The Surgery
Post-surgery Week 1
Post-surgery Week 2
Post-surgery Week 3
Post-surgery Week 4
Post-surgery Week 5
Post-surgery Week 6
Post-surgery Week 7
Post-surgery Week 8
Post-surgery Week 9
Week 10
Day 64 (Thurs) – I didn’t get a lot of walking in today,
just had too much work to day. By the
end of the day I could really feel the tightness in my hip and in my
thigh. The most exercise I got the entire
day was the 10 minute walk from my office to the bus stop. Thankfully that walk was a good enough warm
up to stretch out during the 5 minutes we then spent waiting for the bus.
I’m glad that being seated most of the day doesn’t cause me
great discomfort but I can see that I have more healing yet to do because there
is an amount of tightening and aching.
Day 65 (Fri) – I started the morning out with sore muscles
in both legs and hips. Despite that I
still looked forward to going to Physical Therapy.
The drive to the PT facility was rather entertaining: It was
such a beautiful morning that the hot air balloon companies were out in force (I
saw 10 of them either flying or launching).
The Physical Therapy session was a real strain to get
through; my muscles felt weak, stiff, and rubbery. Thankfully the therapists took me in for a
session of A.R.T. and massage. My
physical therapist paid special attention to my left IT Band again she was
determined to get it to relax. I’m still
surprised that the IT is so tight: I can feel it when the therapist digs their
knuckles in a Graston imitation but I don’t feel any tightness on a day to day
basis. I didn’t feel any pain or
discomfort due to my IT band throughout the rest of the day which is probably
why I forgot to foam roll it later in the evening.
Day 66 (Sat) – Today was BBSC’s 2015 Pumpkinman Triathlon,
10k, and 5k. The race company (BBSC) has
been hosting the Pumpkinman Triathlon since at least 2006 (all in the Boulder City/Lake Mead area I believe): This year they’ve decided to
include 10k and 5k races for runners. I’d been
waiting 2 years to participate in this event, it figures that when they open it
up for runners I am stuck having to walk it.
I prepared for the race by watching my ChiRunning Lesson 5
video and downloading the companion audio file.
We covered the proper use and placement of your arms while walking
and/or running. It may seem a simple
thing but I know that I and many other runners have a tendency to finish a race
with sore and tight shoulders. Watch runners
as they cover the miles and you’ll see many shake out their arms, roll their
shoulders, and shrug them up and down.
That’s a good sign that they aren’t holding their arms and shoulders in
a relaxed way while running. Look again
after they shake out, you might just see their shoulders creeping up towards
their ears again.
The race was held in Boulder City, NV; a nice little, homey
town south and east of Las Vegas. We
started (and ended) at the final triathlon exchange point, their transition
from the bike to run, at Wilbur Square, and then ran (walked) into the
residential area of town on a comfortable out and back route. Both the location and course were new to me,
which made it that much more enjoyable, and the weather was just
beautiful.
The first half of the race was generally downhill which made
it a very easy start. I let myself sink
into the movement while listening to the lesson 5 audio file; it’s the closest
I’ve felt to running since before the surgery.
Lesson 4’s coaching of moving with stable shoulders and
having them focused toward my goal combined with the arm swing and placement
from lesson 5 actually gave me the sensation of a comfortable gliding run
several times on the downhill. The control
and power I got from the rearward elbow swing helped me climb back up to the
finish line without losing any speed or focus.
The only unfortunate
part about it, and really a mental tipping point for me, was that I came in so
late that I’d missed my sister’s 3rd place finish and our fellow Las
Vegas Track Club member (and friend) winning the 5k. I felt no physical challenge from the race,
no sense of accomplishment. The moments
of contentment I’d had earlier evaporated with the heat of annoyance that
filled me after I crossed the finish line.
Walking has its place in my life, even an important one for what I need
of it, but it’s not my joy or relief.
Day 67 (Sun) –I got up early this morning to ride my
stationary bike and to watch football online.
I only had luck with one of those; the more important one,
physically. On the plus side, the
stretching I did after the ride felt great:
Life’s little joys.
Day 68 (Mon) – I was able to get out of the office a few
times today, for a quick walk around the building. I also took a little extra time to get in a
solid 1 mile walk and get another book of bus tickets. Nothing like satisfying two needs with one
solution. It really helped that the
weather was a little cooler today.
My home PT session felt much better than Friday’s, a good
sign that my body is getting stronger from the exercises.
Day 69 (Tue) – Today’s walk at work took me to the medical
office to receive my blood work report, drawn last week, which is part of the
information my medical insurance is requiring.
They cloak it under a “discount” but in actuality they are making us get
a minor physical or they’ll raise our rates.
Thankfully all of the blood tests measured well within range except for
my cholesterol levels; both the LDL and HDL are slightly below recommended
levels. Considering my normal preferred
foods it’s not really surprising. Still,
I need to try to make an adjustment because cholesterol is important to us.
Day 70 (Wed) – Technically, I only have 20 more days of
restricted recovery to go. I wish I
could be excited about it but I’m not. I’m
actually feeling more than a little negative about going through all of
this: I’ve been down for much longer
than just 70 days, save for a few bright moments I’ve been unable to run or
live pain free since the middle of February.
On top of all of that, I’m going to have to go through surgery and
recovery again for my right side in just a few months.
I’ve another race this coming Saturday, on Halloween
morning. Knowing it’s not going to be a
physical challenge is really making me question doing it. I think I’m going to ask the race director
about upgrading to the 10k, when I see her on Friday at packet pick up. I know that I can do the distance, I’ve
already done more than 7 miles in one day, but at least it’ll be a challenge to
keep up a pace that feels good.
ChiRunning Online School
ChiRunning Online School
No comments:
Post a Comment