9 weeks till the Flint Hill's 50

trying to remember this

This week has been more about discovery of what is going on and more PT.  On Tuesday I went to Doug at Body First.  Doug has worked on me since I started running back in 2009.  I trust him so much with my body and in helping me decide what to do.  The only issue is he is now a 35 minutes away from me, so I had explored closer options first when I probably should have just gone to him first.  I do love my chiro though and I do feel SO strong now in my core and I don't regret one second going to her and all of the help she has given me.  I do think that this had several components to it, a muscular and a nerve.  Trina, Dr. K, and Doug have all helped me to get this better together and I will always be grateful for that.

Prone hamstring curl machine that I need

After an INCREDIBLY painful massage with Doug that almost made me puke several times and left me in a pool of sweat, I got off of the table feeling like a new person.  I did take a few time outs, but mostly tried to just power through and get to the end.  I needed to strengthen the tops of my hammies as well as open the muscle belly up and get the hammie on both legs to not be so taunt.  The problem is finding the machine that does this.  Most gyms have a hamstring curl machine, but not the hamstring curl machine that you lay prone and bring the weight up to your butt.  I can order one for $225 plus shipping and also the cost of the weights to go on it or drive 35 minutes 3-4 days a week to get to one in Doug's gym.  We have three gyms in our tiny town and one has a single leg kneeling hamstring curl machine that may work.  The only problem?  They don't allow kiddos under 14 and I can't leave andrew home alone while Tony helps me.  We are probably going to have to go to the gym over my lunch break WHEN Tony is in the shop at the same time as I.  Sounds doable right?  I hope so.

stella getting a clean bill of health from her chiro

I did get back to the great outdoors with a nice speedy power walk.  Doug said 2 miles, I wanted 3, but was good in the end.  Stella was biting me and pulling saying COME ON MOM the whole time.  Afterwards I went in and did my PT at the shop and some work.  I am hoping I can walk every single day and get that walking up to a nice number.

I ended the week with another power walk and an all day wrestling tournament.  The tournament did not end the way I had hoped but the walk was magical and I will take it!!!!  Hoping to increase the mileage as this week goes on and see how i feel.  I am so hoping this slow gradual approach of adding back exercise and strengthening my hammies works because this momma needs some exercise for both my mental and physical health!  I will post a post about Andrew's tourny and his year in wrestling soon.  I did a live video on my blog FB page about things but I like to write things down too so look for my post on that.  Have a great week!!!!!

10 weeks till Flint Hill's 50 but who is counting?

I still have the tiniest of hopes that I can do something at my upcoming race.  At the very least I will volunteer at an aid station, but maybe I can power walk the full?  Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. Rather than a day by day since most days were spent doing PT and resting, here are the highlights.

boom watching me do PT

I did go see my chiro again on Wednesday.  She agreed an MRI if covered would be a really good thing to have.  I pointed out that yes, nerve flossing does help for a brief moment, but the toothache pain radiates from under my butt cheek, and while that could still be nerve it could also be muscle.  I also reminded her of the weird indention in the back of my leg that runs on the biceps femoris.  Yes, I do think the brace was irritating it but it was super sore.  Could this be a tear even though I wasn't lame and limping and didn't have an acute incident?  She did lots of release on several different other areas to make sure we weren't missing anything.  I think I make her and all of my over providers think because she had several books out looking at anatomy and different treatments we could do.  She was amazed at the amount of research I had done (have you ever had a scientist + runner, probably not, double obsession).  We did add two more exercises to my set and went over a couple to make sure I was doing them correctly.  The good news the pain is getting less, ever so slowly with the help of the brace and sitting on a balance disc at work.  I still need to get a ball to sit on because sometimes my back starts hurting as the balance disc is a little over inflated since i use it with the dogs.

my inserts and lift

At the end of the visit, we got my inserts out and tried them before I left.  We both knew immediately they weren't going to work.  The arches were super duper high.  I don't have high arches, I just walk on the sides of my feet which makes me look like i have high arches (and this is made worse when I am barefoot).  I would have thought the molds would have provided that information.  Sigh.  I took them home with instructions to try and wear them 2 hours a day.  I made it 10 minutes before through tears I had to take them out.  They hurt my feet SO badly.  I guess that was 300 bucks down the drain.  Plus the lift is a separate piece of material that has to go under the orthotic and basically I have no room in the shoe for my actual foot.  Not going to work :(

The end of the 5 course meal was this heavenly cheesecake

Friday was Valentines day and the first day in a LONG time that I didn't wake up in pain.  Of course Saturday was totally different with me waking up sore and painful and I have NO clue what I did differently to cause that.  We did split a bottle of wine at dinner, so maybe that is what caused the pain (wine = inflammation?). By the way, the five course meal we signed up for at our little local restaurant was amazing for V day dinner.  We started with goat cheese bruschetta, had salad and broccoli cheddar soup, a sorbet to clean our pallet, and beef tenderloin with a twice baked potato and steamed asparagus.  AMAZING and I felt like a stuffed pig.  Then to finish off the cheesecake above with raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries.  WOW!!!!  Plus, they had a barbershop quarter walking around singing while we ate.  Tony and I don't get away on many dates and this was fun and only a couple of blocks from our house so we could have a drink or two and not worry about driving.

Saturday the weather was beautiful which meant we had to get out.  Tony was working and the trails were still snow covered and or icy, but that didn't stop us.  We went out to a little park that had some trails and hiked up to the top of the hills that overlook a big lake that was covered in snow geese.  We made it quite a while till the wheels fell off and Andrew got whiny.  I was worried that my leg would be hateful post hiking, especially since we were either going straight up or straight back down.  My left leg felt fine post hiking, but my right knee did not.  What the heck knee?????

trying to watch Daytona at the local bar through rain delays

I did wake up feeling better and not sore at all on Sunday. I am feeling hopeful that this means I can get some sort of exercise started and soon, even if it isn't running.  I need to do something whether it be walking or hiking or what.  I have two appointments scheduled for this upcoming week that should give me more insight into things and if they don't, I will be scheduling a MRI for sure. 

Hoping you have a wonderful week and run some miles for Stella and I! 

For my brain's sanity

I blog to get crap out of my brain so I can function.  Here is what is in my brain right now driving me nuts.

Okay so here is all the things that could be wrong with my leg/butt/hip:

1.  High hamstring tendoniopathy (tear at the sit bone since no pain in muscle bed)
2.  Bursa pissed off on sit bone
3.  Sciatica- no back pain, but have the dull toothache pain in the butt that could be aggravated nerve
3.  Biceps femoris strain (since pain was down in knee inside and also up high at attachment)
4.  Strain or sprain or even tear of some area of my hamstring
5.  Stress fracture in my pelvis/hip

Symptoms:

1.  Dull tooth ache pain radiates down the entirety of my leg when I sit
2.  No specific sore spots to touch other than at sits bone/attachment
3.  When I run, pain can shoot down into my calf muscle
4.  Pain doesn't care if I have been active or not.  Almost worse when I rest

Treatments:

1. Advil for 7 days if it is nerve/no Advil if it is muscle tear (although have read lots of conflicting info on this)
2.  Rest-complete rest versus active including walking and some range of motion exercises.  Good for nerve, not good for muscle sprain/strain or if it is a stress fracture.
3.  Percussion massage on muscle if is muscle issues/nerve issues get worse with percussion
4.  Foam rolling if it is muscle/don't if it is nerve
5.  Deep tissues massage-may irritate nerve if it is nerve pain
6.  lots of exercises to strengthen the weakness and increase range of motion.
7.  Nerve flossing 3 x a day

I have checked with my insurance so I can get an MRI if needed.  You can see why I am a bit concerned about how to figure this out.  For some of the diagnosis, one thing works but the other is bad, so if we are treating this wrong, we could be doing damage, not helping.  I don't want to set back healing, I want to promote and get this show in the road so I can train smart and hard for my 50 in the fall.

Week 10: Back to the beginning?

I really love looking back on my blogs to figure out where things started and then figure out the why.  When I blogged about running my dogs in dog agility, the blog became a very useful resource in going back and figuring out when problems started or bar knocking started.  That was always useful for us to then pinpoint what was going on at that time.  Examples were like the time miller jumped in the back of the van and the crate door wasn't opened ,so he fell out backward which was possibly the start of his groin issues that later plagued us at nationals.  Last night I wanted to go back and look and see when I first mentioned any pain in my hammy.  I found entries as far back as the first of December with me mentioning pain and possible hammy.  Sigh.  Why didn't I stop then?  Why did I instead just keep plugging along and try and ignore this or try to keep running?  WHY does this happen every time I get injured?   I did run through my PF and while it was painful, my PF also finally resolved so I guess I have false confidence? This week is going to be short and sweet and to the point.

i think some one is ready for racing season

Monday:  6 mile run.  I did this run pure out of stubbornness.   I thought by running on a softer surface, I could mitigate the pain.  I was wrong.  By Monday night I was in enough pain that I couldn't sleep.  Reality really set in that this is probably a really dumb thing to run through.  Yes, I know there will be other races, but this one was special.  I was going to run with my trail sisters and maybe even convince rockin robin to do the full.  Plus I was going to add to my buckle collection and have a full and a 50 buckle from the same race.  Sigh. I guess at this point we are both out of spring races.  :((  This was also Andrew's first night of Level 2 wrestling on Monday nights.  He was instructed to work hard and learn some new moves and be a good partner to his wrestling partner Blake.  He did check all the boxes and we are SUPER proud!.

Tuesday:  Rest day and PT.  Andrew found a walking stick on the way to school so now we have to have it every.damn.day.  That's fine going but coming back I get to tote the thing plus usually two bags of dog poop.  Fun.

can I come cuddle with you:)

Wednesday:  Chiro day.  I was ready to lay my soul out and tell her how bad I was hurting and be 100% honest about my pain level.  She still thinks it is my back and it is nerve related as it responds to the nerve flossing.  We also did an adjustment and cupping of the nerve, and added some more exercises to my list.  Doing all exercises at 10 reps each takes me about 20-25 minutes currently. I am trying to do them slow and correctly. I think there are SO many exercises I just rush through in strength training that I am probably doing wrong just to get through them and get through my day.  That has always scared me because even something as simple as a squat or in my case a glute bridge can be done wrong and in fact cause harm.  My only issues right now are, are we 100% sure this is nerve, what is actually pissing off the nerve, and how can I get out of pain 24/7?

yeah for recognition of our hard work at work!

Thursday:  PT and pain.  I am in that phase of my injury where I am reading and absorbing everything I can to try and figure this out.  Right now my favorite Youtube channel is Bob and Brad two PTs that are in Minnesota that do daily youtube videos.  They have tons on sciatica and I am watching and taking notes (while I sit on my ice pack and take my advil).  I have already incorporated some of their pain relieving exercises into my day and they do help, even briefly.  I am also doing lots of research on diagnosis.  I have found that MRIs can be helpful in these situations and I am telling you if the pain doesn't lessen in the next few days, I will be going to my normal DR for a referral to whomever I need to see to get an MRI.  Everything I have read said that it can help with diagnosis  of the exact issue if there is a muscular component or a tear or a break.  I would rather know if bad things are going on in there and get it fixed than sit in pain day after day.

Friday: PT and a little less pain.  Still having pain in my sit bones.  Trying to sit on pillows so the sit bones aren't on the seat.  I also got a sleeve for my upper leg to try and help with the pain as well. 

the front.  More on the sides and back

Saturday:  We had a lazy day of watching movies and working on math and V day boxes.  Last year they did their boxes in class but this year we were instructed to do them at home.  Andrew wanted a sonic themed box so we printed out pictures, he colored them, and I cut them and pasted them on the box.  The glue we had wasn't holding, so we had to tape most everything.  I think we used a whole roll of tape in the process LOL!!!!  I did take a day off of PT exercises just to rest my body.  I hope it helps.

Sunday:  Tutoring and b-day partying.  After the third bad session of tutoring in a row, we are going to have to think about what we need to do.  He didn't even earn an end of tutoring treat from the teacher and she said we were going to have to re do this lesson as he got nothing out of it.  I am not sure if he is bored or if he is just being bad or what.  There is no sense in me paying 60 dollars a session if he is not going to participate and get anything out of it.  Sigh. I really thought we had a good thing as he LOVES his tutor or did love his tutor.  He has had two weekends of post tutoring parties so I hope he has just had partying on the brain instead of learning.

Well, one day till I am at a week of no running and no working out other than PT.  The pain has lessened some, but not as much as it has in the past.  I am really holding out hope that I can start at least walking again next week, but I want this pain to a 0 before I do.  Stay tuned and have a great week!

Week 9: Training for the Flint Hill's 50 or maybe not?

I am kind of in limbo this week.  I am having pain, not horrible, but pain none the less, so trying to figure out what is causing it and how to fix it.  Do I stop running again and bail on this race and this training cycle or keep running through it?  Also we started Level 2 practices at wrestling, which means instead of 45 minutes to an hour twice a week, we are starting 2 hours, three times a week.  EEEK!  This means dinner at 4 pm and late bedtimes.  Looking forward to adjusting to this new routine.

Monday:  Another chiro visit.  Now we are shifting to other issues, since my pain seems to move around.  Sometimes its in my sits bone, some times it is behind my knee, and sometimes I feel it up and down the back of the leg.  My chiro is now thinking about nerve issues versus muscle issues since it moves.  The problem?  I have never had nerve pain and I have NO clue how to deal with this.  She thought maybe the massage irritated things and and then I went and ran which further irritated things.  She did tell me I could continue to run for now with some new exercises thrown in for glute work. Later on, I modified my day by doing ALL of my PT exercises including ab work and glute work, and got on the elliptical for some 4 minute easy: 1 minute hard work.  I decided to try my altras on during my elliptical time and that was not good.  I felt like my feet were on fire the entire time, not sure why.

Tuesday:  6 mile run.  I tried to stay mostly on pavement, but couldn't resist a little trip down the mud filled gravel.  I didn't think it looked that bad, but apparently it was worse than I thought and I got a little mud on my old running shoes that i had to wear.  My newer running shoes were still wet from their cleaning.  I tried the glute exercises pre run and then I really tried to focus on my core and breathing and I had little to no pain post running, so maybe it's working????  I didn't get my strength done, as it had several elements that needed to be done at the gym and i just didn't have time to get over there.  I am going to have to start running in the am no matter what so I can get to the gym.

Wednesday:  Field trip day (Happy 159th birthday Kansas) + Incline walk on the treadmill.  We had a school wide 2nd grade field trip that I volunteered to help with.  I had three kiddos and one other parent to help me and boy did I need it.  The kids were all over the place wanting to do all.the.things.  I was glad when it was over just to get out of the masses.  We will have to go back to the Kansas Museum in Topeka again and slowly walk around and take it all in at our pace.  Later on post school, I was a ton nervous because my leg had been feeling better and the treadmill seems to aggravate my hammy/nerve/whatever the heck this is the most.  I didn't feel pain during but was a little tiny bit sore post getting off of the mill.

loving the mean face!

Thursday:  6 miles plus chiro visit.  My pain is still there, but not as bad, so the visits are more to up my exercise difficulty and to make sure I am still doing the core of the core exercises correctly. I am glad she always goes back and double checks what I am doing.  I am adding two more to my current slate of dead bug, cat cow breathing (my names not hers LOL) her version of safe side planks, and low bear crawl breathing.  I am adding some band work to my cat cow breathing exercise and a new exercise to strengthen my obliques that involves resistance work with a hoop.  Post work Rockin Robin and I headed out to do 6 in the least muddy/wet places we could find.  The gravel is back to pure gloop and the roads are wet with muddy tire tracks.  We made it work with minimal slop on the dogs and us.

Friday:  Rest day.  I was going to try and catch up on all of my gym work but a busy day at work saw me only getting through my PT exercises :(  This is my first week I haven't gotten through my strength and that is okay.

Saturday:  8 mile long run.  Eagle run!!!!  Since all of our running surfaces were mush, we decided to head out to Tuttle creek and get some eagle running done.   Everything was going great till it suddenly wasn't. We stopped to see some eagles and take a few pictures and next thing i know, Ebby, Robin's dog had whipped around and pulled her down onto a concrete viewing pad.  It all happened so fast and all I saw was flying stuff including her phone and her body.  She managed to sit up and I immediately saw blood trickling down her face.  We think her sunglasses hit the pad first and then cut her face, but saved her from a concussion or worse, a broken orbital bone.  Her ankle also got some major torsion and we didn't know exactly if it was broken or badly sprained.  The major problem in all of this???   We were the furthest part away from the park office in the park and with the park being empty, we had no other way to get there other than walk.  I was concerned about her ankle and the possibility of a concussion.  While the adrenaline was still flowing, we got her up and started hobbling back to the park office to hopefully get some ice packs and something to clean her up with.  We also called her hubby to head on to us from Wamego as we were in Manhattan, which meant he had about a 20 minute drive.  I had thought about sprinting to the park office to get help, but was torn between leaving her and staying with her.  I am glad i stayed with her because by the time we did get to the office, there was no one around to even help us as it was closed.   Her hubby pulled up minutes after we arrived thankfully.  She is in a boot, no broken bones thank God, and stitched up.  Post getting her in her hubby's truck, I headed back to her car to finish my 8 and head back to meet up with them at the hospital.

By the time I got done and headed back to Wamego, they were heading home from the hospital.  I hate this for her so much as I was just kind of starting to get back into training.  As far as pain for me, on and off lots of things hurt and i have no clue why.  My left knee bothered me, my hammy had pain occasionally up and down it, and my right foot decided to have random pain.  Oh well, blame it on the concrete/pavement.  We didn't want mud puppies or mud shoes, so it is what it is.  I also met one of my strava friends in the parking lot before I headed out.  It is SO much fun to meet new runners in real life that you follow on social media outlets.  He recognized stella and came up and introduced himself and I am so glad he did!  Shout out to Scott in Manhattan!  Hope you didn't get too muddy on your way home!

Later we went back out to Tuttle to celebrate the birthday of one of Andrew's good friends Blake.  We had a groundhog hike birthday party and the boys had so much fun!  

These boys have been together since daycare at Little Love bugs and I just love each and every one of them!

Sunday:  Rest day.  I had intended on getting all the things done including catching up on gym work outs, grooming all three of the dogs, cleaning the house, and and and.  Andrew had tutoring and another birthday party pre Superbowl, so I got done what I could and that was clean the house and mostly groom the dogs while soaking up on some much needed vitamin C.  I was in shorts in February on my deck brushing out dogs and I loved it.  Of course later on we watched the Chiefs win the Superbowl and ate all of the good football food you can imagine.  I now feel like a beached whale that is hung over on good beer and winning vibes.  I am not a big Chief's fan per se but I am a HUGE Mahomes fan and can't wait to see what this kid can do.  He has a nice long career ahead of him and is a HUGE role model for our kids.  I hope he keeps his head on straight and becomes the legend I think he could be. 

I am going to try one more week and see how it goes and hope and pray I can get on a softer surface.  If not, I guess it will be back to the drawing board and back to no running :(  Mentally right now, I really, really need running, so I am hoping and praying some softer running and maybe the addition of my orthotics that should be here any day now will help.  As far as the race, I am still not sure if it is feasible to even attempt the marathon at this point.  I just am not sure. Sigh.  Damn body.  You get me across the line for the 50 miler and then you fall apart.  At least you waited till after.