Visiting The Capitol - Injury uptade...starting to jog

Injury:
This week the PT gave me a schedule to try to introduce some kind of running back in my life.  It is not much but it is a start.
A 5 week plan
3 days per week max.
No back to back days.

Week 1: 20 min : 3 min walk-1 min run
Week 2: 30 min : 3 min walk - 1 min run
Week 3: 30 min: 2 min walk - 2 min run
Week 4: 30 min: 1 min walk - 3 min run
Week 5: 30 min run

I went to the PT twice this week because of this new plan.  I would like to go down to 1 per week for PT because well...it gets $$.

I can do most of the exercises at home and at my gym.
I would only miss the ultrasound and the stimulator.

So I did the 20 min walk-run twice.
I already broke one of the rule and did back to back days.
That's right I am a rebel like that.
No the truth is I was too busy with the kids activities and I did the first one Thursday and Friday I went to PT and did the second one.

It went good.  She told me that I had to stop if I felt any pain above 2, 2 being a very light pinch.
I did feel some little pinch here and there.  It was at random places around the knee.  It was VERY mild.
In 20 minutes there is not a whole lot of running.
The orthotics felt a little strange.  I did have some soreness on the outside of the foot and I also have a nasty callus that is pretty painful.
I did not feel the sharp pain in my knee on either days.

Today though out of the blue after doing absolutely nothing..no walking or running...I feel a sharp pain on the inside of my knee.
I hope it is just a fluke from sitting with my legs crossed for too long...
It makes me a little nervous.
I will not do the run-walk tomorrow and wait another day even if all is good tomorrow.
Not taking any chances.

I want to walk a 5k with my kids for the 4th of July...waiting to see if this pain is going to go away.

Washington Day 4

We requested passes from our congressman for all the guided tours available in DC.  Unfortunately the White House is no longer offering tours but we got to visit the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Bureau of Engraving.

Some of those tours were too long and had too much talking from the guide for the kids so we cut them short and visited on our own.

The Capitol was by far the best tour.
We had a great guide who knew everything about the American History.
We had headphones to hear him and that helped a lot.
What a beautiful building and so much to see inside as well.
The kids were very impressed by what they saw.

Helen Keller Statue...boys did not know about her yet..so one more thing they learned.

Inside the Capitol is an exact replica of FREEDOM (statue that is on top of the dome)

Next we went to the Library of Congress.
Very impressive place also...I thought we would see books and be able to touch them but no no...we did not get anywhere near a book..well except for children's books.
It is beautiful inside that building.

 

Signing the guest book

 

 

In front of the library:

Washington DC Day 2 and injury update

Oh I am behind on my posting...I had a busy week , including a 5 hours trip to the dentist chair that left me in pain for the rest of the week including right now as I type this....and also felt a little discouraged by my lack of progress to get back to running this week...

Ok Day 2 in DC.
It was Memorial Day.  What a special place to be on that Holiday. 
We headed back to the National Mall to visit more museums.
First up was the National Air and Space Museum.
There is so much to see there.
History of Apollo to the moon, The Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, WWII aviation, modern planes, several pieces from the Apollo missions including Buzz Aldrin Space suit.

Amelia Earhart's Plane:

Wright Brothers Plane:

 

Spirit of St Louis: Lindbergh's plane:

 

We got out and there was a Memorial Day Parade passing on the Mall:

We did a little dancing in the street:

We went to the National Museum of Natural History. 
This is where you can see the famous HOPE DIAMOND. 

We also walked to the Federal Triangle and saw Benjamin Franklin statue and the Old Post Office Building.

We also saw Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center:

Injury update:

I feel like I did not make a lot of progress this week.
I went to the PT only once because I had dentist and doctor appointments this week.
I walked about 2 hours in top siders without my orthotics and I paid for it the next day...lot of pain in my knee all day.  The next day (yesterday) was my 4 weeks follow up appointment with the orthopedist.

I went there with my list of questions and concerns hoping for good news.
I do like this doctor.  He has excellent bedside manners and he listens to me.
My main questions/concerns were about my orthotics.  I wanted to know if they could cause me to have other problems in the future with my hip or my ankle.  He said not likely but that pain in the feet is common and when that happens the PT adjust the orthotics.  I have no pain in my feet, the orthotics actually help with plantar fasciiatis and I have had no problems.   I told my doctor that I felt the best during the week in DC where I walked a lot of miles every day.  No IT band problems during that week also.  I told him that I feel worst since we have been back and I have been less active.  My IT band is on fire.  He examined my knee..pocking on spots where I used to hurt and also on the patella.  He says that it looks good.  He said that if I walked without my orthotics I should expect pain.
He also said that with time it is possible that I will be able to stop using the orthotics. 
He said that I need to always do strenght for my quads and calves even once I am done with PT.   I asked about the pain/soreness on the inside of my knee and if was caused by the tear and he said yes.

That part I have trouble with.  I told him that I hate knowing that another doctor said I needed surgery and that I wished I had come to him first.  It's always in the back of my head that this other doc wanted to go to the OR.  What if I am wasting my time all summer long?
The doctor told me that if he took all the runners or gymnasts in the OR for every injury some people would get dozen of surgeries!  Of course I prefer to not have a surgery. 
He said that he does not want to do a quick fix and that he wants to get me back on the road for a long time.  I like that plan of course. 

So the conclusion of this visit is....another 4-6 weeks of PT maybe just once a week (because at $40 per visit it is getting pricy) and 4 times at home or the gym for all the core and strenght work. 
Add more walking and elliptical and short runs.   No back to back elliptical or running days. 
It is the only way to know if I am getting better.  I agree.
I am dying to know if the orthotics work for running.
I am also scared of trying.  I don't want to regress.  That is the last thing I want.
Doc said I don't need to come back and see him if I am getting better so right now I don't have a follow up appointment.  That feels strange because I am not even close to being 100% better but I will go with it and hope that working with the PT will do the trick.

So this is where I am at.

I saw Spirit of the Marathon 2 this week.  Did you see it?
I loved it!
Of course seeing those 2 crazy cousins run made me believe that I could do it too.
The oldest one is 72!
Team Mimmo all the way!!!
There is a guy in the movie that was my pacer for 2 half marathons.  It's David.  He is the fiance of Julie who is the runner from LA who ran 52 marathons to raise money for pancreatic cancer.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads reading this!

Washington DC - Day 1

I want to post about our visit to DC..even though it had nothing to do with running.
Well I did see a ton of runners...every day, everywhere...I was so jealous of all of them.
For every runner I saw I did see one smoker....that is so sad... Lots of smokers.  I think it's because it is a busy city and here I don't see as many people but still.

I loved DC.
I knew I would like to visit this place but I did not think I would love it this much.
I am so impressed with everything we saw.

We did not rent a car for this trip.  We used the subway and we walked, a lot of miles.
We were lucky to stay in a hotel that was "central", we were about 0.5 miles from the White House and maybe 1 miles from the Mall.

We arrived Saturday around dinner time so no visiting that day except for a trip to Whole Foods to fill up the pantry and refrigerator we had in our room.  The hotel we stayed at had full breakfast every morning and dinners 3 nights that we were there and that was included in the price for the room.

Sunday we headed out and first stop was the White House.

 

Mister President was not coming out to say Hi so we continued our visit.

 

We went to the Mall.  We took the advice of the lady at the front desk of the hotel and took the subway...turns out we could have walked.

 

We got out of the subway station and on our left was George who is getting a tune up because of damages caused by an earthquake.

 

 
And on the other side : The Capitol!

 

We thought we would see 2 of the Smithsonian museums and then walk the Mall and see the War monuments and visit Jonathan's absolute favorite: Lincoln.

Silly us.

We had no idea how big those museums are.

We started with the National Museum of American History .

Wow.

First of all it is free.

It is fantastic.  So much to see.  We could have spent a whole day in there.  We saw many interesting things that could not be photographed like Lincoln's hat and the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner for example.

 

These are Dorothy's famous ruby red shoes

 

This is a piece of the World Trade Center

 

We spent a few hours in the Museum and we headed out to walk to the Lincoln Memorial.

It looked a lot closer than it really was!

Good thing the weather was perfect that day, nice and COOL.

 

We wanted to see all the war memorials because we knew that it would be super busy on Memorial Day.

 

We saw many war veterans and their families. 

 

World War II Memorial: Pictures don't do it justice.  It is really beautiful. There were many bouquet of red flowers that people brought to honor their loved ones and I found this flag on the Wisconsin pillar.

 

 

 

Vietnam War Memorial: Much more somber.  The wall has 58,272 names, including 8 women.

 

 

 

 

 Korean War Memorial Very impressive...with it's huge statues of soldiers...

 

 

Last for this post..because I know it is getting long...

 

Lincoln Memorial:

 

Jonathan could not wait to get there.

He is obsessed with Lincoln.

My parents gave him $50 for his fantastic report card and all the academic awards he won and he spent only $10 and what did he get...a book about Abraham Lincoln!

That made me happy!

 
View from the top of the steps:

 

 This is engraved where Dr King stood when he made his famous speech:

 

 

So this was just day 1.

So much history and so much things to learn.

I loved that my kids were interested in everything they saw.

 

Thank you for reading..

 

On the running or I should say no running front:

Saw PT yesterday, asked if OK to walk a 5K with my kids today.

Answer I got: NO.

Follwed by: BE GOOD. (like she knew no was not enough or something....)

I came home with the intention of doing it anyway.

I ended up deciding to wait for the 4th of July.

Being good sucks....but it will pay off I know it.

 

Have a good weekend!

Run a mile for me!

Cheers!