Patience; the new endurance sport.

My favorite river woods loop.  It took me 70 minutes to do this.  I ran 9 minutes, then walked 1.  My hamstring is ruined.  Even after all these months of rehab,  plasma surgery, stretching, elliptical work out and strenght training.  It's fried. Whenever I tried to put a little speed in it, I felt like my leg would hit the ground and give out. That hip ligament tear has been weird.  The only thing I notice now is when I go down stairs or jump off a rock, any forceful step down--will cause my leg to collapse.  So while I'm running, I'm afraid that if I hit my foot wrong, I'm going down.  Good news is, doing intervals on the elliptical have kept my cardio vascular health in great shape. I walk now probably 25 miles a week on top of really intense interval elliptical work outs.  I think I've got the hypoglycemia under control:  but I've also given up meat and milk and caffine. I'd like to give up sugar too.  So the intense weakness could have been one of those things too.  I don't know. The endocrinologist wants me to have my gall bladder out.  She says that's what's making me so sick.  But now I don't eat milk or very much meat, I feel better.  Anyway, so good to get outside and give running/wogging a small try.  Beautiful early June morning.

Av 11:30 (and who knew it would be so painful, even at that speed).  I ran 6 minutes, walked 1 minute.  I'm not sure trying to run again was a good idea.  The hamstring hurts in the way of bad hurting.  I can not believe it's ending this way.  I would have suspected my knees would give out before my hip ligament and hamstring.  The pain isn't just a tight hamstring--it's the whole hip, and the fear of it giving out on me when I hit my foot at a certain angle. I'm going to do an every other day slow-go-walk-jog for at least 2 weeks just to be sure I'm not just being a chicken.  The good news is--I'm hardly winded at all when I try and run. Doing hard, fast intervals on the ellpitical has kept my cardio pretty strong.

60 minutes of elliptical in the morning. Walk jogged (6-1) with the dogs in the evening.  11:00 pace.

I ellpitcalled 40 minutes, ran 2 miles, then came home in the evening and ran 3 miles with the dogs.  I'm running 6 minutes, walking 1-2.  AP is about 11:30   So, so, so happy about the cool weather.  Perfect for being outside.  The green on the mountains and along the trail, the flowering horse chesnut trees and honeysuckle are making me dizzy with glee.  I am so glad my debut week of putting my feet on the ground has not been disastrous.  Taking it slow and happy.

here I'm gong to record my ellpitical work out in case I forget that for every time I have not blogged a run, it's due to an ellpitical work out.  Today's work out consisted of 60 minutes of 5 minute intervals  On the 4's and 9's (every 5 minutes) I  push incline to 4 (out of 12- got to be careful of the hamstring on the higher incline) and to 12-13 (out of 15) resistance trying to maintain 150-60 steps a minute.  This makes me sweat bullets and cry a little.  Then I'd recover for 1.5 minutes hanging onto the handles and trying to keep my feet moving at 2/7 until I can breath again.  Then I'll push it back up to 3/9 for the remaining 3.5 minutes until the next interval. It's a good work out.   It scares me and makes me sweat without hurting anything (except that vague pain in the hamstring that will always be there until I die).

Met Marion in Spanish Fork for a little morning walk.  We did 5 miles walk jogging.  It’s the first time I’ve seen one of my ‘running’ friends in over a year. Then as I came home, I couldn’t help but cross the path of the UVM runnings heading down University Ave coming out of the canyon. So I got out of my car ran from my house down to the 22 mile marker.  The marathon was winding between the 4^th and 5^th hour.  I did a lot of cheering to groups that looked like they were hurting more than me (some yes, some no).  My daughter was up the canyon with the THS XC team, manning the station at Deer Creek (mile 9).  So I started running that way.  I ran up and down the mile 21-24 corridor jogging with a few tail- enders who seemed happy to have some support.  By the time I was done, I'd jogged another 6 miles (on top of my morning).  I am so happy to feel like I'm getting better (instead of always worse, as it's been these past 2 years). Utah Valley Marathon was my last marathon one year ago today.  It was the beginning of the end. This time last year I literally thought I was dying. I may have to get tumors taken out of me from time to time--but overall, I feel so much better than last year. I am so much healthier overall.  I have my blood sugar into the 60's instead of 40's.  I can make it through most days without passing out or collapsing (which happened less and less frequently after I stopped running).  I have been exercising vigorously since March and doing what I can to both stretch and strengthen my quads and hamstrings as the ortho doc has instructed me. I’ve continued my 400 sit ups, 60 push ups , planking, squats routine. My hamstring will always be 3 times fatter than it should be because of prologued tendonosis, my hip will always hurt and I’ll always be unsure of my foot if it it’s a certain angle.  But I am outside, doing my thing!  One week down of jogging 3-5 and then walking another 3-4.  I’m glad I’ve kept it up. The original achiness I felt last Saturday has subsided.  For the first time in two years—I feel like I’m getting stronger instead of going down hill.  That is a gift.  I have been so sick for so long, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to feel ‘stronger’ after exercising. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover full range of motion on the left leg, not sure if I’ll ever run another marathon, or run fast again. But I feel pretty confident I can continue exercising by running 4-6 miles a day like normal people.  

Slow jog. 500 sit ups, 60 push ups.

loop

ran my loop, and then hiked squaw peak (4) in the evening

ran my loop--going to girl's camp

ran down to the lake, and twice around it the Heber Valley Girls camp 

slow easy evening jog 10:30 ap

ran up to squaw peak camp ground and back.  coming down was really hard an ended up carrying my dog about 3/10ths of a mile down (she split her foot pads on the hot rocks).

temple loop at sunset

My kid is taking tennis lessons across town at Lakeview and so I ran my old trail from Geneva Road down the River to the end of the Lakeshore trail.  I looked in on my renters (doing good on the yard) and went all the way down to the end of the trail.  I miss my trail -- it makes me heartsick.  So much went through my mind as I ran.  I grew my pregnancies walk/jogging along that trail, I called to get my 7 year old son out of bed to pedal down the trail in his pajamas to come see a turtle lay her eggs  near the bird reserve, I tried to save a parakeet I found sitting in the middle of the road and countless ferral cats.  I even fended off an attacker.  I let my eyes rest along the familiar beauty and pondered the countless pictures I've taken there in summer, winter, and autumn.  I never got tired of the bike trail.  It still holds its magic for me.  I'll run it every morning this week while they have their lessons.  When my kids are gone, maybe I'll rent out my new house and go back to the old one to remodel it.  I hate that side of town, but I love that side of the river trail with all my heart. And after my kids are grown and I don't have to drive across town 100 times every day, I may go back.

Slow going today, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being on the trail.  I walked and stretched when I wanted.  Averaged 11 mm doing that.  I so enjoyed hanging out in the hood.  Except the last segment of the trail was sectioned off with yellow caution tape and a huge "trail closed" sign.  It reminded me of when that homeless kid overdosed one night out on the trail two or three summers ago.  But it wasn't a crime scene, they are doing something down there like deciding to delta out the last segment of the river (not sure why, there are some years so dry there's hardly any water).  Also, there's a group of protesters in tents with a huge billboard petition to 'Save our River'.  Except for the recent improvements to many parks and trails throughout the city, I'm not sure Provo City can be trusted to make a decision about the area that will be beneficial to residents down there.  Just this morning, I was sickened by the sound of a Fronteir Airlines commercial size jet taking off.  So who knows what the city is up to down there.  But it's hard to know, "environmentalists" around here get pretty hard core.  Who knows what's going on.  I ended up having to run the Lakeshore drive which cut my run short by 1 mile.  It's ok, I walked 4 more in the evening up near  Squaw Peak as I've been doing these past few weeks. 

My last day on the River for a while.  Maybe if I can keep running, I can come back on Saturdays.  But knowing it was my last look for a while, I took in the sights: A ferral Kitty curled up in the grass sleeping in the early morning sun, a hawk landing and perching on one of the hundreds of alfalfa bales out in the freshly shorn fields, 8 new calves in the reserve who mooed and bucked when I stopped to take a picture of their sweet faces looking up at me.  I saw that yellow bird whose name I do not know, 7 ducklings floating on the mirror-still  shore of Utah lake, a quail quickly crossing the road trailed by a row of tiny, tiny fluffy babies, and listend to the high whine from the cloud of the hundreds of thousands of crane flies hovering above the marsh.  I'm averaging 10:30's to 11's when I walk a bit--but this morning took the opportunity to push one full mile into 9:28. Yeah! Sub 10.  I seriously never thought I'd get here.  It's been like recovering from a car wreck.  I did really have to focus on lifting that left leg up at the knee (the leg with the broken hip ligament and bad ham) or it drags and trips me up.  These past 3 days along the trail have filled up my cup a bit.  Maybe I'll try to run my end of the trail more often.  I just HATE the sound of the cars going up the canyon off in the distance. 

Ran before Yoga at 8:15 a.m.  After a week of running outside--I finally felt like I was "worthy" of running up the canyon.  I just about cried when I got to my favorite concrete pipe water fountain. the water pressure was high, and the stream from the pipe was thick and cold.  That water feels like heaven to me always.  I even took a picture of it. I've missed that side of the canyon too.  I've been back at Yoga this week, and realizing how much I have wrecked my hips/hamstrings with every stretch.  I used to be so flexible and strong in my buttocks, hips, and back.  Practicing in studio is a good challenge for me now.  Did 25 salutations in 2 hours of Yoga.  Felt so good, cleared my brain and made me feel how bad running has been to my body--I didn't strength train or stretch the way I should have after I stopped regular Yoga in 2009. I hope to rebuild that hip strength.