A typical dad

Sunday was the 3m Half Marathon, so I moved "daddy's morning off" from Sat to Sun so I could yell at the runners. By the time I got there, the lead pack had already passed, but the local champs were running by. The last time I watched a race, I yelled an enthusiastic "go Paul" to a guy named Peter. Hearing your name during a race can be a mental boost, but hearing someone else's name intended for you could be a slight downer, so I found myself being cautious and forgetting names. I've spent some time lurking on the local race photography sites trying to associate names with faces, probably more competitive than social of me.... anyway, I know some names of local runners and many don't know who the heck I am. I rode up the course on my bike trying to remember the names of those I recognized and yelling with caution. I found my friend Lisa at about mile 12 running well, and I turned around and followed her for a bit tried to think of encouraging words for the final mile. She finished with an impressive 1:22. I hung out with Gilbert and cheered some more, saw Hugo, Kevin, Alex, Jonathan, Julie.... everyone looked good, and it was fun to watch.

After the race I went to Barton Springs and aquajogged for an hour or so with running buddies Shannon and Kathie. This was my first AJ workout since surgery. I've been avoiding it because of the cold weather.... I could feel it working my hip in new, slightly uncomfortable ways, which is probably good, but I've been pessimistic about the hip lately, so I took it as an indicator that things aren't going well. And I took this negative attitude to my physical therapist on tues. I asked him questions about what would happen, for example, if I blew off my rehab, etc. I guess what I was looking for was some coaching, some words of encouragement, because it's been 12 weeks and, well, I was really hoping to be running, or at least close. He sorta blew off my questions, which pissed me off, so I made it clear that I was becoming skeptical about the whole thing, whether the exercises were working, whether he really understood what was wrong, etc. I was frustrated..... Will I run? If so, when? I wanted a date and anecdotal evidence that guys/gals with my particular problem get better, etc. I think he gave me what I wanted. 3 months. And he gave me some new exercises to target my iliopsoas. We'll see..... I can stick it out for 3 more months. I thought he might say 6 months....

Wed morning I got up early and met some fellow injured runners for more aquajogging in Barton. It was 37 degrees outside, cold enough to dominate many-a-topic of conversation here in Austin. I put on my wetsuit and nearly froze walking to the car. I cranked the heat on full blast and drove, and when I got there, it took me several minutes to gather the will to get out of the car and walk to the water. It was so cold that I had no choice but to get in, and the water was really cold of course..... Anyway, my hip felt better than Sunday. We "jogged" for an hour and that was fine, and I almost reached a comfortable body temp. When I got out, the cold felt "evil" on my wet skin. I made my way to the showers, but they were shut down because of the freezing temps-- wow, what an unpleasant experience. When I got home, the hot shower and hot coffee were incredible. Still, I think the aquajogging is good for the hip, so I'm going to try to do more.... It builds character-- something a typical dad would say. Tomorrow I'm going to the gym to do a treadmill run/walk, 1 minute run, 4 minutes walk for 25 or 30 minutes if I can tolerate it.