Reevaluate

26 minutes of running on Monday. 28 minutes on Wed and I felt a little sore. 25 minutes on Thurs followed by 40 minutes of aquajogging with Shannon, soreness increased a little. An hour of biking on Friday. A 1 hour walk-run on Sat because I had contracted some kind of weird virus from Banjo, chest hurt, made it hard to breathe. I think I ran for a total of about 25 to 30 minutes on the trail pushing Banjo. I was sore the rest of Sat. 1 hour of biking on Sunday. Soreness was light throughout Sunday. It's Monday, not sure what do to. Soreness is still there. Full recovery (do nothing)? Scale back? Bike? Gym? Time to reevaluate.

The 24 week mark passed last Thurs. Can't say that I'm comforted by this. Like I've said before, I don't know what is going to happen. I'll either improve some more.....or I won't-- both possibilities seem equally plausible at this point. Yeah, I know, I get a little sore and I'm headed to a dark place....poor me.

reconcilable differences

About a year ago I went to a running form workshop-- they film you running at various speeds and then you watch yourself frame by frame, looking for problems. I felt pretty good going into it-- I had never seen myself run before and I thought I looked pretty good, but the frame by frame revealed a minor trainwreck in each stride. My right leg was doing all of the work-- left leg was along for the ride. I guess I already sorta knew this. But since my left leg was taking it easy my right leg had to move quickly to get in position for each landing. And typically it would land too soon, creating braking forces and, well, pounding. This created problems in my stride that eventually led to (I think) the torn labrum on the right. Contributing to this (or caused by?) is a leg length discrepancy-- my right leg is 1/2" shorter than my left. This usually causes me to lean slightly and my right leg tends to land closer to the center line. With my right leg more under my body, it can generate more power. Also thrown into the mix is a slight twist in my left tibia-- it's a bone growth thing, something that happened as I grew-- it causes my left foot to point slightly outwards, reducing the power my left leg can generate upon push-off. It all adds up-- my right leg works much harder and gets most of the pounding. And my right leg has historically gotten injured more often.

The surgery has given me time to contemplate these things, and attempt to correct them-- starting over has this going for it. Lately I'm trying to bring my left leg in, such that it lands closer to the center line (and correspondingly, bring my right leg outward), so my left leg can generate more power via the glutes-- something my right leg appreciates-- now my right leg has plenty of time to get into position for a nice landing and less pounding. I think this small adjustment is having a big positive effect on my running lately.

I've been here before. My running log is full of this kind of theorizing. Each theory lasts as long as I feel good. 17 days and counting....

It's happening

After last Monday's very encouraging 20 minutes on the road, I did 22 minutes on the road without any issues Wed. Then on Thurs I hit the trail and did 22 minutes again. Sat I did 24 minutes pushing Banjo, again on the trail, and I clocked the final mile at 8:00, not that pace matters or anything... but I might have gone a tad overboard-- I was a little sore afterwards-- but seriously, I'm just being hyper-vigilant here-- it wasn't bad.... Just 6 weeks ago I ran a slow 24 minutes on the treadmill as part of a walk/run workout and was very sore for days....that's progress. Then today I went on the roads and did 26 minutes/a little over 3 miles. So far so good.

This is what I've been waiting for-- a slow but steady increase in volume without significant soreness-- the next workout builds on the previous-- and the feeling that comes with improvement. It all feels good. And it feels like I've turned a corner. (grimacing as I type this.) I'm hoping in the next week or so I'll hit 30 minutes-- it's a psychologically satisfying number.... and it's within reach I'm pretty sure.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went out on the bike and did 17 miles through the Redbud Trail area. It's really hilly-- did lots of standing in the saddle and the hip got a good workout, which was the goal. It felt good afterwards, better than before, and such is the pattern with the bike lately-- it's weird that it would feel *better*, but that is encouraging too-- I remember doing the same ride a few weeks before surgery and being sore the next day. So at 5 1/2 months post-op, I'm noticing a net improvement pre-op. I'm happy that it's happening, finally.

A good run

I had a good run yesterday. A great run actually. 20 minutes on the roads, no pain afterwards, and no pain later in the evening, which is when it usually happens. I'm cautious not to get too excited or read too much into it, just as I shouldn't read too much into a crappy run. OK, here's the real truth, something I've distilled from months of pondering the fate of my hip-- it's simple-- I don't know what the heck is going to happen. I'm improving for now, and that is good. And if I improve much more, I'll probably be able to run what I would consider a satisfying amount. And that would be amazing. But it may not happen. or it may...... I do not know.

I need to temper my excitement because it usually makes me do something stupid. But right now I'm sick, so I'm safe for a few days at least. Good thing I don't have a marathon this weekend... Go Boston!!!

Still weak

I mentioned that my hip is still weak.... I sometimes forget this-- back in November, a few weeks after surgery, I got off of the exercise bike and was amazed at how tired my hip was after an easy spin session. Why would my hip be so weak? Everything was still there, muscles looked fine, etc. It made sense that I would be sore, and the soreness would limit my activity. But weakness-- esp. profound weakness? Anyway, almost all of the weakness is gone now-- maybe 10% is left. And I'm trying to figure out how to address it.

Muscle strength is complicated. There's raw strength, explosive strength and endurance-- that is, I'm just guessing-- I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. At any rate, I feel like my hip's raw strength is decent, but the endurance and explosive strength is lacking. And I think more muscular endurance would give my running the biggest boost. Again, just guessing.... So I'm going to try to bike 2 or 3x per week for an hour or so, and possibly longer on the weekends to build some more endurance, see what happens.

not bad vibes

Last Sunday I felt good.... so I went to the gym and proceeded to overdo it, which made me good and sore Monday. I should know the pattern by now-- I feel good, which makes me likely to overdo it. I then overdo it, which makes me sore, this depresses me, I back off, until I start feeling good again, and so on.... Monday I went out for a 16 minute run on the roads, but my hip was sore, so I cut it down to 12. Tuesday I went to the gym and did an elliptical for 30 minutes. Wed I took off. Thurs I went to the trail and did 16 minutes. Friday I took off. And today I went to the trail and did 18 minutes pushing Banjo.

Not a bad week all in all. By Wed most of the soreness was gone, so I feel like I was able to steer myself out of the weeds and back on track. My trail runs on Thur and Sat were great-- being able to run for that long without soreness makes me feel like this whole hip thing is going to eventually go away. Whether that's true or not, it feels good.

I've noticed that my hip is still weak-- esp when I do lunges. My right hip has to strain more to get back up... so there is still weakness I need to address. When I overdid it at the gym on Sunday, I used too much weight-- I should do more reps, take it more slowly....

Good vibes

I don't want to jinx it, but I feel good lately. Monday, Wed and Thurs I did the sandwich workout and Saturday morning I went to the trail with Banjo and pushed him in the jogger for 14 minutes as part of another sandwich. I didn't worry about the pace, but I was well under 9:00 pace, not that it matters, but that too is encouraging. I saw lots of my old running buddies on the trail, which was fun. I'm gonna make this a regular Saturday morning gig.

Tuesday I went to the gym and did an elliptical with core workout. And Friday I aquajogged with Shannon. It has been a good week.

The sandwich

This gym thing has helped me realize that I need to choose workouts that don't make me feel like the life-force is ebbing from me. So yesterday during lunch I got out and did a 30 minute walk/run on the roads with our dog Lucy. I enjoyed it, Lucy enjoyed it, we were all winners. I did 10 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of running, and 10 minutes of walking-- I'm calling this the "sandwich" workout (I may have unknowingly stole the term from the Gallowalkers...) 10 minutes of continuous running was a post-surgery PR. And I didn't seem to be sore afterwards.

So I was thinking about tackling a 30 minute sandwich during lunch on MWF and going to the gym on TTh. The sandwich can progress to 9/12/9, 8/14/8, etc. Or maybe instead of 3 sandwiches a week, I could mix it up some more. Sandwich, wimpy plyometrics, sandwich...