Adventures in Therapy

This whole quarter has felt like a waste and, more or less, it has been one. Upon returning from Christmas break I have dealt with a hip injury. There have been several theories about what could be the problem, the current and final is that it is a tight / irritated IT band (the muscle that runs from your hip to knee). In the hopes of loosening it I was sent to get a massage from a lady called Meghan. She gives massages to the women’s basketball team and was beginning to give them to team members as well. So one Wednesday afternoon found me at the doorstep of her mint green home. Upon arrival I could not help but notice the ultra-marathon posters and trophies that covered the walls of her home. I came to find out I was in the home of Meghan ARBOGAST. THE Meghan Arbogast who held the Where’s Waldo course record until my father broke it last summer. THE Meghan Arbogast who is indisputably one of the best ultra-marathoners… EVER! Yeah, that’s who I got my butt massaged by.


Some cool sites :

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13650
http://runningmegleg.blogspot.com/
http://www.bostontrials2008.com/index.cfm?pk=bio&bioID=150

trying again

If there's a theme to the last few blogs, rest assured it isn't by choice.
I've followed Emily's example and have been going to PT out of desparation. It's not been very rewarding. Even the 10 minute casual bike ride to work has been painful. And I almost stopped running all-together for a couple of weeks. So after weeks of treatment, icing, stretching, etc and with the blessing of my therapist (physical therapist, although my mental therapist would agree it it's necessity) I've tried running a couple of times this week, and it hasn't hurt more afterwards, so I'm going to do more of that! Yesterday I did six 1/2 mile hill repeats with 1/2 mile recovery on the treadmill. By doing 6% at 9 mph I got my heart rate up to 185 for a couple minutes at a time, which is 6 beats higher than my theoretic maximum. High heart rates happen to me when I restart training after a break, but that seemed extreme. And if anything, I'm feeling better today than a couple of days ago.

I think the nerve endings or some other aspect of the tissues in front of my knee cap were continuing to send pain signals, even in the absence of tissue damage. At least, that's what I want to believe. I'm going to try building up quickly, but I'll have to see how things go this summer. I'm still planning on going to Moab in 3 weeks even if I can't bike. Mac Forest is in 2 months. The only other things I'm registered for are States and Hood to Coast (with co-workers.) I'll optimistically sign up for Where's Waldo again.

So now I write...

I have been poked and prodded, stretched and flexed to the point where even gymnasts would be jealous. I have been ice packed, ice cupped and ice bathed. I have had bags of ice plastic wrapped to my body to the point I could not walk. I have been heat packed, foam rolled, messaged, ultra sounded and been hooked up to machines that send small electric pulses through your muscles. I have arm biked to the brink of insanity and peered over it's vast horizon into it's inky unknown. I have pumped iron and push ups and crunches until my body burned. And yet, I have not ran.

Running is an interesting sport, it is intense, cruel, painful, magnificent. It tears you down only to leave you stronger. It requires it's athletes to be more than just physically strong but mentally, spiritually, emotionally tough. Running requires a soundness of mind as well as body. It does not ask, it demands.

No one has ever known torment like that of an athlete unable to perform. Someone once said runners were courageous and therefore stupid. I disagree with their reasoning. By definition courage is to have the mental or moral strength to venture or persevere. Courage is doing what is right even at a sacrifice; that is not stupidity. I am sorry if this is blasphemous but I believe that Jesus must have been a runner, how could He have withstood so much pain?
And so, I shall persevere.

running again

After 3 months of very little running, Kattie went 12 miles! She flaked out a bit on the last big hill, and clearly isn't in anywhere near the shape she used to be, but seemed to really enjoy it. I went with her.

(For the sake of the dignity of one of my running partners, please don't pay any attention to the fact that I'm wearing THE tights that I'm not allowed to wear around her friends because they didn't come from the *men's* section of Target and they match hers. They have zippered legs, and at $25 I thought they were a great deal!)

I figure my knee bursa feels 95% of normal. After 3 months, if it wasn't healed yet then it wasn't going to ever. What can't be cured must be endured--or else must be precisely injected with 40mg of triamcinalone. That near miracle was about 10 days ago, and now the main things that kept me from yesterday were a) laziness, 2) foul weather, and iii)fear of the return of pain, which is almost worse than pain.

There's a personal trainer in our ward who's partially come out of her motherhood leave-of-abscence. She's taken on about 15 couples for a 10 week fitness challenge. It's been enlightening to see how much I've been eating. I'm calorie monitoring, not counting per-se. She has us using www.sparkpeople.com. If you want to improve something, monitor it. I've been eating 1000 calories for breakfast each day.

Here's the initial measurements:

Measurement Type	Measurement	Category
Weight	156.6	Healthy weight range for height*: 125-168
BMI	23.1	Normal
Body Fat	13% **	upper end of "Athlete" range
Sit & Reach (flexibility)	20 1/2"	85th percentile, well above average
Push-ups	40	>90th percentile, off the charts for a skinny old guy
Abdominal Strength	50	60th percentile, above average- these were a new variation of the standard tortuous sit-ups.

*Healthy weight range determined by the weight range that would put you into a healthy BMI category, and at a low risk for disease and highest quality of life.

**Body fat callipers, which we used have a +/- 3% error possibilty, but are the best inexpensive body fat indicator.

She's made it a competition with a points system. I found out about it when my young men's counselors wouldn't have desert at the planning meeting we had last week.

7 Things

Sorry, I'm a little slow about jumping on to the band wagon but I wanted to put some serious thought and effort into this. When Grandma asked if I was going to write a blog about 7 things people don't typically know about me Grandpa kind of laughed and said I wasn't old enough. Which leads perfectly into my list:

1.) I like challenge; being told (or thinking) I can't do something or it's too hard and then proving others or myself wrong. One of the reasons I love climbing mountains and running so much is because it's, well, hard.

2.) I like pain; There is nothing that excites me more than a hard workout and racing (my team constantly pokes fun at my smiling while racing, I can't help it!)

3.) My two biggest fears are falling and failure; I do not enjoy the sensation of falling which is why I have such a hard time with heights - I am afraid that I will never live up to the expectations I have of myself or those of my family

4.) I can't go above 15,000ft in elevation because I get High Altitude Cerebral Edema; this was discovered while climbing mountains in Mexico.

5.) Over the last couple of years I've had problems with my tonsils, next March I will undergo my first surgery with a tonsillectomy.

6.) I was late to my senior prom due to the Oregon Relays; a track event held at Hayward Field where I ran two events, my mom curled my hair while my date waited downstairs.

7.) I feel make-up is a complete waste of time; God made me beautiful and if that's not good enough for the rest of society then DEAL because I have better things to do then rub foundation into my pores.

A day with no running

Emily's tonsils decided to enlarge to the point where they now have their own zip-code. She's spending the night at an expensive hotel in Medford. She's making plans to be separated from those swollen pus producing pieces of lymph tissue, most likely sending them on a permanent spring break.

(that lump to the left of midline is her uvula)

No wonder she didn't go very fast on our 6 mile run yesterday.

Javalina Jundred

Also known as a peccary, the javalina is a pig-like mammal.  It is also the name of a 100 mile race I attempted.
This is the first race to which I've flown. I met up with my running buddy Todd Ragsdale, who took the costume contest seriously by dressing as a zombie. I've never written "eat brain" on anyone's scalp before.
It was a 25 mile drive to the start in a big park in the desert NE of Phoenix AZ. The course consisted of 7 laps on a 15.4 mile loop with a few hundred feet elevation gain each way on dirt/sand/rocky trail.
We started in the dark, and at first the pace seemed really slow. I made a point of staying behind the leaders, and even dropped back a little after the first 5 miles thinking I was saving myself. But by the time we reversed directions after the first loop I knew it was going to be a long day. At 31 miles my stubborn pre-patellar bursa was really hurting. I put a stop to that with a little self medication, and felt great for the next 9 miles then limped in to the 41 mile aid station. Todd caught up with me there, and with a little more medication I ran hapily with him for the next 5 miles in the 80 degree heat of the day. My knee got progressively worse after that, with shorter periods of comfort and longer periods of walking stiffly. I think I walked over half of my 4th loop. Perhaps from limping, the arches of my feet started to hurt a lot as well. So I called it quits a little while after sunset after completing 100k in something over 12 hrs.
Todd made it 93 miles before his knee did him in.
So now I've taken 3 weeks off with no running (other than limping 1 mile with Esther and Zachary, and some soccer with Esther.) I think the left foot instep pain was coming from my navicular bone. It is hurting less, and the knee doesn't bother me on a normal set of stairs anymore. I think a couple more weeks and I can start running again.
I went 62 miles without a blister, but 30 minutes of soccer gave me big ones on the balls of my feet. They still weren't nearly as bad as Todd's toes.