Patience; the new endurance sport.

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.