Lost and Found

Months of hard-won conditioning now have been lost....

Frustrating, it's true.

But I know this for a fact because I found it out while on a run....yeah, you read that correctly....A RUN!

My stretching has been going fairly well in recent days. I don't notice a ton of new flexiblity yet, but it has been successful enough to make the throbbing ache in my left hip recede into the background.

I laced up the Mizunos and hit the streets this afternoon. The first time in nearly two months.

Although I was taking it slow and steady, after only a few blocks I already could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Never thought it would feel so good to feel so out of shape. I was running again.

Heeding the advice I have been given, I cut it short after a mile or so.

Sure it was a short, short run. I barely was outside for anytime at all. But still, I felt pumped up and was radiating energy when I got home.

Definitely need to keep up on the stretching. The hamstrings remain a problem area. I get on my back, grab one leg just below the knee and then attempt to extend the leg straight to stretch the hamstring.

Anybody have other hamstring stretches that seem to do the job?

I'll try to resist the urge to run again tomorrow, but Friday? Well, I'll be out there again.

After a single outing and a distance that barely qualifies as a run, I know it's crazy to get too far ahead of myself, but I want to sign up for a race. This one looks interesting.....

Reset

Leaving the physical therapist's office yesterday, I carried a list of instructions for new exercises, a torturing device known as a foam roller.....and hope.

I am going to have to reset my conditioning and my strength.

My injury has caused my left leg to become noticeably weaker than its counterpart on the right. Thus, the exercises. The foam roller may not feel wonderful when being used, but it is remarkable in its ability to knead deep into tight muscles. My pathetically tight hamstrings also drew a rebuke. They very much could have contributed to the injury because it required my quads to bear so much more of the load.

So, the plan is to do the stretching and strengthening exercises twice a day.

But the good news is.....I can resume running!!!

Only about a mile at a time to start. But I'll take it.

Anticipation

I have been developing and refining my ability to worry - and often come up with worst-case scenarios -- for many years. When I was little, my mom used to refrain from telling me the night before when I had a dentist appointment the next morning, knowing I would worry, worry, worry until the dawn.

Well, I can't really resort to that technique now. Especially considering that I am the one who made the appointment for tomorrow morning with the physical therapist.

Maybe he will finally help me figure out what is going on with my body. Or -- here's the product of Mr. Worst-Case Scenario: he'll tell me I can't run anymore.

Staying off the streets for nearly two months and still feeling pain can't be good.

I have only ventured out running once or twice since the Marathon Debacle. Both times I felt pains in my feet.

Then I dumped my running shoes in the corner of my closet and haven't touched them since. While my feet, and my knee, now are feeling much better -- dare I say, completely healed? -- the pain in my upper thigh still persists. Plus I have some sort of ache or pain in my lower back. That can't be good, right?

Good or bad, on Monday morning I should have some answers.