Tuesday, February 17, 2009

believe in your dreams

I guess I forgot to post last week. What a crazy and confusing week it was! Almost as crazy as my favorite digital short (just watch it, I promise the zombie dance interlude at the end is worth it):




Saturday (2/7): I ran with the orthotics on and didn’t notice anything special – just some tightness in my ITB and that nagging pain in my hip flexor. I had gone to yoga a few days before which really helped ease the pain in my lower back. Saturday’s run was pretty successful – I ran just under 5 miles! I took stretching breaks every 1.5 miles and that seemed to really help. So of course I'm feeling all proud of myself and looking forward to running again on Tuesday morning before PT.

Tuesday (2/10): Here's where it gets confusing: I could barely run a mile without taking a stretching break. So, I abandoned my plan to run 4 miles and ran 3 instead because my hip flexor/inner thigh area was throbbing with pain. Looking back, I realize that I took a pretty intense spinning class at 6 p.m. the night before, so attempting to get out and run at 6 a.m. was probably not a good idea. But, I wasn't thinking so clearly at the time! I slogged through the run and went to PT during which I nearly cried when trying to explain everything to Dawn. She found that my hips were slightly out of alignment, probably because of the orthotics, so she fixed that. Although my overall core and lower body strength is really good because of all the exercises I've been doing, she found that my left hip flexor muscles were weaker than the right. So, we did some new hip flexion machines and I left feeling rather hopeless about the whole thing.

Thursday (2/12): Even more confusion! I ran a solid 4 miles, with stretching breaks every 1.5. I tried to keep the pace slower than normal but still ended up running under 9:30. It was a good run, which I was happy to share with Dawn. My hips were still properly aligned so we focused on doing some more hip flexor stuff. Talk about pain!! Those muscles definitely need some work.

Saturday (2/14): A long run with my valentine! 7 miles, with stretching breaks every 2. It felt great and I had to really stop myself from going the full 9 with Fred. The last thing I need is to overdo it when I'm making some real progress. Got a hot stone massage afterwards. It was heaven!!! Things are looking up...I think.