TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

No; not Again!

Tuesday my hip ached so badly, I went to bed with a heating pad, then fell promptly asleep. The hip was just not right.  And I was afraid.  Good thing I had physical therapy in the morning.  And good thing my husband came to bed way afterward and turned off the heating pad.

Physical Therapy Wednesday 7:00 AM.  I bridged, lay on the table and my P.T. took a hold of my feet and said, “Your pelvis is so out of line!”

“What???!!”  I felt doomed. “What did I do?”  I asked.  “Am I running wrong?”

“No, it’s not your running,” he said.  “It’s the car accident.  You’re going to be unstable for a while.”

*#%***##!!!!

After an hour and a half of physical therapy, he showed me how to tell when my pelvis is out of line and how to re-align it myself.  I listened and even repeated the steps out loud, but with little hope in my heart.  

Before I left for the gym for some elliptical and weights, he made sure my pelvis was aligned.  I was amazed that my hip felt so much better.

After 65 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes of weights, I grocery shopped and returned home and promptly napped for a few hours, so relieved that my hip felt good.

Thursday morning, I was up bright and early for a 6 AM run with Tom and Sheila.  I tossed around the idea of putting in more miles than the hilly out-and-back planned.  My running friends easily convinced me that it’s time to cut back.

And so we went for that ridge run, under cool, almost cold, gray skies. On the way up Cholla, we passed two female hikers.  I jokingly said to one of them, “You know the park’s closed.”  She threw me a glare.  I picked up my pace some, because after that glare, there was no way I was letting that hiker pass this runner up on Cholla Trail.

I didn’t even drink from my handheld once on the way up to Top of the World.  That’s how cool and overcast it was this morning (WHEN THE PARK WAS CLOSED).   I was quite the talkative gal on this run too, more so than usual, because nerves are racking up over the upcoming week. 

On the way back, we came across two cyclists, one who had just wiped out, the other who was calling 911.  The guy who crashed was walking.  For some reason, I was looking for injury in his feet/ankles, being a runner that I am.  Tom stopped to talk to him for a bit.   I could hear sirens in the distance.  Later, my friends mentioned something that I hadn’t noticed – that the wipe-out guy was powdered with dirt head to toe.  

At the top of Cholla a county paramedic truck made its way in, as did one behind us on Westridge.  After running Cholla Trail, another paramedic waited at the bottom to help. 

Good to know response is so quick.  Perhaps though, it was the time of day. (approx. 7:30 am, by now).

I was still stretching after Tom and Sheila took off to begin their day when up the road walked a man with his two doggies – one of them a Beagle.  I stopped him of course, because I wanted to pet his dogs.  We talked and laughed about how stubborn Beagles are.  Turns out, his Beagle’s name is Daisy – just like ours : )

Back I home I was freezing, and my hip ached like the devil!  After  breakfast, I crawled into bed, still sweaty, teeth chattering, hip in trouble, and slept for a couple hours.

After waking I attempted my hip exercises, and  barely able to accomplish them, marched in front of the mirror like my P.T. told me, with my thumbs on my pelvis.  And sure enough, my right thumb ended up a good 2 inches lower than the left.  My right pelvis had rotated forward and down that much!  And so after doing the exercises to supposedly align my pelvis, I marched in front of the mirror again.  And wouldn’t you know it!  My pelvis was aligned – thumbs even.  Wow.  My hip felt much better.

After an afternoon in Fallbrook, I did my mirror march again, and sure enough – pelvis aligned.  Yahoo!  In celebration, I did a two minute plank before walking down to dinner at the corner restaurant.

Miles run this morning: 6.11

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have an awesome PT! Enjoy the taper before Bulldog; you have put in some awesome training runs for it so enjoy the relative rest. :)

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  2. Thanks Rachel for the comment. Got antibiotics from an awesome sports doctor too for my toe infection -- I should be good & ready to enjoy tapering : ) (So bizarre everything's going wild weeks out before my first ultra). Tomorrow a nice and easy (well, not that easy) ten miles, then just one more run, plus some relaxing swims, that's all I've got planned for the week.

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