5 miles in 7:37 pace I'm taking it really easy today. The sinus infection still in full force and my achilles tendons and left hip are both pretty tight too. Its a good thing I still have 10 days to work out these kinks before the marathon. I finally went in to see Dr. Tim Lowney this morning after weeks of urging from Coach De Reuck. Dr. Tim does a type of deep acupuncture where he puts the needle all the way into your muscle and then twists to create a small tear in the muscle which initiates a healing response and in effect, releases the tension. Kind of like trigger point massage with needles. He did it on both of my calves and my left hip. It feels strange, like a dull achey muscle spasm as he's doing the work and now I my calves feel as soar as they would if I had just done a long track workout in spikes. He also did some e-stim treatment which could be adding to my calf fatigue as well. Hopefully my poor achilles tendons can hold out for 10 more days and come through for me in the marathon and then I promise to give them a nice break afterwards. I am considering getting shoulder repair surgery as soon as I start my break from running after Baltimore too. I have appointments to see two different orthopedic docs and get opinions about what ligament repair surgery entails and if it is a good option for me. Nine years ago when I first dislocated my shoulder I had two Dr's opinions about ligament repair surgery (basically stapling the stretched out ligament together to make it shorter and tighter) but decided not to get the surgery and instead try to keep my shoulder strong and avoid activities that dislocate it. But now that (despite my efforts to keep my shoulder strong) the list of activities that have caused dislocation has become quite lengthy, I'm reconsidering the surgery. Just off the top of my head I've dislocated my shoulder during all of the following activities: Falling while skiing (first time), rock climbing, swimming, throwing a baseball, tripping while hiking, tripping over my kids, sleeping with my arms above my head, kayaking, and last, but not least, lifting a cup to my mouth. The last one startles me the most and is really the reason I'm considering surgery. I am not at all a fan of surgery or any sort of invasive intervention though so there is a good chance I will decide not to get the surgery again. But I feel like I ought to at least know my options and MAYBE if there is a type of arthroscopic repair that is not too invasive with relatively quick recovery time, MAYBE I'll get it done. We'll see.
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