100-Year-Old to Run Toronto Marathon

Joyful Morning!

Such fun this morning!  I set out on my bike to meet up with a couple girlfriends, Jane and Marie, who were going to run a bit, then swim in the ocean a bit. 

I have talked about my friend Jane before...   we trained together for many marathons years ago.  She's now in training for Ironman, coming up in about four weeks.  I've been going to the pool to swim a couple miles with her once or twice a week, and have also been going out on my bike to tag along with her at the end of her long runs.  (I won't run with her--too far and too fast for me right now.)

Marie is a terrific endurance athlete, a tiny little wonder woman!  A couple years ago she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, has undergone intense treatments, and is currently lesion free.  I had not seen her since before her diagnosis.  It was wonderful seeing her...  happily chatting away as she ran, in her seemingly effortless stride. 

We talked about our health issues, our diets, our kids, our athletic pursuits...   all upbeat and positive and genuine...

Out in the sunny SoFL October morning, beautiful!  With lovely friends...  double beautiful!

Let Go

When will I get it?  

Okay, so I did the slow three miles on Sunday.  Monday was a little sore, but went out for a walk and thought I would attempt a little jogging...   hurt too much so quit after about 30 seconds.  Tuesday's PT session, Martin was actually fine with what I did, though said three miles was probably a little too much; and to try again Wednesday and then not again till the weekend.

So, Wednesday I went out, sore and hurt a little, but determined to try again.  Well, it felt okay so I picked up the pace, and finished the three miles more than a minute per mile faster than the three miles on Sunday.  Oh, happy day, I still had it in me!

Next day, Thursday...   oh, boy, very hurt and very sore.   Just the left leg though; my right leg is perfectly fine.  Rode my bike for an hour and that was it!

This morning went over to the park, thinking, "Let the running go, just let the running go.  I can walk and enjoy being in the park this morning."  And that's what I did.  (Thanks, Jacob!)

Progress... I Think

I ran today..   I actually ran today...  Leg still hurts, hamstring tendon still is torn (I can feel it--still feels funny).  But Martin (my PT) has been telling me to try to run.  Yes, the hamstring tendon is torn, but okay, it's torn.  The pain in the front of my hip going down the front of my thigh has been a mystery.  But a couple weeks ago, after going through a bunch of testing that PT's do, I think we have hit upon something. 

This disease thing has been ongoing for years now, (years!)...   and how I walk (and run) has subtly changed...  to compensate for the pain.  Disease was in the front of the joint, so Martin theorizes that I started landing on the outside of my foot, which just threw everything else out of whack, eventually causing the hamstring tendon tear and the muscle imbalance in the front thigh (quads and sartorius), thus the strain and pain.

So, he gave me some new exercises to do, very isolated small movements, to try to get everything back to moving correctly.  Muscles in my left foot are so much weaker than my right, my ankle is turning in so much more than it should. 

For the past week I have been trying to run, and could only do about five minutes, leg hurting and just getting worse.  But today was a little different...  I decided I was just going to keep going whether it hurt or not...   and I ended up running three miles.  A very slow three miles, but nonetheless, three miles.  It hurt, and hurts now, but I think that's okay.  But I'm not sure.  I iced afterwards.  We will see how it feels tomorrow.. 

Remembering 9/11

Watching, listening to, and reading about events surrounding the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, I came upon this from NPR, Paul Simon performs The Sound of Silence...     very moving..

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/11/140377253/musical-moment-paul-simon-sings-the-sound-of-silence?ps=cprs

A Conversation with Dr Lieberman

Here's an interesting Q&A with Dr Daniel Lieberman and The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23conversation.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

Dr Lieberman is a professor and researcher at Harvard University's Dept of Human Evolutionary Biology, and is one of the front runners of the barefoot running movement.  I mentioned him in a couple of past posts (http://www.run2joy.com/search/label/Daniel%20Lieberman)

Read and enjoy...

Running Website - Natural Running Center

Check out this running website:  Natural Running Center (http://naturalrunningcenter.com/)

Lots of good stuff...

Hip Update - Why Do I STILL Have Pain? PRP Therapy

I saw my ortho doctor a couple weeks ago, still having pain down the front of my thigh, with some minimal issues in my butt and upper hamstring area.  These two areas have hurt for a long, long time.  It's what I initially went to my current ortho doctor for in the first place.  That was almost three years ago.  He thought it was my piriformis and my lower back.

He prescribed physical therapy and after about (no running), there seemed to be some improvement.  Tried to get back into running and it all came back.  Stopped running for a while and tried to start again..  several times...  the pain always came back so I went back to the doctor.  That was this past December, 2010.  Again, they thought it was my lower back; had MRI of my lower back...   no, not my lower back.

And that's when they finally thought it might be my hip.  MRa of the hip, and lo and behold, the disease had come back (see posts http://www.run2joy.com/search/label/synovial%20chondromatosis), and on top of that I had a labral tear.  So, they said the pain down the front of my thigh and the issues in my butt and upper hamstring were from my hip.

Surgery on the hip March 31, followed by four months of physical therapy...   hip's doing great!  But I was still have pain down the front of my thigh and in my butt and upper hamstring area.  So, I had two MRI's, one of my front thigh area and one of the upper hamstring area.  Results:  front thigh area is okay, but I have a torn hamstring tendon, a partial avulsion.  What's funny to me is that it just didn't really hurt.  It has not felt "right" for a long time, but has not been painful.  I just figured it was strained from the hip issues and would get better as the hip healed.  But it didn't.

So, my ortho doc suggested PRP therapy.  What is that?  PRP stands for platelet rich plasma.  The therapy has actually been around since the 90's, used in dental surgery.  It only quite recently has been used in sports medicine--for muscle, tendon, and ligament repair.  Some high profile athletes have been turning to the therapy with reportedly good results--Tiger Woods, Pittsburg Steelers' Hines Ward, and Alex Rodriquez, to name a few.  The theory behind it is that the platelets in the blood contain what they call healing growth factors.  If, say a tendon injury has become chronic and won't heal on its own using conventional conservative methods such as rest and physical therapy, an injection (or two) of this PRP could help the body along to heal the injury by providing a concentration of these healing factors to the area.

I had a PRP injection last Friday.  They take some blood from your arm, just one small vial, and then put it in a centrifuge to remove the platelets.  The doctor then injects this "platelet rich plasma" into the area so that it gets this concentrated infusion in hopes of helping the body heal itself.  The injection itself wasn't so bad.  After he inserted the needle, he moved it around the area; I guess just "needling" the injury will encourage the body to heal.  Afterwards, the area was quite sore, and for several days I really didn't want to walk much.  But I did swim the next day, as the doctor said that would be good for it.

The doc said another injection might be needed in six weeks, that is very typical.  If six weeks after the second injection there is no improvement, then I am looking at surgical repair of the tendon.  But I am very hopeful that this will work.

Here are some videos I found about the procedure: