back off a while and start again, only to be stopped by the pain again. I saw an orthopedic surgeon in Wisconsin who told me to stop running and take Aleve for a month, then start back again slowly. I did that. My hip/leg eventually blew up again. A few months later, I saw an orthopedic surgeon in South Florida who told me to stop running and take Aleve for a month, then start back again slowly. I did it again. Hip/leg eventually blew up again. For the past year and a half I have been going through this cycle.

The doctor I saw on Wednesday thinks my problem is piriformis syndrome. I have piriformis tendinitis, high hamstring tendinopathy, sciatica, and some hip bursitis. AND, he told me something new. After explaining everything to him and him examining me, my movement, flexibility, what hurts when... (the two other doctors barely touched me--very poor examination)... he said that they are seeing people who have had hip arthroscopic surgery (like me) who develop this piriformis syndrome; people who haven't been rehabbed correctly after surgery.

Soooo, he prescribed aggressive PT for the next eight weeks, AND I am seeing a PT who is a runner who treats runners. YAY! I have hope!! And, it makes sense... I have been able to run just fine for miles and miles with not too much trouble or pain, and then not be able to run at all for four or five days--too much pain.

Anyway, I go tomorrow to my first PT session, so I will let you know!

Back in Florida... Running Barefoot (or almost)

It's nice to be back in SoFL. I had a fantastic run in the park this morning, on the trails in my Vibram FiveFingers. It has cooled down just a bit and is slightly less humid (but is still pretty hot and humid--just the way I like it!) I also got a pair of Nike Free's for Florida. They are a newer model than the ones I have in Wisconsin, fit slightly different, but are fine.

I found this video on YouTube of Christopher McDougall; he talks about running and his book Born to Run.

Fall in Wisconsin

I was in southern California last weekend, L.A. It was unseasonably hot--low 90's! Those people were not happy! The older homes do not have air conditioning, so it gets very hot in the house when it's so hot outside. I only ran once while I was there... decided to enjoy the kids (my daughter and her husband) and give it a break.

I didn't even run when I got back to Wisconsin--it was cold and rainy for two days. We got a little respite on Wednesday, so I went out and ran a nice, easy 10 miles. 60 degrees, sun peeking out from behind the clouds now and then, and no wind (that's the most important part). It is definitely fall here in Wisconsin. The leaves on the trees are gold and orange, red and yellow, and falling.

My running path in Wisconsin in October...

But it lasted only one day. Back to cold rain, wind... and the elliptical.

Cold in Wisconsin, Two-a-Day's, and the Beach

It's Sunday and I am in Wisconsin, flew in from South Florida on Friday. It's cold here, three in the afternoon and only 39 degrees! SoFL has had record high temperatures the past week (low 90's) so this is taking some getting used to! I did go for a short run yesterday morning, dressed appropriately (for me, anyhow)--two long-sleeved shirts, tights, hat and gloves. I came upon a young woman running in Vibram FiveFingers, and I just had to talk to her about them! She's been wearing them a few months, she said, and really likes them. She was doing some quarter mile intervals on the pavement in them. I didn't get to talk to her long because her watch went off signalling her to do another one. Pretty cool!

This past week in Florida, I did more trail-running in the park in mine, plus a few barefoot beach runs. And last Sunday morning I met up with Jane after she had run about 40 minutes, to finish her long run with her. Her schedule called for a run of two hours and forty minutes. We had planned that she would run an hour before I joined her, but she got a late start. I did not really know how much I was going to run--was just going to run how I felt. Well, I did the rest of the run with her, a little more than two hours, which was around twelve and a half miles or so for me. It was slow, but it didn't matter. She just had to get the time in on her feet, I just wanted to run as long as I could, and we both enjoyed the time spent with each other.

Back in the "good old days" when Jane and I were doing our hard marathon training, we would do "two-a-days" once a week (and occasionally twice a week) to get our mileage up. We would do seven miles at 5:30 in the morning, get our kids off to school, go to work and work all day, then meet again at 5:30 that evening for another seven miles. We typically would have done a speedwork session on Tuesday with a total of ten to twelve miles, recovery run on Wednesday, a two-a-day (seven in the morning and seven in the evening) on Thursday, off Friday, then a 20-mile long run on Saturday. Those were the good old days!

On Thursday, I did a two-a-day: four miles in the park in the morning in my "froggy feet" (that's what Jane has dubbed my Vibram FiveFingers), then another four miles on the beach late that afternoon. Not exactly like the old days, but the same idea, I guess--getting some more miles in but giving your body a little recovery time in between.

The beach was littered with "moon jellies," a kind of jellyfish that's very common in SoFL. They get stranded on the beach, and the waves can break them into pieces.

A moon jelly on the beach...

Up on the dunes, the sea grapes and beach grasses separate the beach from the road. Here is a beach daisy amongst the sea grapes and grasses...

I didn't bring my "froggy feet" to Wisconsin. I run mostly on a paved "rails-to-trails" path, and I don't think I'm ready for pavement in them. And, besides, the forecast here is continued cold and rain this week. I'm a Florida girl--rather run in heat and humidity than cold rain any day! So, I'll probably do a little less running, more gym work for a while.

I Love It!

Went out for a 12-mile run and ended up doing a little more than 15! Feeling pretty good at 12, I thought I would just keep going another half-mile or so before heading back. A water fountain I was counting on to fill up my water bottle wasn't working. I really needed more water, so I looped around to one I had filled up at earlier, and that added the extra miles. The last mile was a very slow jog, but okay! It is just a beautiful day--sunny and warm, not too hot! Saw two bunnies and lots of different birds on my run. I was out there for almost two and a half hours and it was wonderful!

On my run in Wisconsin...

"I just started running and I love it!!" Barb told me when I saw her last week. We met a couple months ago. She turns 50 soon.

That's exactly how I felt when I first began running at age 37. When I could finally run three miles without stopping, I felt like I could run forever. It was fun! It made me feel like a kid. I felt pure joy when I ran--and that's when I first used "run2joy." It was 1991, e-mail was new, and I thought up "run2joy" for my screen name. My kids were all devising clever little screen names, so I did too.