"Running"

I've been keeping the volume around 20 miles for the last several weeks. 3 runs, usually 7 on Tues, 7 on Thurs, and 6 on Sat. I've been running pretty hard on Tues and Thurs and then slowing things down for Sat. I bike on Sunday for 3 hours. Spin class on Wednesdays. Sometimes I get out on the tandem with Christina on Friday morning, but Monday and Friday are typically days off from exercising. I'm in a decent groove. I don't feel the urge to run much more than I am right now, although part of me wants to run better, and I know that this requires more mileage. Maybe one of these Tuesdays or Thursdays I'll do a 10 miler, to see how it feels. But I prefer shorter, faster to longer, slower. Hem, haw.

I'm planning to run a 5K on 3/20, so last Thursday I actually did a real workout with repeats and everything--- ran to Zilker and did 5x1000m. I was afraid that doing them by myself would be boring, but the weather was a crisp 65 degrees and sunny, which felt fantastic--- the 5 repeats went by fast. I really tried hard on the 5th repeat, coming within 4 seconds of my old pre-scope time. The hip has been a little sore since then. I probably pushed it too hard, but it was fun.

My 40th birthday was last week, and my inner-marathoner started sizing up a 3:20 marathon--- what's now required for me to qualify for Boston. I've wanted to run Boston for many years. I even qualified in '07, but the dang hip got in the way. I have this image of me finishing Boston with Christina and the boys watching, cheering. Logistically, making this image a reality is cumbersome to ridiculous--- it entails flying the whole family to Boston for 3 days and 2 nights, then during the race, navigating to the correct location on the course, finding a parking spot, then hiking possibly 10 blocks with 2 kids and then waiting for 30 minutes to cheer 15 seconds for daddy. People do this, but I can't imagine Christina doing it, nor can I really blame her. Now Wellesley--- that sounds nice. Heh, listen to me bandy about the facets of running Boston.....

Part of me thinks I should just be happy with where I am and not push it, because marathon training is really tough on the bod, esp if you've got a gimpy hip. But of course another part of me doesn't care and is willing to see where this can go. Again with the hem and haw.

But honestly, I'm happy right now. And I find it immensely satisfying that I'm "running" the way I like to define running. So I might hang out here for a bit......

...... or not. I can be happy either way, and that feels nice.

It's cyclical, I think

It's been a good week. I think I put in 19 miles over 3 runs. Each run I pushed pretty hard, which isn't what you're supposed to do..... but it was fun. Yesterday I ran 7 with Jorge and Fletcher on the trail in the snow--- it was actually snowing in Austin yesterday. The temp was in the mid 30s.... sorta unpleasant. My legs and hip felt good and I finished fast, dropping below 6:00 for the last 800m. It was the hardest I've run in years.

For a couple weeks my legs were dead, hip was sore, I didn't have any get-up-and-go on the bike. But things are good now. Maybe I just needed some time after increasing the weekly volume.....

I still have an occasional pain in the hip, usually after a run. But lately I've gone for days without feeling anything bad from the hip. And it's not uncommon for it to feel better after a run. My new hip theory--- it's cyclical. Right now I'm in a good cycle. I'm not sure how long it will last, but it will end, as will the bad cycle that follows....

I signed up for the Cap10K in April. I have about 7 weeks to get ready. Really looking forward to racing again.... last night I dreamed that I ran a marathon. It took me all night. I woke up tired. Still, it was sweet.....

Mixed

Some dead air on the old blog lately, which usually means things aren't going very well. But things aren't too bad either, thankfully. Two weeks ago I ran 7 miles on the trail with a friend--- a route that gave me no trouble the week before, but this time it was a slog... legs felt like wood and the hip was sore the next morning. So I decided to take it easy for the next week or so. A couple days later I did a somewhat brisk 5 miler on the treadmill and was decently sore a few hours later. And so I started to fear that things were starting to unravel, which has happened a few (many?) times before. So I decided to take advil around the clock, and after a couple days, the hip felt significantly better. That's something new--- haven't been able to pull things back with advil before. And several runs later--- some of them mediocre, some of them downright sucky, I feel like things are headed back in the right direction. I just had a good solid treadmill workout. Weather here has been sorta crappy, hence the treadmill.

Anyway, still running!

10K anyone?

This past Saturday I broke out my 6 mile neighborhood run. The last time I tried to run it in June I had to walk the last mile because of soreness. This time I ran the whole thing fast and finished strong. There was one hill toward the end where I felt like throwing my fists in the air and yelling--- it suddenly hit me that I was doing it-- running--- really running--- something I've been wanting to do for a long long time. It felt great. I was on a busy street, too self conscious to actually do it.... but I should have...

Yesterday I ran 7 miles on the trail with friends. This too, was a special route for me, something I used to run all the time. It's been about 2.5 years since I've been healthy enough to tackle it. We kept an honest pace, finished fast-- 53 minutes of running-- again, it's been years....

I woke up this morning a little sore--- shins, quads, a blister or 2 on the feet--- hip soreness may be there a little, but it's light.

There's a 10K in April, the "Cap10K". I ran it in '07-- in fact, it was the last time I wore a chip, officially raced. That's me racing it in picture to the left. I'd love to race it again. OK, I'm officially putting it out there-- I intend to run the Cap10K in April. I may be jinxing it, but here it is--- blogged.

Postscript: I canceled my appointment with the hip resurfacing doc because I think my hip is trying to tell me that it doesn't want to be replaced...

Treadmill implosion workout

Lotsa posts lately.... hope nothing bad is gonna happen.... happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.....

Anyway, just wanted to share a good treadmill workout that I've concocted. I start out at an easy pace (say 6.6 mph, 9 minute pace) and after each quarter mile, I bump up the speed by 0.2 mph. I like this workout because I don't know how it's going to end. Will I make it to X speed today? Today I imploded at 9.6. Toward the end I made faces, wimpered, etc. The total distance covered was 4 miles. I left the gym completely spent. Good stuff.

F-ing satisfying

It's been a month now since my, uh, I'm calling it my "breakthrough" run. A couple weeks ago I ran 16 miles over 3 runs. Last week we were vacationing in Mexico and I scaled back to 12 miles. I'm slowly bumping up the volume each week because I'm curious where it's going. I'm not being cautious though--- I'm being pretty "stupid" actually--- I'm pushing hard--- going all out, finishing as hard as I can, which is surprisingly fast, faster than I've run in years, and significantly faster than I've ever run since my first hip scope 2 years ago. Why am I pushing so hard? Good question--- I guess because I'm sick of being slow, and I'm sick of negotiating--- if I'm going to run, I want to really run. So what gives? I'm trying not to think about it too much. I could wake up tomorrow and not be able to run because I'm being careless, but right now, I'm able to crank out some really fucking satisfying miles with little or no pain. Fuck yeah.

More running

Wow, another post on the blog..... something might be happening. it's speculation at this point, corroborated with some good runs, but still, my credibility for predicting these kinds of things is pretty bad...... I just finished a 13 mile week, 3 runs, a little over 4 miles per run, brisk pace. Soreness has been light. I've made a few changes recently that might explain this.

I think the biggest change is that I got a new pair of shoes--- Nike Free's. Heard some stuff on NPR--- who is the guy who claims to be injury free since he started running barefoot? There's a book out recently, I think. Anyway, the first thing I noticed when I put them on was that they were comfy, like slippers. Then when I ran in them, I could feel my feet interacting with the ground. It felt nice..... new. I think they have changed my technique. I can feel myself landing on my forefoot. And I can feel my feet pushing off-- that plantar flexion business. And when my foot lands, it's soft, quiet. My other shoes (Brooks Glycerins) tended to clunk when they landed. I'm surprised to be saying all of this... my feet are pretty fucked up--- it makes sense to strap some elaborate motion control contraptions on my feet, not Free's. Anyway..... weird.

I've also been trying to run pose. I've had a tendency to heel strike. It makes sense that landing on your heel probably isn't the way you were meant to run, because you wouldn't do it if you were barefoot. I'm skeptical about these kinds of sites and their infomercial-like testimonials, but I'm taking what I think I need and nothing more.

postscript: Born to Run--- that's the name of the recent book mentioned above. I think the implication, or maybe the assertion, is that barefoot running is the solution to most running injuries, a claim that I'm skeptical about, but it's interesting stuff, worth investigating.

4 miles of optimism

My optimistic expectations are well documented in this blog. When something good happens--- I have a good walk, good bike ride, good run, I'm compelled to write about it here and then attempt to extrapolate where I'll be in a couple months, given that I feel good at that very moment. But something always happens that forces me to revise my optimism. At least now I see the pattern.... took me a couple years, but finally I get it. So lately I've been resigned to the fact that the old hip may never get better. It's easier this way--- acceptance. and I get tired of wondering.... the uncertainty sucks..... just want an answer, even if it's not good.

But dang, I just had a good run. 4 miles, 7:30 avg pace, trail, no soreness. Haven't run this well since I can remember.... Maybe I'll run a sub-40 10k in March....... (kidding)

Oh boy, here we go again

My apologies for not following up the previous post sooner.... but it isn't difficult to guess what happened, namely, that Airrosti wasn't the "something" that I needed to return to running. Airrosti was good for me though-- I definitely needed to break up some of the junk around my hip. And I've had a few 10 mile weeks since then, which isn't bad... it's better than where I was a year ago before I had my 2nd hip scope. And the biking isn't bad--- soreness on some days, but no real pain. Some days the hip is sore for no good reason, which is frustrating. And if I try to run more than 30 minutes, I will feel it for the next couple days, which is also frustrating, and a little depressing.

At a year out from my last surgery, I find myself thinking about where I've been and where I'm headed with this hip thing. My running addiction is largely gone. I used to be a good runner, used to plan my week of workouts, used to enjoy the gym, used to eat foods with the right amounts of carbs, protein, fat, used to have more definition in my muscles, etc, etc. Work and fatherhood have largely taken up the slack. It's easy for me to tell the story, to myself, about how I used to be obsessed with running, and how I did crazy things, like 10 Wilke hill repeats at 11:00pm while the family was sleeping and then getting up the next morning at 5:15 and doing 10 800m repeats at 5k pace. It's easy for me to tell myself that being obsessed like that was probably unhealthy, and that I've found a better balance, and that my body probably wasn't meant to run anyway, and that I'm coming to terms with these truths. And I had some good times, like my last marathon, seeing the clock and realizing that I was going to finish ahead of my goal, and raising my arms and yelling, and yelling, and yelling, and being a little unsure what I was doing because the finish line was actually a little farther than I thought, but just feeling incredibly happy at that very moment......

My running experiences were all gifts, and I'm truly happy to have experienced them. And sad too, of course, to look back. But I gave it my best shot--- 2 surgeries over 2 years just wasn't enough to fix the old hip. I've decided to move on....

But it's been difficult-- I still think about running, and still get frustrated when I think about what I've done to fix things, and what I have to show for it, especially now, at my 1 year post-op anniversary, when I expected to be "healed" and considering my next marathon. I've been channeling my frustrations into Google, looking for answers to my questions. Such as, whatever happened to Floyd Landis? He won the Tour in 2006 (sorta) with an arthritic hip--- actually, I remember, he had avascular necrosis--- some serious shit. He is back at it, competing at a world-class level. How can he recover from a hip bone that was actually *dead* and I can't recover from a torn piece of 3mm thick cartilage? Well, maybe he found the right medicine. He had no choice really-- hip scoping would have done nothing for him-- he could either have a total hip replacement or the relatively new Birmingham hip resurfacing. He opted for the hip resurfacing.

Hip resurfacing is bigger in Europe. It's designed for people with arthritic hips but good bone density, or usually, younger, active patients, typically between 35 and 55 years old. Huh.............. and so it has begun again--- my latest foray into this hip shit.

Well, it turns out that the web is full of stories of extremely satisfied hip resurfacing patients--- triathletes, marathoners, ultra-marathoners. ultra-marathoners? Well, that's pretty fucked up. I haven't heard of a single story of a hip scope patient running a marathon, let alone an ultra--- of course, there may be a story or two out there, but it's definitely rare, and I haven't found one. Instead, there are lots of stories of frustrated hip scope patients, like me..... and why haven't I heard about this before?

Cory Foulk is a satisfied hip resurfacing patient. He's an ultra-marathoner extraordinaire--- does several ironman tri's and ultras each year, often wins his age group. I've been exchanging emails with him-- really nice guy, chock full of interesting information and advice. He gets it. He understands what it's like to be a runner, and what it's like to lose it. But he's back, better than ever, and he's a strong advocate for hip resurfacing. And fuck, if a big part of me wants to be like him.....

And I thought I might be over running. Like being dumped by a girlfriend, moving on has been really difficult..... and the room it has created in my life hasn't been altogether bad.

But..... I'm at least curious, and the idea of being a runner again is pretty appealing, still. So I've made an appointment with a doc in Houston on 1/13/10 for a consult. A different doc, a doc who specializes in hip resurfacing. Lots of questions of course. Am I even a candidate? Will my insurance cover it? Do I want to put myself and my family through this yet again? And isn't the 3rd elective surgery sort of an indication that you are mentally fucked up? I mean really.... (or so I imagine people thinking. and I don't disagree by the way.) And what if it doesn't work? Fuck, what then? I already feel like a big ol' fool.....

So... this story has some life in it still..... as my wife put it so well, oh boy, here we go again.

Something?

2 days ago on Tuesday I went to get "Airrosti" treatment. I had heard about it from a triathlete friend. She had fought plantar fasciitis for 2 years before getting Airrosti, which cleared it up in 2 weeks.

The treatment was painful at times--- deep deep massage is how I'd describe it. I have a long list of doubts as to why it won't work for me. But I went running 2 miles this afternoon and had no problems or pain during the run, which is good. I haven't run for 6 weeks. Now I'm waiting to see if there is any delayed onset pain...... but I must admit, I wasn't expecting to feel this good. So I'm having some immensely tentative and cautious feelings right now that something might be happening. Stay tuned.....?

Setback and perspective

There seems to be a pattern where I have good times of guarded optimism followed by setbacks, sometimes big setbacks like last summer.... A few weeks ago (June 16) I was running on the UT track and some guy in spandex passed me, so I did a little pick up, nothing big, just a little acceleration--- I'm competitive after all and I have a general dislike of those wearing spandex--- and then it went-- sharp pain in my hip. I continued to run along for a few strides in disbelief. I even finished the workout, but cut it a little short. Denial. Took some Aleve when I got home and woke up the next morning with a sore hip.

Doc says it could be scar tissue that broke free causing bleeding in the joint and it might take a few weeks of cross-training to recover. But of course, I'm inclined to think the worst.

Right now the hip feels good. I've run a couple times since, short distances, 1 or 2 miles, but the hip is sore for the next couple days. So I've stopped running. I've reached the conclusion that I can't rely on running as my main form of exercise, given that I'm stressed, and exercise is by far my best stress release.

So I'm going to try to become a decent swimmer. I don't like swimming, but maybe if I was good at it..... I can still bike, but I need some variety. I'm frustrated of course, and depressed. And I feel foolish for expending all this energy. But the perspective....the perspective will help me see. Gotta think that something good will come of all this.

Slow build

Almost 2 months without blogging and 28 weeks post-surgery. It's been a good 2 months. Slow, steady building of volume, sometimes slower than I'd expected, but on the whole, progress.

My goal has been to add mileage without speed, get up to a healthy weekly total and then add some easy speed--- fartleks and the like. That's still the plan, but I can't decide when to start the speedwork. 20, 25, 30, 35 miles/week? Right now I'm at around 20 miles/week. I run 5 times a week---

Monday: easy (22.5 minutes or 2.5 miles)
Tuesday: circuit at the UT track (42.5 min or 4.5 miles)
Wed: easy (22.5 min or 2.5 miles)
Thurs: trail run (4.5 miles, 1st/Mopac loop on trail)
Friday: rest or bike
Sat: long (47.5 min or 6 miles)
Sun: bike

Work has been kicking my ass, so I've been running a bunch at night. No time for the gym. But the schedule has been working for me. I try to add 10 minutes of volume each week, but negotiate based on how I feel, slow down the pace if I have to, to get the volume without pissing off the hip. Volume is time-based instead of distance, which has been good for me to keep the pace in check. I aim for 8:30 pace, but lately I've been dropping below 8:00. As long as it doesn't feel bad the day after, I'll keep it up. I've been biking with the Jack & Adams group on Sundays-- usually riding between 40 and 50 miles. I've also been doing a super-recovery week every 5th week where I cut the volume in half. Here are my 5 weeks:

Week 1: build (add 10 minutes of volume, spread evenly (more or less) across 5 workouts)
Week 2: build (10 minutes)
Week 3: build (10 minutes)
Week 4: Recover (50% volume of week 3)
Week 5: Repeat week 3's volume
(repeat)

My long run right now is 47.5 minutes. I've had problems with it, feeling sore the day after, so I've recently introduced walk breaks to break it up, recover a little during the run. I'm trying to focus on muscle endurance, so walk breaks are no biggee, even though it kills me to walk. But the walk breaks have helped-- last Sunday I felt fine after running about 6 miles on Sat.

Being patient is often difficult. Part of me believes that one day I'll be "recovered" and I can run the way I did pre-injury, but another part of me knows this may never happen. It's the latter part of me (the smart part) that's difficult and frustrating to listen to. But I know what the alternative feels like, and it keeps the frustration at bay. for the most part.

I've found that a consistent schedule is important-- it helps me recognize when I'm doing too much-- I can compare to how I felt last week or the week before-- so I can adjust earlier, keep from going into the weeds.

Of course, I like the numbers (can you tell?), and this recovery plan works out to about 3 extra miles of weekly mileage every month. So 20 miles this week, 38 or so miles in December, 6 mo from now. That's exciting-- 1 year after surgery and I could be at around 40 miles/week, only 7 miles shy of my all-time weekly mileage high score.

Will it happen? Check back in 6 months..... heh, but I'm hoping to be better about blogging.... Fartleks July 16-- it's on my calendar, the start of my speedwork. I'll be sure to blog about that....

If you are reading this, I would love to hear from you-- just say hey in the comments.

Insanely reasonable!

I feel like I should congratulate myself. I've been completely sane and reasonable lately. Wow-- where the heck did that come from?? I'm usually so, uh, UNreasonable. I'm running 3x/wk-- that's reasonable-- leaves plenty of time for recovery between runs. I'm adding 2 minutes each week-- so for example, I'm running 30 minutes each run this week; last week I ran 28 minutes and the week before, 26 minutes. That's so reasonable! And the walk breaks-- I didn't just take them out all of a sudden-- I've been slowly extending the time between them. So yesterday I ran 17 minutes, walked 2 minutes and then ran 13 more minutes. Tomorrow, I'll run 10 minutes, walk and then run 20 more minutes. Next week, I'll try 30 minutes continuous-- but since I took out the walk breaks, I won't add any volume. Wow, that's so reasonable!! And the hip? Good! Congratulations, self!

Slacker

OK, clearly I've been slacking on the blog. Some reasons....

1. Kids are kicking our asses lately making it difficult to sit down and write.
2. Recovery has been going pretty good. And I haven't needed to blog to keep me honest/sane.
3. When I do write in the blog, I find that every thing I type is, well, boring.

OK, here goes...... I'm 12 weeks and a day post-op. I've been trying to work out at least 6x per week, twice at the gym, 3 runs, and a bike ride. My hip has gotten sore occasionally when I overdo it, but unlike last time, I haven't had a major setback where I have to stop exercising for several days for my hip to recover. As long as I take a day off and/or take some Aleve, I'm ready to get back into it in a day or so.

The running has been pretty good. I ramped up to 16 minutes per run fairly quickly-- about 2 weeks after I started running, but the progression slowed quite a bit after that. Currently I'm at 24 minutes per run, divided up into 6, 9 and 9, or 7, 8 and 9 minutes with a 2 minute walk break in between. Pretty soon I'll take out the walk breaks.... and keep increasing the volume, slowly, slowly....

I've always tended to hammer my workouts..... as if the lessons of 2 hip surgeries have taught me nothing. But watching the Austin Marathon last weekend, it occurred to me that I care much less about how fast I am--- I'd just like to run a marathon again. So lately, I've been focusing strictly on volume-- keep the pace slow while increasing volume. 1 week into this radical new strategy and my hip is significantly less sore. I'll let you know how it goes...

I talked to my Doc yesterday and told him how I was doing. There was one thing he said that I found interesting-- paraphrasing-- when the osteoplasty (the bone grinding) exposes new bone material, a new sheath of cartilage needs to form around the exposed bone. In the meantime, the exposed bone can irrate the surrounding tissues. This may be why full recovery can take a long time-- 6 months, 1 year.... We will see.....

Progress

I'm 6 weeks post-op today. OK, need to do a better job of logging my workouts--- went to the gym again on Friday and ran for 6 minutes, another 3 minute walk, 2 minute run type deal. Saturday I did a brisk walk for 40 minutes, 2.5 miles pushing Bubby in the stroller. This made the hip tired and a little sore. When I walk I can feel strength in my glutes lately, whereas a couple weeks ago, it hurt to engage them. And on Sunday I ran a total of 9 minutes on the trail with Shannon pushing our kids. We covered about 2 miles. It was cold-- coffee afterwards was needed. I was worried that the soreness that had been building was going to cause a setback after Sunday's run, but Monday I did a decent workout in the gym without issues. And today hip feels fine. Compare this to 10 weeks post-op last year. I'm running better, etc, at 6 weeks out.

This time around I'm torn between pushing the running or holding off and pushing the bike instead-- to build the hip strength. The bike is good for that without the impact of running. The core exercises at the gym have been working well-- I'd like to keep them up at least 2x/wk. I'm not planning very well this time around. Maybe no plan is a good plan.... plans create expectations, expectations create training errors, blah, blah.

A little run

5 weeks and a day post-op. The doc said I could start running at 6 weeks. I just got back from the gym. I was going to do a 4 minute walk/1 minute slow run a couple times on the treadmill, for a total of 2 minutes of running. I just wanted to see what it felt like....and if it caused any significant soreness the day after (stay tuned...) This will ultimately give me a feel for how the recovery this time will progress...always curious...

After running for a minute, I felt good, so I ran another minute, and I still felt good, so contemplated running another minute......but thought better of it. And after 3 minutes of walking, I ran for another couple minutes, for a total of 4 minutes of running, close to .5 mile. I felt some pulling in the front of my hip, but it went away. No soreness right now, but the real question is what it feels like tomorrow. For comparison, at 10 weeks out from my previous surgery I ran for 6 minutes and felt issues. I could have run for 6 minutes today, but I'm trying to be good.

Update: the day after, no soreness that I can tell. Note, I've had a low-level soreness since the surgery that hasn't changed much....

I forgot to mention that I've been doing the elliptical at the gym and biking on the roads for the last couple weeks. Neither one makes the hip sore. I've been more motivated by trying to work off the junk that I've been eating over the holidays, esp this white chocolate covered stuff our neighbor brought over...

Feelin lazy

Things seem to be going well as far as how the hip feels. I guess that's blog worthy. I took my stitches out on Tuesday. I've been to the gym quite a bit. I've done core work, biking, and lately, walking on the treadmill. I can walk a mile up an incline without issues-- maybe more, I don't know. I'm walking pretty slow. Everyone in the gym walks faster-- I spy on their treadmill speed. I had forgotten how long it takes to go from "walking" as in "getting around" to "walking briskly" or even "walking well". It takes time. And I'm not as motivated as last time, unfortunately. A long recovery takes lots of patience, and I feel like I've largely depleted the reserves. I'm not going to do anything stupid that might delay my recovery, but I'm feeling lazy when it comes to doing the work. I need to change my ipod mix, literally, metaphorically.....

I like the gym

I finally made it to the gym. I think the last time I went there was in March. I went for a 40ish minute affair during lunch--- no biggee. Not much has changed, but they have better smelling soap these days-- less Drakkar Noir and more cool cucumber, natural essence.

I focused on core exercises and did a 20 minute bike. I feel good now. I'll be back thursday.

I also talked to my doc yesterday to ask him what my recovery should look like. I'm no longer using any crutches. My hip feels better now than it did the day before surgery. He was happy to hear this of course, but he wants me to take it easy for 6 weeks while my femur rebuilds it's strength. There is a risk of stress fracture in the femoral neck because of the bone material he removed. But at 6 weeks I can start my tentative running sched--- starting with walk/runs, etc.

A 3-hour grind

I was ready to have surgery on Tuesday, but still--- surgery is scary. The IV goes in, the sedative, and after what seems like seconds, you wake up, but hours have passed, during which a team of medical professionals have done a series of things to you that you have absolutely no recollection of. Perhaps they encountered a minor emergency. Perhaps they encountered a big one. Perhaps they had a question that only you could answer-- is this the hair transplant guy or the hip surgery guy... or the transgender patient. The point is-- you're gone, out, and you can only hope they do the right things. Before going under, they gave me a pen and asked me to sign my affected hip-- extra assurance, but it only made my mind run wild as I waited my turn.

I was in surgery for 3 hours. My doc was very upbeat when we talked the next day. He showed me lots of pictures of what he did-- various shots of instruments cutting, shaving, grinding into bone, cartilage, it's hard to tell-- I call it arthro-porn. I could sense genuine pride in what he'd accomplished. What I call the "money shot" was a before and after x-ray of the femoral neck-- distinct bumps before grinding, no bumps afterwards. The labrum looked good-- the repair from a year ago had taken. The entire 3 hours of surgery was spent grinding on my femur-- osteoplasty. How boring that must have been.... This is to fix my femoral acetabular impingement (FAI) which wasn't quite fixed in my last surgery.

I'm not sure what that means for my recovery-- it would make sense that grinding on some bone wouldn't require much recovery when compared to labral repair. And 3 days after surgery I'm already able to walk without pain. I'm still using the a crutch to get around some, but I can tell that it won't be long before I toss it. I've been riding the stationary bike also-- 15 minutes last night. For comparison, I was 3 weeks post-surgery before I could do these things a year ago. Everything looks and feels good. They even used the same holes in the side of my buttock from last time, so no new scars on my ass, not that I'm concerned or anything.

But to be honest, I'm afraid to get too excited.

Day before surgery, part deux

As I mentioned in the last entry, I was thinking about getting another surgery. Well, I'm about to get on the bus that will take me to Houston for surgery tomorrow.

When I started this blog and chronicled my first surgery about a year ago I expected that my torn labrum and hip surgery was going to be a 6 month setback. Back in July, things were looking pretty good-- I wasn't where I was before surgery, but I was able to bike and run without pain. Now, the hip hurts even as I sit here and type, and I haven't exercised in weeks. So, in summary, I got hip surgery and wound up worse off than I was before-- yet-- here I am about to get more. What makes sense to me is that there is something mechanically wrong with the hip-- something inside the joint is irritating the cartilage-- I can feel it. And it makes sense that if it's mechanical, it can be removed, neutralized, whatever, and my hip will be "fixed". We'll see. Maybe the state of the art in arthroscopic hip surgery is partly hit or miss. My doc told me after my first surgery that it would be about a year before I knew for sure that the surgery was a success-- I think this is what he meant. So, a year from now, I'll know if tomorrow's surgery is (was?) a success.

What is my goal? First, no pain. I don't like to feel pain when I bend over or when I sit. Second, I want to be able to do some kind of cardio exercise pain-free, preferably not swimming-- ie, biking or running. No running is something I can deal with-- I've been dealing with it, but I need to do something-- so I hope the bike can work for me. Third, if I can get back to running, well.... obviously I'd be very happy.

This surgery will be a pain in the ass for me (pun absolutely intended) and everyone in the family. It makes me feel good that Christina understands how important this is for me and is willing to add more chaos to our lives by giving me the green light to re-cripple myself. My mother-in-law is flying down from Jersey to give us a hand. My uncle-in-law is going to host me in Houston. I know they don't read this blog, but I'm thankful.

more surgery?

I drove to Houston last Wed to see my doc. I was scheduled for an MR arthrogram, ultrasound and follow-up discussion all in the same day. His building is a one stop shop for sports medicine-- last Nov I visited the the surgery facility, pharmacy, and starbucks without leaving the building. And last Wed was similarly convenient, except the driving to Houston part. Sports hernia was very unlikely he said, so we skipped the ultrasound-- but I got the MR arthrogram. This is where they inject a magnetic dye into the joint to provide some contrast during the MRI scan. While the needle was inside they also injected kenalog (a steroid to reduce the swelling) and an anesethic called marcaine. The marcaine is a diagnostic tool-- if the pain symptoms go away immediately after the injection, the source of the pain is in the joint, instead of the surrounding muscles, tendons, bones, etc. The days before the appointment I had run some relatively hard miles so my hip would be sore when I arrived, and indeed, the marcaine seemed to get rid of the soreness-- ie the pain was coming from within the hip joint, which left me wondering-- had I torn the labrum again?

My doc showed me the MRI images-- I can never see what the heck he's talking about, even when he points to specific things. The labrum was intact, but he pointed to a bit of bone on the femoral head (I think) that could be causing some impingement in the joint and possibly some damage to the cartilage, and possibly some pain. It's on the posterior side of the femur, which is consistent with my symptoms-- notably, the consistent pain I get when I bend over and stand on one leg-- this has always been my best measure for how sore my hip is. The pain elicited by this has been there since my injury started, roughly 2 years ago, and has continued after surgery and during recovery. So does that mean that this could have been the problem all along? And addressing this, ie, grinding down that spot on my femur, might actually "fix" my hip? Possibly. I'm pretty sure I heard him say that.

That leaves me with the decision-- is another round of hip surgery worth it? If it can possibly get me back to running, I guess the answer is "duh" it most certainly is. My reasoning is simple-- the hip is in poor shape right now, and it feels like it did about 4 months after surgery......so I'm probably only looking at a 4 month setback if I go for another round of surgery. Also-- the added challenges of Bubba have made it difficult for me to exercise, etc.....so it's not like I would be able to do much in the coming months anyway.

I have lots of questions for my doc, but I'm feeling like I should do this.

The R word

I've had a regression. I'm not sure what it means, or where it's headed, but some of my safe activities are no longer as safe-- for example, the bike, it leaves me sore, whereas in May/June it wouldn't. And running is out of the question-- well....I could probably do a walk/run, but I don't have the patience.

I made an appointment with my doc in Houston to look at my hip, do an MR arthrogram, get a shot of cortisone, and get a sonogram to rule out sports hernia. The symptoms for sports hernia (aka athletic pubalgia) are very similar to a torn labrum. And it isn't uncommon for both conditions to occur together. The idea that I might have another condition makes me hopeful, surprisingly enough-- maybe I can get it fixed. The torn labrum isn't getting better as far as I can tell.

Bubba is now 11 weeks old and is challenging us, so I don't have as much free time to obsess about these things. I've been trying to ride the trainer at night-- that's been working. Now I bike and watch trash TV. And I've been doing a 15 minute core workout most days. It's amazing how long 15 minutes seems..... my hip feels better lately-- maybe it's the core work. I'm a computer guy....ie weak core....

Definitely lame

It appears that the hip is in worse shape than I thought. I took all of last week off and then ran 2.5 miles on Saturday pushing Banjo-- despite taking it slow and limiting the distance, the soreness was there, not bad, but bad under the circumstances. Sunday I felt OK, and feeling somewhat inspired by the olympics, I tried to run 4 miles, but at 2.5 miles into it, I had to start walking because things weren't feeling right. I'm not sure what this means in the long term-- but I'm not going to run in the coming weeks. My patience for this is running low.

I'm assuming I can still bike reasonably well. Logistically, it's more difficult mostly because I can't ride at night. I've been looking at trainers-- devices the turn your bike into a stationary bike. Some hook up to your computer and allow you program workouts, etc. Sheesh, has it really come to this?

Kinda lame

Well, the soreness that was developing in my last post got worse through my recovery week. I was hoping to hit it again this week and log another 25 miles or so, but I'm lacking a clear direction on where to take it. This has happened at least a couple times-- a big chunk of progress followed by a readjustment period. It apparently takes more time these days to realize gains in volume, pace, etc. Two steps forward one step back.

I feel compelled to bike more, but it's hard to find time during the day with a newborn. I got out Sunday during Banjo's nap and rode about 30 miles at 2:00 in the afternoon. It was hot. I froze my water bottles, but ironically, the extra heat didn't melt them fast enough! I got pretty dehydrated. bleh...........

Like Dean friggin Karnazes

Well, not quite a marathon a day, but 4 or more miles a day, several days in a row makes me feel pretty good-- certainly not lame. Seems like lots of things can be happening at home, crying babies, 2-year-old tantrums, mother-in-law friction, work related stress, etc, etc, but as long as I get to run on a regular basis, I come back feeling good, like someone hit my reset button. 27.8 miles for last week. On Sat I ran on the trail with Banjo and my turnover felt good, better than I can remember. Saw lots of Gazelles, which was fun. I'm feeling some soreness lately, so I'm going to take it easy this week, throw in 2 or 3 days off, maybe get a bike ride in there...haven't biked in quite a while.