HAPPY NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

HAPPY NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

I say this with a heavy heart.
I wish today was the day of my comeback.

I saw the PT Monday. 
I asked my usual 104 questions.
One of those being : "what is the estimate day of my first run?"
PT....silence
Me "don't pretend you did not hear me"
PT "OK OK....hmmm next week...maybe one mile"
ME " You said that LAST week"
PT "we cannot rush this..."

She is a runner. She is young and dedicated. I like her. I decide to trust her.
She said I cannot run until I feel at least 80% better with the orthotics.
I could lie and say I am at 80%.
I am not.
It is hard to put a % and evaluate this.
I know it is not 80.
But it is at least 50.
Progress.
She said OK for power walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes.
30 minutes....that's how long it takes to sweat......
Well now that I am loosing fitness every time I blink my eyes maybe I will sweat within 5 minutes...

I noticed that this week I feel worst than I did while I was in DC.
During my trip we would walk all day.  7-8 miles per day.
I felt sore at the end of the day but I did not have pain in my knee.  I was sore in my right hip.  I had zero IT band pain while we were there.
This week...no more crazy walking and I have more pain in both my knee and my IT band.

I am thinking I need to walk more.
Or move to Washington DC.

Happy very important day to all of you.
Go out and run a mile for me.

DC posts coming up your way.

Here's a couple pics from our trip:

WWII Memorial:

George and the boys (from Lincoln memorial)

 
Arlington cemetary, JKF

Tidal Basin (Jefferson memorial in the back)

Back from DC, a DNS and the knee situation

We are back from a wonderful vacation in Washington DC.

I have a lot to say about Washington.
All of it is good.
I LOVE that city.
I was so impressed with everything I saw.
Everything was better than I thought it would be.  Well except the humidity!
I took more than 900 pictures. :)

I will post a few of them this week...

I am very behind on blog reading and commenting....I am sorry.  I will catch up.
If we are friends on instagram than we are good.
Do you have instagram?  If we are not friends...let me know how I can find you.  You can find me there: carotabi. 

Back to DC....there are a lot of runners in that town!
At any hour of the day you can be sure to see some in the streets, even in the crazy hot and humid weather and most of them did not even carry water....CRAZY folks.
Every time we would pass one I said the same thing "It should be ME".
I will not lie, it was very tempting to cheat and try to see if I could run.
But I didn't do it.

We did a lot of walking during our vacation.
If you have been to Washington you know that its a place to visit on foot.
We did not rent a car.
We walked 7 to 8 miles per day. 
My kids were awesome.  Zero complaining.
They walked like champs!
We went everywhere and we saw as much as we could see.

I wore my orthotics 4 out of the 5 days.  The first day, I was very sore.  I wore them for half of the day.   I felt the most pain in my right hip (the knee that is injured is the left one). 
For the rest of the days I wore them the whole time.  I did not have pain in my knees but my hip was sore and I also had back pain.  The PT did say I could have back pain.  Maybe I wore them for too many miles...I am not sure.  Going to PT tomorrow.

Yesterday I got on my treadmill.
Just to walk.
I figured it is OK, I walked every day last week so I should just keep it up....right?
I walked just 3 miles....I almost ran....almost...I took 2 steps...and I stopped.
I thought karma would come back to hit me in the butt....if I don't listen to the Dr and the PT.
I decided to follow orders and wait for the OK.
Last time I saw the PT, she said that I should be able to run one mile when I get back from my trip.  That is this week. 
I am nervous.
I want to run. I do.
I am afraid that it will still hurt.  I know I will be waiting for the pain to show up.
I know that I will not know if I am OK without actually trying.
I know I am not making any sense...I want to run but I don't want to try...
Here's the thing:  I want to run and know for sure it will be pain free.
What? Too much to ask?

Yesterday I had a DNS.
My second one.
It sucked.
This was supposed to be my PR race.
I was a little grumpy in the morning....

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

 WWII Memorial (Lincoln Memorial in the background)

No running diet sucks, DC here I come and my kids are pretty awesome

I am not a fan of the no-running diet,

It sucks.

It makes me very impatient and grouchy.

I am loosing fitness every time I blink.... That is the worst part.  After working so hard to get there...I will have to start all over again....

I do my PT religiously.

A lot of core work, balance and working on quads, calves, hips..

Not a lot of cardio... This is hard.  I went to my gym to swim over the weekend,  I did 60 laps. I cannot remember the last time I did that...

 I had the pool all to myself!....need a new bathing suit...this one is way too big...

As far as the pain goes...it is weird.  I still have pain that is for sure.  The weird part is that is moves.  It is not always on the same spot where it started; the inside of the joint.  Sometimes it hurts where the quad attached at the top of the knee.

I got my orthotics Wednesday.

I have decided to trust my PT on this.  I have read pros and cons on them.  I discussed my reservations with my PT and she explained why she thinks those could help me.  She have been wearing orthotics herself and it has helped her.

The plan is to wear them 1 hour the first day, 2 hours the next and so on...

Once I get used to wearing them we will add running.

1 mile at the time.

Yesterday was my second day wearing them.  It feels strange for now.  They are not causing me any pain so that is good.  The idea is to make my foot roll inside to relieve the pressure on my joint that is causing me pain.  My legs are like the image on the right.

We are leaving Saturday very early for our trip to Washington DC!

I am looking forward to this, it will be our first trip that is not to Canada.

The boys are super excited to go visit all the museums and monuments!

Speaking of my kids....

Yes yes bragging section of this post ...skip if it makes you barf....It's all good...

Summer vacation is here already.

School ended Tuesday.

Monday we had the third trimester awards ceremony and it was a good day to be the mom of those 2 boys who are MY sons!

I am so proud of them.

They did awesome this year .

Both are the the top reader of their grades.  At our school it is a big accomplishment.  Will has earned this award for the third year in a row now.  He got the second highest score in the whole school, only one 6th grader beat him.  That is pretty awesome.   They both got straight As in all subjects.  I could not ask for more from them.  They were both really sad that school was over.  I feel grateful that they love school so much, I was the exact same way.

This one, perfect attendance...it's great only because it meant they were both healthy all year.  I am not a supporter of this award because some parents send their sick kids to school just to get this piece of paper and I think it is ridiculous.  Will has received this 3 yrs in a row now....I get asked how do we do it....I always say the same: lots of fruits and veggies, going to bed EARLY, no sodas and Canadian genes! Ha Ha!!

Will's baseball team beat the odds and made it to the championship.  They lost in the big game but that's OK, it was huge that they won the game before that to get to the finale.  They were the underdog from day 1.  Go Dodgers!!

I received this fabulous shirt this week.
All the proceeds went for the victims of the Boston Marathon.
4.15.13
Never Forget.
Boston Strong.

 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all of you reading this to the end!!!
Good luck to everyone racing this weeken!

Special extra good luck to my friend Sandy who is running the Ojai Marathon !
GO SANDY!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knee injury updates

I am sitting in the doctor's office waiting room as I type this.

I am here for a second opinion.

The waiting room is packed....I have at least an hour of waiting....he better be good.

So I have not posted about my last doctor's visit.

I went to see him on May 2nd.

I was expecting a PT reference and instead he told me I needed surgery.

I was shocked because 3 radiologists had looked at my MRI and they all said no tear.

I waited in the exam room 1 hour and 15 min and then he walks in all happy and he says "I see a tear" hmmmm WHAT???

I must have had my best pissed off look on my face because he said "oh you don't look happy". Genius guess doc.

He said he knew that the report said no tear but that sometimes they miss some of the tears.  He said he would call the radiologist and discuss what he sees.  If radiologist agrees we do surgery if not then its PT.  I was pissed.   I had a million questions and by the time I was done the radiologist called.  I was there when the doc took the call.  When he hung up he said "yep he agrees with me! He said this could be a tear" He looked way too happy for my taste.

I wanted to cry.  So he said they would send the request to the insurance for surgery.

I left pretty depressed.

3 days later I walked the OC Half Marathon.

Now we are 12 days later.

I am worst.

I can barely walk today.

It sucks

I called doc #1 to see if surgery was approved and they said not yet.

We called the insurance and they told us we did not need approval for this surgery.

So I am now wondering what the hell they are doing at that first office.

I am not in a good place right now, this is hard.  No running.

I am worried about our up coming trip to Washington DC.

We are leaving in 11 days.

This is a trip with a lot of walking around.....

My head is spinning thinking about it....

I am going to blog about this journey because right now I would love to find someone's story with the same injury and read about what they did and how was their comeback to running.  I want to share what I am doing and not doing.

Don't worry I will not whine on every post.

I will swim and work on core and do whatever it takes....yes even rest.

All right will be back with what doc #2 will say.......

--------------------------------

All right...I am back...

What a roller coaster day.

Very sorry this post is so long.

I will make this short...

I love doc #2.  He is nice and he took his time and he has a great reputation.  I thought I would wait a really long time and it was not so bad.

He listened to me and he did his exam and he said that my pain does not come from that small tear.

He is not concerned with the tear...it is horizontal and he said that he could pull 50 people off the streets and 30 would have a tear like that and not have any symptoms.

He said my problem is anteriomedial impingement.  He explained what that was with a plastic knee and it makes sense.  My joint is being pinched with every step.  He showed me on the MRI a bruise I have on my tibia, that explains some of the pain also.

He recommended PT as plan A.

He said I have to stop running for now.  For REAL.

He said bike is OK, swimming, pool running without ever extending the leg though.

He said he has a good feeling about this being the plan for me.

He gets that I want to run right now.  

I asked about the tear and surgery and he said right now he thinks it is best to give PT a shot and see if we can avoid surgery.  I like that. Less aggressive approach.

I see him again in 4 weeks.

He made a call to the PT place and asked e top guy to see me TODAY.

Top guy, Jeff the owner,  is hard to get as PT, this is the same place I went last year for my groin and I never saw him.

Jeff said yes come now.

So I did.

Lunch is so overrated anyway.

Met with Jeff and Natalie, another great PT who is a runner.  She will be my PT and he will have inputs.

They made me walk and they looked at my knees. Both said the same...knees tend to roll towards the inside when I walk and surely when I run.  I could see it in the mirror.

They said I needed orthotics to correct this and that this would take pressure off my joint and align my knee.  Makes sense to me.  It will also take pressure off the tear I have.

Did my PT session and I am going back Friday.

 

So I am feeling optimistic.

I need to find some patience and also not run.

I hope that plan A and those orthotics will work.

I get the orthotics in one week.

We almost had a broken nose in the family over the weekend...
Will was the pitcher for his baseball game and the ball hit him on the nose ...
It was bloody and it scared the crap out of me and him of course... but nothing was broken thank God...

OC Half Marathon Race Recap

The OC Half Marathon was the 3rd and final race of my second Beach Cities Challenge.

I had to walk it because of my knee.

If you read my previous post you know that I did not do that alone.

Sandy and I headed to Newport on Saturday afternoon to go to the Expo.

We got our bibs and race shirt.  Race shirt is a boring grey...they had no bag with samples..just the shirt.

At the Expo I bought a cold therapy strap that I love.

It is fantastic.  

We went to get dinner at the South Coast Plaza....huge mall where I could get lost 77 times in one hour.  We went back to the hotel and just relaxed.  It was nice to not have to referee the kids fighting over the TV remote or pillows.   Sandy is a really nice person and we had a great talk!  Our shuttle was at 5:05 AM and the start was at 6:15 AM I think...

Alarm went off way too early the next day...we got ready and went to the lobby to catch the shuttle.

I don't know why I thought that it would take 10 min to get to the start but it took much longer than that.  My darn stomach was not too happy and I was starting to regret drinking some coffee before leaving the room.   

Finally we got to the start...the lines for the porta potty were long and moving slow...

I could hear the national anthem as we were walking to the corrals.  I thought "crap Sandy is going to miss the start for wave 1".  She did not look worried or in a hurry.  She said she would start where we were standing and just go from there.....Yeah right....

My plan was to walk this thing with some slow jogging moments here and there...

I knew I had to walk the first few miles and not try to run.  I wanted to finish the race, that was goal # 1.  I did have a time in my mind, I just cannot help it.   I wanted my time to start with a 2 not a 3.

 

 

First 3 miles...I kept telling Sandy to go and run her race...and she kept giving the silliest responses she could think of...she was behind me and I kept turning around and making hand gestures..."Come on! run!"  Well you all know what happened: she never did.  Thank you Sandy.

I did make sure to let the people we were passing know that this woman CAN run and FAST.  

So walking a half marathon...I thought  that is going to be looooong and boring....

Well no.

It was nothing like that.  We had a great time actually.  I was smiling the whole time.  We were telling each other that we both usually don't notice the view along the course when we run a race like that and now we did. 

 

I never take pictures when I run a race and this time I took many and I posted them as I was going.  I also texted Bill a few times and that was fun.

I did always keep an eye on my pace...I tried to walk as fast as I could.

I could tell that my right leg was working much harder then the left (left knee is the one injured) and I knew I would be sore the next day and I was and I STILL am today....

 

 

Each mile marker had a something written on them and the one at mile 6 was clearly made for ME...Take that Dr K.

 

 

My knee was holding up OK...it was actually my other knee that was causing me pain....that was a bummer.  Once in a while I would start running and Sandy would remind me to save this for the end and I would listen.  We could not have had more perfect weather for this race.  

 

 

 

I wish we could have both run.  I still cannot believe Sandy gave up her race for me...here she is almost at the top of the last hill.

 

 

Then we saw these 2...they made me laugh

 

 

And not long after we saw this big guy

 

 

I bet I would have not notice any of that if I had ran that race...

I would have never stopped to take a picture that's for sure.

Once we passed mile 10 I knew that I was actually going to finish this thing after all.  I have to say that I did have some doubts.  It went by much faster than I thought it would.

Next thing I know we were at mile 12!!!! 1 more to go....

At this point I was in pain but I did not care....

 

 

I knew I was going to make it and I knew my time would start with a 2...Even with stopping for pictures and with walking...I would cross under 3 hours.

 

This was the only time during the race that Sandy left me behind.  

 

 

She wanted to get a better time than me....NO NO I am kidding!  She did that so she could get a picture of me crossing the finish line.... I told you she was nice.

 

 

Hands over Hearts for Boston.

I thought of you little Martin...

 

 

I was so happy and grateful.

 

I had completed my second beach cities challenge.

I could not wait to get my big medal!

 

 

We headed to where the shuttle were to go back to the hotel.

The bus was there and we thought we would be out of there in 15 min or so.....

Yeah not so much.....

It took 2 hours to get to the hotel.  Crazy.

At first I thought it was just the driver who was waiting for more runners but it turns out the parking lot was a huge traffic jam.  It was really bad.

I did the race even if my Dr was not 100% in favor of this plan.

I have zero regret.

I am glad that I did it.

I did the best I could and I am happy with that.

I did not give up.

I completed this challenge.

I am sure it would not have gone as well without Sandy.

I think mentally it would have been a lot harder...

I would have tried to run more if I had been alone and I probably would have paid for it.

I have not done much this week...my legs are pretty sore and my knee is not happy.

I am really sore in the hips since Sunday...I guess I woke up some muscles I don't usually use!

So I got a walking half marathon PR like Super Kate said.

I will be back next year to chase the other kind of PR.

I am going to get a DNS for the next race on my calendar.  It is a crazy downhill half marathon and I cannot do that now.  That would be really stupid and painful.  I have accepted it even though it sucks.

Injury: Dr said I have a tear.  I am getting a second opinion next week but for now I am looking at surgery in June.

 

 

I am a lucky person....

Today it was the OC half marathon.
My original plan included me running it and my family being there with me.
We had decided to spend the night in Newport on Saturday.
But things changed.
I got I injured.
Enter plan B.
Walking and no family coming.

We decided that I would go alone but still keep the hotel room and not have Bill and the kids wait for me while I walk.

My friend Sandy was running the race also and I asked her if she would like to share the hotel room with me and she said yes.

During the days leading up to the race she offered MANY times to walk the race with me and of course I said no every time. She is a really good runner, much faster than me and she is getting ready for a big race in 3 weeks. I did not want her to waste a race for me. I told her I would carry my phone and I would be fine.

Fast forward to this morning....
We got to the starting line...and did not have a lot of time to get to the corrals...by the time we got there corral one had just left and that was her corral. I kept saying "Go Go!!" but she was not making a move to the front and said she would just start from where we were standing...in the last corral. I said "you better start running when we get to the mat". She was saying yes yes but I was not buying it. As we were getting closer to cross the starting line, I kept telling her to not stay with me and to run this race.....

Well she did not listen to a word I said.
This awesome lady stayed with me the whole 13.4 miles.
She gave up HER whole race for me.
First 5 miles I kept saying "Go! Run!" She would invent all kinds of answers "I warming up" yeah right.... "I need to pee" "I am hungry" "I am going to go....soon"
Soon....that came at mile 13.1 when she ran to get pass me to be the finish line and take a picture of me finishing this thing.

I will have a race recap but for today I just need to say
THANK YOU SANDY!
I am so very thankful for your friendship and your huge heart.
I know what you gave up for me.
It means a lot to me.
I am a lucky person to have a friend like Sandy, not a lot of people would do this.
When I realized that she was not going to leave me until the end...I got emotional and same thing at the end...I will never forget this that is for sure.

***I will have a race recap next and also an injury update....saw the doctor last Thursday and it was bad news....***

Injury update, OC Half Marathon

Congratulations to everyone who ran Eugene or any other races yesterday. Several of my friends had great races. Special congrats to my fellow French Canadian friend Anne, who destroyed her previous half marathon PR yesterday. She followed a hard plan to reach a time goal and she did it!!! Anne je suis tellement heureuse pour toi!!!!!

Last Friday I got the report for my MRI. It confirmed no tear. It does say I have patella tendinosis. I am seeing the doctor on Thursday and I hope that he will give me some exercises to do at home. That would be the best case...if not I think I will be headed to PT again. I would go to get advices on what I can do at home. I am also thinking of trying acupuncture. They offer that at the same clinic where my sports doctor is. Have you ever tried that? For what and did it help?

Have you ever had patella tendinosis? Is it cured? What did you do? How long did it take to get better? I want to know everything!




Since learning that there was no tear....I have been doing either fast walking or super slow run/ fast walking intervals. All on the treadmill. The intervals were of 0.25 miles for 4 miles. Yesterday I only did 3 miles of walking only and 1 hour of pool running. My knee was sore and stiff and I did not even tried to run on the TM. I found this to be so frustrating.  Pool running is hard...I am lucky I can do it at home.

 
I need a tan......

I have done stretching and PT exercises every day and also foam rolling 2x a day.
I ice 3 times per day also.
I am not supposed to take any ibuprofen because of my GERD but I did take 1 pill twice. It was just 200 mg and so far no stomach problem.











I researched patella tendonisis and found several links with advices on exercises that can be done. The most recommended one is a program of eccentric decline squats.

This is worth the try I think. On Amazon you can buy the fancy bloc like the PT have for about $70. I decided to go to Home Depot instead and got what I needed for less than $25.

Sunday is the OC Half Marathon.
I am registered for this race.
Now normally I think I would probably maybe just skip it and get a DNS because of this injury.
The thing with this one is that it is the last of 3 races for the Beach Cities Challenge. This is my second challenge. I don't want to start over (and have to do Long Beach again....) and I want to complete it. All 3 races must be done in a row. This is why I am not backing out of it...even if my pal Nelly has advised me to skip it.....:)
I have decided to walk it.
I will not do anything stupid.
I am preparing myself mentally for a PW.
Not easy.

Have you ever walked a race because of injury?
How was that?
I am sad just thinking about it but it is what it is.
The one thing that is kind of positive is that it looks like it will be pretty hot on race day so I won't have to deal with dry heaving and that good stuff.