Patience; the new endurance sport.

 I did 3 days of physical therapy last week. Physical therapy is kind of like volunteering to play the part of an infidel to be tortured by the Spanish inquisition.  The electrodes, the painful stretching and uncomfortable 'massaging' (also known as: let me stab you with 14 knives in this leg).  Then there are the days of waiting, i.e.: healing.  I would like to try aqua running but that horrible pool water makes me crazy itchy and I'm still rebuilding resistance to get back to either biking or  walk/jogging-- which I can only do in 5 and 10 minute increments at a time.  Then, after all that progress last week, I did a terrible thing by having to drive to San Diego on Thursday.  Which meant I also had to drive back.  Oddly enough driving and sleeping is my most painful activity.  Then the lack of stretching and movement during that drive time, made me feel like physical therapy went backwards.  I did all that painful stretching all the days I was gone, but the driving was hard.  The good news is, the big pain has subsided and only related to certain movements or long periods of sitting.   I've been walking a few miles every day to stay mobile, and to be outside so I won't go freaking insane.  Oh wait. Too late.

Here are anatomical parts and phrases that describe my pain: ischial tuberosity ,  piriformis syndrome, hip bursitis.  The physical therapist Steve Orrock said it's hard to know what came first: rigid lower back which pushed running impact into my hips, or hamstrings that got so tight they pulled everything down and out of wack.  But it resulted in my swollen, painful hip that stopped me cold. I've had tons of tighness in my butt for over a year, which I now know where my hamstring connects to my ischial tuberosity.  I felt a little out of wack the days before SGM, but not that bad.  I thought I was careful to run thorugh so many kinds of smaller injuries in late summer.  But tendons in my hips and lower back became rigid probably for having to overcompensate for those injuries.  Anyway...After many days of  jogging on the little trampoline, doing the slide board, riding the stationary bike, stretching, stretching, stretching, stretching and more stretching......today I got on the treadmill to be video taped.  It was really helpful.  I have not been letting my knees absorb any shock and it's been going into my hips.   That's probably been going on a long time.  I also am not twisting at all to aid in my stride.  So I was holding really still on top forcing that pressure down, and running hard on legs that were not correctly absorbing shock in the knees-- and deferred the shock back up to the hips.  So my hips were being compressed by my upper and lower body.  That's kind of the gist.  So I have a little bit of a posture re-correct (leaning more forward, knees more bent deferring lower limb shock, arms higher and closer to the body, and counter twisting with stride to defer shock out from upper body.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  All I can say is, I finally ran a tiny bit on the treadmill (3 miles) practicing this way, and I feel pretty ok.  This is the best day, since the best day I had last week.  In fact, I think I might just cry from the pure relief of just knowing what to do from now on.

Guess who called me at 2:30 in the morning?  Go ahead and guess.....it was fastrunningmommy Sarah.  She said she would have to take a raincheck on our Saturday morning running appointment because....she was having the baby, and could I come get the kids!  So those cute little darlings of hers, so excited to be helpful and pleasant, loaded into my truck at 3:00 a.m. and came to my house and slept like angels until 7:00 a.m.  I couldn't sleep thinking of Sarah wondering how things were going for her.  Sasha showed up at about 7:30 with some soy milk for breakfast and news that William had been born at 4:30 a.m. weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces!!!!  Sarah fared well and everyone at home was fine.  And here was Sasha and Jeff standing in my doorway in their running gear 2 1/2 hours after the baby was born!   Jeff just said "Well, yesterday Sasha told me to come at 7:00 a.m.  So I came at 7:00!"  Well At least I had the kids right? Sasha said he'd post pictures later. At breakfast I asked Benjamin what his fastest mile was, he said something like 6:15, and announed that he could do that in his sleep.  My son just looked at him and said "yeah, well I ran a 9 minute mile with my Mom."  Benjamin just rolled his eyes. 

Unlike Sasha who kept his schedule without missing a beat, I won't be running until the afternoon.....I hope to get in another 3 miles on the treadmill.

I got out of bed and for the first time in 3 weeks I was not in sheer pain after laying in bed for 8 hours.  I did my stretches with great success and  got so excited I just threw on my running shoes, promising myself to be extra-oh-so- careful.  I was walking down the stairs saying to myself --"I promise, I promise, I promise I'll be so careful." I got outside in that clear blue pre-dawn sky and did a slow little jaunt down the street, leaning forward, arm closer to upperbody-swing the way they taught me to defer the shock in PT.....so slowly, so slowly I thought, I'll just go a little ways down the trail.  I tried to keep my head forward they way they taught me but I couldn't help looking up at the yellow, red, and orage leaves against the sunrise sky.  No one was on the trail and I was in sheer exctasy.  I mean, I got teary eyed and overcome with gratitutde and everything.  Then this runner coming from the other direction sort of looked at me funny.  Wiping aways the little tears, I realized suddenly that I was still wearing my stripey pajamas and running shoes (that plus my hair was all crazy and matted because I hadn't even brushed it yet)....I'd only planned on going a couple of hundred yards but got carried away.  I did 2  miles in the morning this way, and then 2 more carefully and slowly in the afternoon.  I won't bore you with how gorgeous this fall day was by 5:00 p.m.  It was glorious, and filled with all my favorite colors and tempetures.  No one in this world could have enjoyed it more than me.