Going with the flow

"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating."
- John Farrington, Australian marathoner

I'm so there.

At physical therapy I ran a mile yesterday and it felt great! Well, sort of.

My knees felt great but my plantar fasciitis flared up forcing me to run a little funny. Yes, I have a little plantar fasciitis in my right foot that came out after my marathon. It disappeared after a while, no not on it's own but from digging in there to break up the scar tissue that has formed and by icing. Since I've stopped running it hasn't been around, until yesterday. If it's not one thing it has to be another, right? I'm icing and stretching and rolling and digging my thumbs in every tight spots I find along my legs and feet but it doesn't seem to be enough. I'm starting to get frustrated at my body and myself. I know it takes time to heal and repair and even longer to establish good training habits, and there aren't any buts coming up here, I have to go with the flow. I have to keep doing what I'm doing and perhaps a little more; I have to be more patient with myself.

Physical therapy is forcing me to learn new training habits to prevent further injuries from occurring and I know it takes time. It's only been seven weeks since I been diagnosed with chondromalacia patellofemoral syndrome, otherwise known as runners knee. The diagnosis doesn't really explain my patella being slightly off center which was discovered by x-rays in late December that was caused over my lifetime. Also, it's only been three weeks since I've started physical therapy with four more to go.

Here's to being patient and getting stronger.

Life is good

Today in my physical therapy session Debbie had me warm up by cycling for five minutes and then proceeded to break up the scar tissue surrounding both patellae using the Graston Technique. It was followed by a few dynamic stretches and exercises before running. Yes, I finally ran. I was suppose to run Friday but I missed my appointment. I went in at 2 pm instead of 1 pm. I rescheduled the appointment.

The last run I ran was the Sawyer Camp Trail run in early December so running today felt great. I ran for 20 minutes at a pace of 6 km/hr on a treadmill. But I didn't run on an ordinary treadmill, no sir, I ran on an Alter-G treadmill. It's a treadmill that defies gravity. How does a treadmill defy gravity you ask? Well, I put on some fancy pants that zip up and seal my legs in a bubble that encases the treadmill and my legs. The bubble is then filled with air that gently holds me up. It literally feels like running on air. Is any of this making sense? No, I didn't think so. Here's a picture. Don't be fooled though, I ran indoors.

While in the bubble I was suspended momentarily and ran using 65% of my body weight. After five minutes I ran on 75% of my body weight and I didn't feel any knee pain! Hurrah! I'm feeling great and I hope to be running soon, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. We'll see how I do running on all my body weight first.

More good news: Debbie examined my knee and noticed the position of my patella has moved in the right direction. It's not fully in place yet but I am making progress! After a couple of weeks of exercising and pushing down on my patella the knee pain is now gone! I wish I can say the same for my right knee. Don't worry; Debbie is helping me out with my right knee as well.

Ah, life is good.

Happy Running!

"To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed." -Bernard Edmonds

I want to wish everyone who prepared for the San Francisco Kaiser Half Marathon and the New Orleans Half Marathon a great run! You have trained hard in the cold, you have listened to all of the coaches advice (use body glide, take water, take GU, and pace yourself), and don't forget the most important thing-you helped raised funds for the LLS that help save hundreds of lives! When you're feeling tired and don't want to continue remember all the honorees that you have met. Think of them and of those that the many other lives that you have helped. You are running to save lives! Now how many other runners out there can say that? All you have left is to run your race-you athlete you!

I'll be up in San Francisco Sunday snapping away so be sure to wear you biggest smile-rain or shine!

GO TEAM!!!

More PT

At my attempt to strengthen my left leg and realign my left knee cap I am putting pressure in my right knee! Ugh, what am I to do? Well, I am doing my exercises but I'm not doing them evenly. Debbie noticed that I'm still leaning on my right leg for more support. Thank goodness I have Debbie to correct my alignment and coach me through everything. I really don't know what I would do without her.

It's a funny thing being told that one direction of movement is stronger than the other. Apparently I am strong moving forward and backwards but I'm weak going side to side. Working with Thera Bands I have improved and strengthened my legs. I've been upgraded from a red thera band to a green thera band for my clam and side step exercises. Yay!

Debbie added side planks to the list of exercises I am to perform. I have to hold it for 10 seconds with my leg lifted up. I started off doing 5 on each side and will slowly increase it to 10. It's easy enough but tiring after a while.

My next session is tomorrow, Friday. I have to tell you that I'm scared to go in because Debbie will have me jog for 10 to 15 minutes on a tread mill. First of all, I'm scared of the tread mill. I almost fell the first time I went on one and told myself I will never go back on one. Ha. Second of all, I'm afraid to run. I'm scared that I'll hurt my knees. I know that everything I'm doing to strengthen my legs, my gluts, and everything around my knee are suppose to improve my running but I'm still scared. Third, I'm scared of failing; scared that I can't run. I'm sure I'll do fine but wish me luck anyway.

Have fun on your buddy runs today. Stay dry; run between the rain drops!

Tahoe Weekend

Here are a few photos and stories of my first visit to Lake Tahoe. Yes, the very first time I've been there was over the weekend. I know it's sad but at least I finally made it up there.

Knee deep snow makes walking through snow fun and scary all at the same time. Making trails through the snow is a great workout.

Sledding is also fun but the funny thing about sledding, well it was to the people watching me sled down that hill was watching me crash into the same tree twice! After crashing into that tree a second time I called it quits and took photos of my family sliding down that icy hill. I'll post the photos on my Picasa site later this week with an active link.

The best part was taking a lake cruise into Emerald Bay. The lake was a gorgeous blue. The sun was high in the sky but the winds were really chilly making it a bit hard to ride on the top deck. Regardless of the cold my family and stayed up there to take in the great views and seeing the snow covered mountains reflect off the lake.

Besides taking a lake cruise, crashing into trees, building half snowmen and sinking into deep patches of snow the coolest thing was running into two summer TNT teammates. I was loading up the car when out of nowhere I heard Autumn say, "Gabby, is that you?" I was shocked to see Autumn and Elaine stopped in the middle of the street. Apparently Elaine noticed a woman wearing a Nike Women's Marathon jacket and mentioned it to my cousin, her friend, Autumn Huynh. Since Autumn happened to run behind me all summer she totally recognized my back and stopped the car. We hugged and chatted and thought it was really cool to run into each other up there. Yeah, TNTers are cool group of people.

Physical Therapy

I'm taking physical therapy twice a week in the middle of the work day and I had my second session today. (Yes, I am fortunate enough to take time off of work to attend various doctors’ appointments.) Debbie had me warm up on a stationary bicycle before examine me and realigning my lower back and evening out my legs. I was a little off and more aligned compared to my last visit! Following the pseudo chiropractic alignment she set me to work out a few exercises and dug around my knee with instruments that resemble a butter knife butt with some waxy lubricant to break up the scar tissue that has built up.

After the knee scraping I did several sets of exercises where Debbie and I notice how weak my left leg is. I have been compensating most of my life and preferring my right side. No wonder I was crooked and needed to realignment! It also explains why my patella is leaning to the left side rather than sitting in the middle.

Here are the exercises I have to do everyday, and notice they are normal exercises:
Clams
Bridges
Side leg hip abductors
Side steps
Step downs
Double leg squats
1 leg balance

On top of that I have to press down and push my knee cap down to ease it back into place. It doesn't hurt but it looks strange.

Hmm...that doesn't go there

So I finally figured out why my left knee has been bothering me, my patella is not where it's suppose to be! Instead of sitting happily and snugly in the joint it's off to the side pissed of and in a bad mood. That's joints for you! Well, that's my knee for me.
I viewed my x-rays today during my first physical therapy (PT) session earlier today. It was not a pretty site. I can't believe I'm able to stand and walk let alone attempted to run with my patella in the wrong place! I can't believe I'm not in utter pain, but I'm glad I'm not. I'm grateful that I'm not in pain, grateful that I can walk, and very grateful with the life I have; I'm very fortunate to have a great supporting family, friends, and a great medical provider and physicians.
Back to my PT, Debbie, my therapist, showed me an treatment to slowly realign my knee but literally holding one side of my knee with my left hand and pressing and pushing my knee with my right hand into the left hand. It looks and sounds gross and painful but it really is not. It just looks funny. Debbie also recommended a couple of exercises using thera bands to strengthen my supporting muscles to prevent my knee from further misalignment.
Following my PT I saw Coach Kris for a massage therapy. She kneaded my IT band and quads until I was bruised. It really, really hurt but it felt great. My leg is no longer tight, too bad I can't run yet.
I'll try to get my x-rays and see if I can post them here.
Remember, ice is your best friend!

A beautiful day for a 16 mile run

This morning's temperature started off in the late thirties. It was cold. As the sun slowly made it's way high into the sky the morning quickly warmed up to 60 degrees by noon. Needless to say it was perfect running weather; perfect for 16 miles. I did not run today though, I manned a water stop with my previous mentor and running buddy Victoria, there she is on the left, and with Honoree Jack and my husband. It was fun!
The team ran along the Coyote Creek trail in south San Jose. It's a beautiful trail with a lot of wildlife and greenery. Something that I and a lot of last season's participants did not appreciate last summer.
Last summer I ran this route in nearly 100 degree heat! I'm not exaggerating here, it really was that hot and we ran 18 miles! It was awful. It was the worse run I had ever ran. Period. Well, it was the worst run that season. It was hot, the water stops seemed to be too far apart, the trails were full of TNT walkers and runners, there was hardly any shade, it was very dry and my running partner left me in the dust. I didn't mind though. I was going to walk and that was that. The only relief I received was when Coach Kris came riding along her bike and spritzed me with water. When my arms stopped sweating, yes I stopped sweating, I literally walked the last 5 miles. And I'm not counting all the walking I did before that. It was bad. One young lady nearly fainted from the heat and was told she had to stop. Thankfully we didn't have any problems today.
The half marathoner are now in taper mode. What is taper you ask? Well, a runner trains for a long endurance run they slowly ramp up the mileage according to their event. A person running a half marathon will run 10 to 12 miles while a person running a marathon will run 20 miles, the furthest distance during training. Once they have reached that goal three weeks prior to their event the runner goes into taper. The runner dramatically cuts the mileage for the remainder of the training season. So the TNTers that are preparing for a half marathon are now in taper! Yay!
As for the TNTers training for the Napa Marathon, they still need to run 18 miles and another 20 miles. These runs will be in Natural Bridges Santa Cruz and in Monterey! These are two gorgeous run and I'm so envious of the runners! Ah, I wish them all well and an injury free runs.
Stay warm and well hydrated out there in them trails!

Gym workout

Sigh, I still don't like the gym atmosphere but I'm starting to enjoy the gym, well sort of. It's the beginning of a new year and the gym is full of new people hogging all the machines. Yeah, like I'm not new but at least I started to workout at the gym three weeks ago. Anyway, an employee announced on a speaker that all cardio machines have a 30 minute limit. Needless to say it was crowded and I didn't like it. Solution, go later in the evening!
Rewind, my first gym visit I cycled for 30 minutes. Second visit I cycled for 30 minutes and tried out the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. Let me tell you, the bike did nothing for me, I should probably try a spin class, but with the elliptical-sweat city.
According to the distance counter on the elliptical measured a distance of 2.42 miles. Not bad considering that I haven't worked out in over two weeks but knowing that I can run 3 miles in 30 minutes I was a little disappointed. After several workouts I started doing interval work on my favorite machine at the gym, ellipty. My interval workout consists of a couple of minutes on resistance level one up to several minutes on resistance level 4. So it's fast, slow, fast, slow. After a really slow start attending the gym three weeks ago I'm now up to running 4.02 miles in 30 minutes! I'm going to have to keep a log of my ellipty mileage now.
On top of the elliptical workout I did a core workout, portions from . Three 30 seconds planks, 2 sets of 10 reps of leg stretches, 2 sets of 10 reps of side plank with moving knee, four 30 second bridges, 2 sets of 10 reps of swimmers, and 20 push ups. Yep, 20. Then I stretched doing the gate and crouching cat push-up. Most come from Ultimate Fitness Plan provided from Women's Health Magazine.
For a killer ab workout check this 6 week plan.
My next assignment, water station at Coyote Creek with a little help from my husband.
Go Team!!!

Lake Almaden

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season. Mine was full of cooking, baking, and going to the gym. My knee is feeling fine but it still feels a little funny. Stretching, rolling, and the elliptical machine are working well for me so far. I'll be starting physical therapy in mid January and I hope my knee will improve dramatically.
In the meantime I'm volunteering for water stop duty for my fellow teammates for the remainder of the season. Makes me feel like I'm still part of the team that way. Plus, I still want to support everyone.
Today I volunteered at Lake Almaden where the runners ran between 8 to 14 miles in 40 degree weather! I was stationed with my mentor Debra, who is also nursing an injury, and with Honoree Jack at the corner of Camden and Harry. Even though I did not run I did manage to snap over 100 photos at and around the water stop. Click on the slide show above to view the 75 I have posted.
Congratulations to everyone who have run their furthest and fastest times today! Janine and Jen deserve special mention for running 14 miles in slightly over three hours and Rakhee for running her furthest distance so far. You're going to kill at Napa!
More from me later. Stay warm!