Progress

I know it’s been aaaaggggeeesssss since I posted. To be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s been a frustrating few months. In spite of the positive vibe in my last few months I was stressing out. While I was happy to be exercising semi-regularly again, and kept having fleeting moments of finding my motivation the pain was getting to me. I was really worried that either (a) I’d done something bad to my hip and would need more surgery or (b) that this is just the way it is and I’d be in pain and unable to run forever.

There was very much a sense of de ja vu happening. My physio said there wasn’t really much more she could do. My GP wasn’t much help at all. An x-ray and ultrasound both came back clear so I went back to my surgeon. He didn’t feel like there was anything bad happening and that it was likely just a really bad flare up, but ordered an MRI anyway as it had been going on for so long. After a 3 week wait for the MRI and then another month before I could get back into the surgeon the result was clear. The verdict seems to be that it was just a bad flare up and as it is improving on it’s own he’s not going to do anything for now. If it’s still bugging me in 2-3 months I can go back and he’ll give me a cortisone injection.

In a way, the test were just what I needed. There’s no doubt, in hindsight, that I definitely overdid it in May/June. I was rushing my recovery and I suffered the consequences. As a result of the pain and the feeling that I was pretty much screwed and would never run again I wasn’t really putting any effort into anything. I’ve been doing boxing twice a week and PT once a week, which I love and is definitely a good workout. But that’s it. Some half-assed rehab/stretching every now and again, and let’s not even mention my eating (I won’t call it nutrition!).

Getting that clear MRI results shifted something in my brain so I decided to try the return to running program from my surgeon. It starts off slowly with the first session doing 500m of jogging over 2km. I decided to start off on the treadmill so I can control everything and make sure I’m not going too fast too soon. I started with 4oom of warm up walking at around 4.6km/hr. Then I did 5 intervals of 300m walk @ 6km/hr and 100m jog @ 8km/hr. Even though it was slow and short it felt AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately that was the day after I started my new job and things got a bit hectic trying to find my new routine and I didn’t run again for a couple of weeks. But because that went so well, I signed up for Saint Clair next year. I’ll be doing the hybrid and having a fun day rather than aiming to run it, but it feels good to have a goal to work towards that I’m excited about (I just couldn’t find the motivation for cycling and Grape Ride). This is my 4th week at my new job and I’m starting to get into the swing of things and find a routine.

I worked out my wogging (a combination of walking and jogging = wogging) days are Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I’m now into my 2nd week of the program and today I did a total of 1km jogging (200m walk/200m jog intervals). I’m feeling really positive about my recovery now.

On the food side of things, I’ve only really started healthy eating again this week. I wanted to focus on my exercise routine first because I find that if I’m exercising regularly and feeling good about that I eat a lot healthier naturally. So far things are progressing well, but I’ve got a long way to go.

Sunday I’m doing the Summer Starter 4km walk with the Leap Tribe. My first official event in 18 months! I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂