Sunday, May 26, 2013

No (finish) Line On the Horizon: Back to Ground Zero

I am not seeing where anything is going with running, so I am not. I only ran once this week. I did 4 miles (longest run in a month) on Wednesday. Despite feeling really out of shape and breath, I made it past 2 miles without my glutes tightening up, but I did start losing my stride the last mile.

I have lost everything I had built up and am terribly out of shape and I am not feeling capable of any other exercise. I did ride my kickbike 8 miles earlier in the week and that actually felt pretty good, but when I went  to the chiropractor on Wednesday, she didn't think it was a good idea. I am not sure exactly what I should be doing and where I should be heading, it is like there is no line on the horizon and I am just waiting to see what I need to do next.



I did get a huge recommendation that the place I am going for treatment is spot on, but that was in reference to the head chiropractor. The lady I am seeing is doing a good job, but I need to see if I can switch to the head guy by the next appointment. Actually, my left side has felt pretty good since the adjustments and other work on Wednesday. I ran the 4 miles after that, but I just feel like things need time to stick and running may kill things again. After I had my session, the main guy jumped in and while working with another patient directed some weird stuff for my to do. First I had to put on a pair of sunglasses that had blinking lights in the top right corner and bottom left corner. Then I did some stability exercises on a balance board and only on my right foot: 30 seconds with my right foot on each side of the board and my left leg in the air. Then I had to do 3 X 15 strides with my right foot on a cushion and my left leg hooked up to a tension belt. I would lift my left knee up against the resistance and pull the leg back as if I was running, all the while maintaining my balance and trying to get my arms to do their proper motion. This was hard at first. I think somewhere along the line he said my right foot should be in supination. I think this is all some sort of neurological patterning and the lights help do something, but I can't find any information on exactly what the exact idea and therapy is called. I do seem to walk better since then and practice without the blinking lights at home. He said next time he wants to work on my gait.

Friday, I went and had an MRI for my left hip. I am getting pretty good at getting through an MRI. This was an MRI with arthrogram which means they shoot some dye or something directly into my hip joint beforehand. As awful as it sounds, I barely feel the initial shot and then nothing. Then you go lie as still as you can in the MRI tube for 45 minutes. Thankfully, I know just what meds to get prescribed so I don't care about claustrophobia and I can basically enjoy lying down while doing nothing.

Wednesday, I will visit my surgeon to get the results. I am hoping to find a lot of answers concerning my hip. Number one: did I retear my labrum? Number two: do I have some type of impingement from FAI to some other thing that makes it hard for me to lift my leg particularly if I lean forward at the same time like when I put on socks or shoes ( I don't expect a good answer on this from my surgeon and will send the results to another surgeon if nothing else makes sense)? My surgeon does not acknowledge FAI from what I have heard and other patients talk about his temper if it gets brought up, but that is not my experience the two times I have met him, so I will see what happens to me when I bring it up. Then I want to see if my tight adductor inner hip area tightness might be related to athletic pubalgia (sports hernia) or osteitus pubis. These are secondary problems that often come due to muscle imbalances related to labral tears or hip impingements. I hope I am clear on all of these as I really don't want more surgery, but it has been almost two years and my hip is still angry and not right. Then I hope to see if it is a muscular issue with one or more of the muscles surrounding the hip joint whether the glutes, adductors, or psoas. These are constantly tight and the tightness keeps shifting around my hip.

Then if I a clear of all evidence of these problems, I will know it is an imbalance and compensation problem that just needs continued work and the correct therapy. I am really disappointed that it has taken this long and I still can't move and run like I thought I would be doing by now.

Whatever happens, I have signed up for two races in advance. Thursday, June 13 I have the Hollis Fast 5k. As of now, I think that it will be a long run for me. And if I crash and burn, it is not like I haven't done that before in this race. The first year they had it, there was a right hand turn at the finish off Depot Road. I took the corner too fast and hard trying to break 18 minutes and slid on some sand tumbling me ingloriously in front of the finish line (they have since taken out the turn and just finish on Depot Road so as to avoid "Hansen's Corner"). The downhill nature of the race may not be the best for my hip, so I think I have to go and just have fun as a jogger. I also am signed up for the Falmouth Road Race in August. Hopefully, I will be back and running by then

Besides the little bit of exercises I have been given, I am steering clear of anything else. The only things I have been doing are basic movement patterns, you know the ones we first explored when we were learning how to move: rock, roll, nod, crawl, and cross crawl. You can find them in the ebook by Tim Anderson and Geoffrey Neupert called Original Strength: Regaining The Body You Were Meant To Have. This is a newer edition of their earlier and simpler ebooks. With everything going on with getting my body back, it shouldn't hurt to go back to ground zero and tear apart what I think I know and start all over again.






"I set about the systematic destruction
Of the world I built up
I set about the sytematic destruction
The deconstruction
From new emotion, a new reaction
A new location, a new vocation
From new destruction comes new creation, a new creation"

2 comments:

Laura said...

I wish you lived closer...you and Sam and I could all limp around together trying to avoid a serious depression. He is in PT and I should be, but neither of us is able to run right now. I am trying to get excited about walking and doing stadium steps, but it isn't working out well.

Hang in there!

Jim Hansen said...

Oh, Laura, I thought you were out running in the rain? I tell you getting old and creaky stinks. I finally broke down and started doing some walking. I hate walking. It is so slow. Hope you and Sam get moving well again!