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Archive for the ‘Injury’ Category
Wharf to Wharf
July 29th, 2010 | 
Author: Its been awhile…
Well, with the injury to my IT Band I haven’t been doing much in the way of exercise. I did the stationary bike but its not the same. It doesn’t give me the same reaction that running does. I’m sitting still, spinning and watching TV inside my house. When I’m running, I am outside in the sunshine and fresh air moving all of my body. Its just so much better.
And as my exercise was not happening, neither was my tracking. The two went hand in hand with me. I no longer felt excited about the weight loss and eating good foods. I did a lot of small cheating and the end result as of last weeks weigh in was a six pound gain. Yeah.
But all my resting my IT band DID pay off and I was able to run/walk the Wharf to Wharf last Sunday! I only ran on the downhills because I wasn’t sure how my knee was going to hold up but I managed to shave 17 minutes off last years time, finishing in 1 hour and 41 minutes by their time. As anyone who has ever ran or walked a large race you know that it takes you quite a while to get to the start line once the timer starts ESPECIALLY if you are a walker because you are more towards the back of the pack. I started my own timer when I crossed the start line and my time from start to finish was 1 hour and 35 minutes. Six miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes!! That is HUGE for me. I was over the moon happy with that.
For those that aren’t familiar with this particular race it is called the Wharf to Wharf because you run from the Wharf in Santa Cruz to the Wharf in Capitola. Its a one way race so at the finish line you walk up to a large parking area where they get everyone on a bus that shuttle you back to Santa Cruz where your car is located.
It is also a very fun race because it has over 40 bands placed throughout the race course that you get to listen to as you run by.
For the last three years my husband(a guitarist) has been one of those bands. He always plays at the same location of mile 4.5.
Last year I took the shuttle back to Santa Cruz and had him come pick me up there after the race was done. That was just crummy. After walking the six miles you go down to the beach to get your prize packet and then hike up a big old hill to stand around in sandy shoes on sore feet for at least an hour while they get everyone on these shuttles. Ick.
So this year we figured that it would actually be easier for me to walk back to where Rob had been playing. I figured that my feet wouldn’t start hurting as long as I kept moving and what the heck, I had already walked six miles, what is another 1 and a half?? 
So that is what I did. I was wrong about my feet though. As soon as I slowed my pace they started to hurt and the blisters that had developed were making themselves known. But I did it! So Sunday I walked/ran 7.5 miles!
After I got to the car I did my IT band stretches but didn’t do any other ones. Why would I? I hadn’t injured any of them! Ha!!! Monday morning I could BARELY MOVE!!
You have to figure that I hadn’t run or walked in at least two weeks or so prior to this and then I pushed my body farther than I ever had but didn’t stretch after. Smart.
Everyone at work had a good laugh as I hobbled around like a 90 year old woman but I didn’t mind. It was just a testimony to the fact that I did the best I had ever done on a race and I was proud of myself.
The great news is that of all the things that hurt on my body, my knee was not one of them. I didn’t hurt my IT band! It is healed! Game on! Tomorrow I start back on my walking routine at lunches and the diet goes back into full effect!
In other news I am going to be participating in a local theaters production of Repo! The Genetic Opera. I auditioned Tuesday and I’m in. We have our second meeting tonight. The schedule is going to be pretty tight. Rehearsals are Tuesday through Friday from 6-9 PM, Saturdays from 11-4 and the occasional Sunday. So most days it will be from work straight to rehearsal then home and bed. Good thing I don’t have a social life.
The good thing is that Rob is also in the play as the guitarist in the band so we can car pool. Also the tight schedule should limit my evening snacking so that will be a bonus. And as long as I stick to my walk/running on my lunch breaks I will not be lacking in the exercise because of the play so yay!
Oh and in case you are wondering, I lost 2 pounds this week and plan on getting back to my 10 percent goal by next week.
Get the Funk Out!
I’ve been in a funk. Ever since I hurt my leg I’ve been bummed. The 10K is in less than a week and I can’t run it. I will walk it but I don’t want to do any further damage so I’m not going to attempt even a jog.
So all I’ve been thinking about lately is how far I had come only to be stopped. I was really looking forward to seeing how far I could run in the 10K and have been really down on myself because I can’t do it now.
Last night my husband sat me down and we had a talk. Basically he is sick of the pity party and he had some very valid points.
He brought it to my attention how I have lost focus on why I originally started working out. It was never about running a half marathon. It wasn’t about running anything. It was to help with my weight loss and because it made me feel better.
I’ve gotten so tunnel vision about numbers and distances and run times that I have lost sight of why I started in the first place.
I’m crying over the fact that I can’t run a 10K when 3 months ago I couldn’t run for more than 60 seconds at a time! I’ve come a long way in a short time and my body is telling me to slow it down. I may want to do well in races but the act of getting healthy itself is NOT A RACE. There will always be a 5K or a 10K looming on the horizon that I can sign up for. And let’s not forget the half marathon in December. But the benefits of the exercise will last me a lifetime.
It’s so easy to lose sight of the little things that are the most important and that is what I have been doing.
So what if I don’t run any part of the upcoming 10K? Is the world going to end? Of course not! The only thing that is going to happen is that it will just take me a little longer to do it because I’ll be walking. Not that big of a deal is it? No! I am doing great and no one can take that away from me, not even myself. 
In other news I headed over to Big 5 this noon and got myself a foam roller.
A while back when I was seeing the chiropractor regularly he recommended one for my back and I blew it off. Since then Lisa has been singing it’s praises and that has made me pretty curious. The final straw was when my runner sister in law told me it would really help my IT band. Okay, I’m sold! I tried it out really briefly when I got back to work and it really feels pretty good. I’ll do it more extensively when I get home and update at a later date but I have high hopes for this thing.
IT Band Ickiness
A huge thank you to Lisa for commenting in my last entry about my knee/leg pain. She said that knee pain in runners is usually having to do with an IT Band issue. I did a quick google search and sure enough I have a textbook case of Iliotibial band syndrome. What a freaking bummer.
It totally makes sense because I didn’t do anything for four days and then did two 30 minute runs without a proper warm up. Normally I walk for at least five minutes before I run but lately I’ve been shortening the time and the last run I didn’t even walk for a full minute before launching into my run. Stupid impatient me! Also my pelvis has been known to tilt in the past and leave one leg shorter than the other so that might be happening again too. Gotta make an appointment with my chiropractor next week.
So I’m bummed and totally self loathing because it is my own fault when my husband says: “But this is great news!”
Um, yeah…on what planet??
He proceeded to explain that we know the issue and it can be resolved. It isn’t a pinched nerve like I first thought and it isn’t something that may sideline me from running altogether. It is a completely treatable issue that won’t cost us anything to fix. I just need to rest it and make sure I do everything correctly in the future when I do run.
As usual, my husband is right(don’t you hate that??) I just need to rest. I need to NOT stress about the upcoming 10K because there is nothing I can do about it. I will walk it and it will be good practice for the wharf to wharf.
I remember Brooke had an entry fairly recently where the same thing had happened to her so I emailed her and she gave me some helpful advice and insight on the whole thing. I am so absolutely grateful for the weight loss/fitness blog community. In just two days I was able to diagnose and find treatment for a condition that was very mysterious to me and it is all thanks to the blogs and twitterverse. Thanks guys!!
At any rate, I was going to attempt a walk today but it is still hurting quite a bit so I passed. The hardest part is going to be forcing myself to take time off walk/running. It has just done so much for my body and my mind, but I know I have to let my body heal or I’m just going to make it worse and be off my feet even longer. Don’t you hate it when you have no one to blame but yourself? Hmph.
Oh well, can’t change it now. So I will be icing and stretching for a while and I’ll update with progress as it happens.
Oh and I just discovered Naan Bread and Hummus. This can’t be good for my weight loss. Hehehehe.
Pain
I work for a man that writes a health newsletter that promotes all natural type things and he has been doing it over 25 years. He recommends lots of different combination of all natural vitamins for all kinds of different ailments. In the five years I have worked here I have never had a real need to follow any of them.
When I first started running I was getting very sore in my knees, hips and ankles. Understandable since I had and still do have a lot of weight pounding down on my joints.
I decided to follow his joint pain protocol and eventually the pain did subside. I was never sure however, if the vitamins were working or if my body had just gotten used to the running.
Ever since then I have been breaking out quite a bit on my face. Not even really acne but more like a light rash around my nose. Dry spots that were easily prone to irritation.
I knew it either had to be from the running or the supplements. Well I wasn’t about to stop running since it was doing wonders in the way of shrinking my body and lowering my blood pressure and such so I decided to go without the supplements for a couple of weeks and see if that made a difference.
It takes a few days to get the supplements out of your system and I continued to run on those few days, taking care to wash my face thoroughly after each run. Then I got sidelined by my period, car problems and my own laziness and didn’t run for four days. When I resumed this past Tuesday I ran for 30 minutes and was struck by a pain in my thigh as soon as I stopped. Throughout the rest of the day the pain traveled from my hip to my thigh to my knee and back.
That night I soaked in Epsom salts and used icy/hot and then it went away.
Wednesday I set out to walk the loop, only walking because I didn’t want to cause anything else to happen to it and was only able to walk part of it due to the pain coming back on the uphills after I attempted a power walk.
Thursday I was paranoid enough just to only take a mild stroll down to the cul de sac and back just to get some sunshine. My leg felt pretty okay with that and so today I decided I would attempt a run again since we had to be at work early again.
I stretched and started out. It was hurting a bit but I soon got into the groove and it was fine. After 30 minutes of running I stopped and headed out Starbucks to get my reward for my early morning run(tall skinny caramel latte–2 points!) and as soon as I put weight on my foot after sitting in the car the pain was there and it was intense! After three steps it was fine again. This went on all morning and now it is finally starting to ease off.
So my question is, was my supplement regimen actually working and keeping away any joint/muscle pain the whole time Ive been running or do I have something seriously wrong with my right leg?
I don’t have an answer obviously but I started taking the vitamin protocol again today and will continue to see if it helps. I can deal with bad skin but Ill be danged if I’m going to stop running!
My other theory is that I have a pinched nerve in my back.
I had one once, years ago when I was at my heaviest. We had just spent a week in England I can only assume I got it from falling asleep in a sitting position on the plane for a long amount of time. The symptoms are kind of similar in the way that the pain happens as soon as I try to put weight on that leg after sitting for an extended period of time and then it goes away as I start walking. I don’t remember it traveling to other locations though. It was very painful but it was usually located to one spot on my leg. I also remember getting a numbness in that area for a couple of days before the pain started and I don’t recall that happening this time around. I DO remember getting a fluttering sensation in my hip/inner thigh area for a couple of days before this started though, not sure if it is related.
Back then my doctor gave me some stretching exercises and told me it would work itself out, and eventually it did.
The problem I have with that is my I have 2 10 Ks next month and I want to be 100% for both of them. I also don’t want to do any more damage by running through the pain. Ug. I’m just at odds right now.
I guess all I can do is take my supplements and see if it makes a difference. If it doesn’t I guess a trip to the chiropractor is in order. Pffffftt
Edited to add: The pain is now mostly in my knee. Please comment if you have any advice or suggestions or are familiar with this sort of thing at all. Thanks!!!!!!!!
Lost In Your Own Life by Alexa Vega