Going With The Flow

2 miles up at Jeremy Ranch Road. I really focused on activating my glutes and a neutral pelvic angle and that seemed to ease some of my other pains. I also spent a long time of stretching and did another mile in the afternoon.

Hung out with Rob's daughter while he and Jake ran at JRR - hiked one of the trails for about 20 minutes then played in the freezing water- definitely my most enjoyable visit to that brutal road. Then walked a mile two more times in the afternoon, followed by an introduction back into squats, step ups, and lunges. Most walking/exercise I've done with no discomfort in months.

Walked 0.5 mile in the morning, 0.5 at lunch, then 1.5 in the evening. Today the TFL was definitely trying to take some of the load off the injury area as I was walking...it seems to shift from the TFL to the glute medius to one of the deep glute muscles and down my leg in what feels like pseudo-sciatica. As soon as one of these start acting up, I try to stop as soon as I can to prevent the dysfunction from continuing. These are really what are holding me back...I gotta get everything working right again before I can really do any real exercise. My legs have turned to mush where all the muscles used to be - yuck.

Didn't do a whole lot. 0.5 mile walk in the morning. Then I tried the recumbent bike for the first time and made it 5 minutes before I had pain. Right after, the incision site started bleeding a little on one side and it looks a little more red and swollen than the rest of the incision. Sent pics to my doctor, hopefully it's nothing to be concerned about. In the afternoon, I did dead bugs, calf raises, 5 x 1 min wall sits, and pelvic tilt exercises.  

Just some stretching and a bunch of shorter walks...we got our 16 year old overweight foster dog today. She has a bum leg (lick granuloma) but is surprisingly very mobile - just so excited and happy to be outside and free.  Very rewarding and good for all parties - we are going to get healthy again together! Plus, it's really nice to think about something besides rehab and work for a little while :)

Shorter morning and afternoon walks. My shins are a little sore from all the walking - a good reminder that I have to be super patient once I start running again (which should be soon!). I also made it 8 minutes on the recumbent bike and did some light arm weights, followed by wall sits, dead bugs, lunges, calf raises, and pelvic tilt.

Two 30 minute walks. I went to another physical therapist today - Todd Schwartz at Hand and Ortho. I got really frustrated for having to wait so long to see him, but the therapist impressed me. He did a full evaluation and found a lot of things that I have expected for a long time, the major finding being that the psoas muscle (that I strained last August) is pathetic. The TFL has become the primary mover which rotates the femur and causes the knee to move valgus. Then the gluteus medius has to work harder to protect the knee. All of which I suspected, but he was the first therapist to actually pick up on what was happening instead of immediately telling me to do a bunch of clamshells and I'll be fixed. Another finding he had was that I have poor resistance to rotation of my pelvis and the pelvis rotates with movement, especially the left side - this could have been a big factor in why I got the athletic pubalgia in the first place. I actually feel pretty confident about this therapist's ability to get me back to full health. 

So recap is that I still have a lot of work to do, but I know that I can get everything healing in the right way now that the abdominal tears have been repaired. Just the fact that I can go for 30 minute walk with minimal pain is a huge improvement over pre-surgery. 

Just lots of walks with the dog, probably about 3 miles or so. I did a few psoas stretching and strengthening exercises and it got really tight and crampy - maybe did too much for the first round. 

Walked about 3 miles with the dog throughout the day. Mostly spent the day lounging by the pool. 

AM - 1 mile walk with the dog.

PM - First strength training class, 45 minutes. I felt....normal. A little irritation afterwards in the glute and hamstring but still working out the kinks. On my afternoon walk, I jog-shuffled 3 x 100 steps and was pain-free. Obviously I'm getting antsy, excited that I can see running in my near future.

2.5 miles of walking today. Having back pain when sleeping again.
Physical therapy -
- 5 min, 10s holds of light pelvic tilt
- 3 x 10s Thomas stretch
- 5 x 5s Psoas strengthening (really tight and crampy)
- 3 x 15 glute activation
- 3 x 15 oblique cable exercisee 
- 1 x 10 core stability hip rotation
- 1 x 10 leg raise (so hard right now)
- Psoas release, pelvic adjustment, and back release

Strength training 30 minutes. Walked 1 mile in the morning and 2 at horsepark loop. 

2.5 miles walking, having some deep glute and hamstring pain today. PT exercises.

About three miles walking total. We went to the dog park up at Tanner Park this afternoon and it was awesome - great trails and trails. I will definitely be back, maybe even to run on the trails down there. PT exercises, added a core ball workout to the mix and increased the psoas exercises.

AM - Tanner dog park walk then watched Jake on the track with the old pup. 

PM - Several walks throughout the day then tried running a little. I could run about 0.2 miles at a time before my right leg ran out of power so I did that twice. Fun!

AM - Walked the dog for about 2 miles. Then ran a full 0.6 miles and loved every second :) Jake tried his best to complement me afterwards - "You haven't completely turned into a blob during your year off". I'll take it. 

PM - 1 miles walk with the dog and we both crashed around 0.5 miles.

AM - 1.5 mile walk with the dog. I could feel the right hip area guarding more and more, probably a result of running yesterday. Both adductor and groin felt a little sore this morning. Nothing unexpected - gotta start somewhere.

PM - 30 minutes of strength training at lunch. Then 0.5 mile run, pace was 9:45. The good thing about going slow is that I get to run longer! 1 mile walk later with trekking poles.

AM - 1.5 mile walk with the dog. I'm having some weird medial knee pain so no running today.

PM -  Recumbent bike for 15 minutes, then again later for 10 minutes. I had a little abdominal tightening but felt okay. Walk this afternoon for a mile, 4 mile bike ride, and lots of PT. Bike ride felt okay, just a little sore/tight in the psoas muscle.

Well, it is officially the 6 week post-surgery mark. According to rehab plans, I am now at the point to resume regular activity. I am not even close to that, unfortunately. The areas where I had surgery feel pretty good, but I still have significant issues with the psoas muscle and right lateral hip. I'm sad because I still don't see myself running without pain any time soon. I truly believe that I have been smart about this injury and done everything that I know to get better. It's really frustrating. I'm tired of seeing progress as being able to "exercise" for 5 extra minutes - because really, walking and sitting on a bike are not exercise at all for me. I need to see true progress now, I need to run. 

PM - Well, after my semi-breakdown I had to try running again so I went out for 0.8 miles. Knee still feels a little wobbly but not terrible. Then went on a 4 mile bike ride with Jake. I was pretty achy by the end of the day but felt better mentally.

Convinced myself to have a very light day so only a couple miles walking and some upper body weights in hopes to recover and rebuild...we are traveling to Duluth this evening!

Long run today! 1.8 miles of running along the canal path in Duluth. SO many amazing runners here, I really wish that I could run in the race tomorrow. But I was pretty happy about my 15 minute jog - that's the longest I've gone in months and I felt pretty good overall. Psoas tight afterwards but I'm getting a massage soon so that should help.

Was out on the half marathon course to cheer for Jake and others. Did a pair of half-mile runs getting to different spots, then after the race got way over my head trying to do a cool down with Jake and Paul and maybe made it a half mile with them. I probably walked at least 3 miles today too. I feel extremely sore, probably worse than I did after racing here last year!

I predicted Jake's time within two seconds (my guess was 1:06:38).

I'm glad I came to Duluth even though I couldn't run. We had a fun time. This race is awesome and they treat all the runner (and their guests) so well.

Planned to take today super easy...unfortunately we had a good 0.5 mile sprint to catch our plane back to SLC in Minneapolis. I'm counting it. Fortunately, I can now call 0.5 miles to be "no big deal". I'm so pumped up from the weekend and the fact that I am making progress makes me even more excited. I have to be REALLY careful for the next 3+ weeks so I only have small regressions moving forward (so tell me if you think I'm being stupid at any point). Anyway, I'll probably only do a short bike ride with Jake (5.5 miles) and maybe a stroll outside for the remainder of the day. 

Jake and I watched the film Food Inc over the weekend...got us thinking about our food (and especially meat) choices. It really shows how messed up our food industry is in this nation. I recommend watching it. 

2 miles of running! I felt good - no pain, only a little weakness in the adductor and psoas. My discomfort throughout the day has decreased significantly, and I actually feel like I'm recovering from day-to-day. Great news :) Rode on the bike for 5.5 miles in the afternoon.

I took my heart rate for the first time in about a year and it was at 65 bpm...when I'm in shape it's around 50-55 bpm. I have a ways to go!

Easy recovery day - 6 miles of biking and yoga/stretching. PT added sliding reverse lunges to my list of exercises. Run tomorrow!

AM - 2 miles running around the block. I felt a little more awkward/instable running today because I did too much PT last night and was sore in my obliques and adductor. The PT told me to be careful about doing this new exercise of sliding reverse lunges, and I should've only done 1x10 instead of 3x8...I can't wait until this 'less is more' conservative phase is over! Still making progress overall so I'm not complaining. Jake and I were even seriously discussing me racing a 5K in November :)

PM - 5 mile bike ride. 

AM - 7.5 mile bike ride with Allie during her tempo workout. I did a terrible job of pacing but blame it on the monster hills of Liberty Park.

AM - 7 miles JAJAK run with me biking. The last couple days of biking have irritated the obliques more than I realized until now....just another reminder that I have to be overly careful. I need another good day to get my spirits back up.

Went to the track to spectate the Sugarhouse Relays. Ran a half mile prior to the race then took lots of great photos during the race. So fun! I was able to cool down for 2 miles with the crew feeling pretty good except for a little abdominal cramping.

2.5 mile run around Sugarhouse Park with Jake and Kevin. My longest (and fastest) run post-surgery. I felt almost like a runner again! I had a little abdominal cramping again, but I'm hoping it will work itself out with time. Stoke is back!

My last three weeks - 1 mile, 5 miles, 9 miles. Maybe 13 this next week?!