After kicking myself in the butt last week I'm finally getting back on the road the improvement. I went on the bike for 40 minutes on Tuesday morning and did weights this morning. I also finally got through all the health insurance hoops and scheduled a Physical Therapy appointment for Wednesday evening.
By the way, thanks everybody for the support the past two months. All your messages mean a lot and help me get through this. Hopefully this PT will set me in the right direction for Fairfield in late June.
2.27.2008
2.24.2008
Sans focus
So it's safe to say that on the running/athletic front 2008 has royally sucked. My knee is still giving me serious problems: no matter what I do I can't go more then 3-4 miles without pain and if I don't take Tylenol or Advil before, the pain is crippling. Because of this, I can't start a training program or hold onto any of my goals for this year--which means that I have no focus whatsoever.
Nowadays, instead of looking forward to the gym, it's become a chore. I can't do what I want to do (run) and I have no real goal, so my only reason for going to the gym is for fitness--and that really doesn't motivate me. Funny thing is, running is the only exercise that does this to my knee. Walking and cycling for long periods of time don't induce pain.
My only option right now is to go in for physical therapy with my Orthopedics's office. I gave them a call yesterday only to find out that while they'll take my insurance for doctor appointments they don't take my insurance for physical therapy. WTF? So now I'm trying to log-in to the Cigna website to find a local PT place...which may or may not be fruitful.
God is this frustrating. Compound this with my ridiculous work schedule form the past few weeks, preparing for taxes, and some personal finance issues and you have probably the least enjoyable month of February ever. Thank God for that ski trip.
Nowadays, instead of looking forward to the gym, it's become a chore. I can't do what I want to do (run) and I have no real goal, so my only reason for going to the gym is for fitness--and that really doesn't motivate me. Funny thing is, running is the only exercise that does this to my knee. Walking and cycling for long periods of time don't induce pain.
My only option right now is to go in for physical therapy with my Orthopedics's office. I gave them a call yesterday only to find out that while they'll take my insurance for doctor appointments they don't take my insurance for physical therapy. WTF? So now I'm trying to log-in to the Cigna website to find a local PT place...which may or may not be fruitful.
God is this frustrating. Compound this with my ridiculous work schedule form the past few weeks, preparing for taxes, and some personal finance issues and you have probably the least enjoyable month of February ever. Thank God for that ski trip.
2.19.2008
Turns out that I can ski
Had a great ski trip this weekend to Western Massachusetts with a bunch of friends. Turns out that my years of avoiding skiing were in vain--I actually am a pretty good skier. I ended up going on the hardest trail on the mountain this weekend and acing it. Woo hoo for me.
Back to being MIA.
Back to being MIA.
2.13.2008
MIA from my life
So work has literally consumed me this enture week. I wake up at 6:50am, go to work, work a lot, eat lunch, work a lot more, eat dinner at work, work some more, and then go home at 10pm. I have probably seen my wife all of eight hour in the past three days.
Since I'm putting in such awful hours at work and I don't have a race to train for, I've been letting myself skip on the running. Weird, I feel like this happens every mid-winter. And then I'm out of town this weekend on a ski trip that I plan on doing as little skiing as possible. (I've checked, no treadmill at the cabin.)
But starting Tuesday I will get back to running and hopefully recovering from this knee business. My goal now is to be back in good shape for Fairfield in June.
Since I'm putting in such awful hours at work and I don't have a race to train for, I've been letting myself skip on the running. Weird, I feel like this happens every mid-winter. And then I'm out of town this weekend on a ski trip that I plan on doing as little skiing as possible. (I've checked, no treadmill at the cabin.)
But starting Tuesday I will get back to running and hopefully recovering from this knee business. My goal now is to be back in good shape for Fairfield in June.
2.10.2008
Some progress
The bad news this week is that work has completely burnt me out. This was a massively stressful week, with more and more work piling up and no team members yet to share it with. It's a little hard to describe without going into ridiculous detail, but let's just say I was trying to juggle the work of three people by myself and stuff was starting to get out of my control.
Friday there was finally some relief: my president assigned a director to my account. I sat down with the director and told her everything that had been going on with the account. I hadn't worked with her before, but so far I think I'm going to work very well with her. And it was just comforting to know that I wasn't working on my own anymore.
The good news this week was that I went for a run on Thursday morning and was able to get up to four miles with out major pain. I felt like I could have gone longer, but I needed to stop in order to get ready for work. I do have to note that I took four regular tylenol before heading out for the run--which probably is responsible for the absence of major pain. I only had some tingling sensation in the knee and it didn't hurt going up and down stairs (as it would normally after a run). I also noticed that the pain stayed at bay if I focused on running as upright as possible.
I'm going to try running again today, trying to replicate what I was able to do on Thursday.
I'll be heading out in a bit to head over to the gym. In the meanwhile, I am actually doing research for work: watching Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (since my client is a toy company, I have to know what programming is on these channels).
Friday there was finally some relief: my president assigned a director to my account. I sat down with the director and told her everything that had been going on with the account. I hadn't worked with her before, but so far I think I'm going to work very well with her. And it was just comforting to know that I wasn't working on my own anymore.
The good news this week was that I went for a run on Thursday morning and was able to get up to four miles with out major pain. I felt like I could have gone longer, but I needed to stop in order to get ready for work. I do have to note that I took four regular tylenol before heading out for the run--which probably is responsible for the absence of major pain. I only had some tingling sensation in the knee and it didn't hurt going up and down stairs (as it would normally after a run). I also noticed that the pain stayed at bay if I focused on running as upright as possible.
I'm going to try running again today, trying to replicate what I was able to do on Thursday.
I'll be heading out in a bit to head over to the gym. In the meanwhile, I am actually doing research for work: watching Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (since my client is a toy company, I have to know what programming is on these channels).
2.04.2008
Two weeks, part two
Saturday's run went as expected. Everything started fine--I went at a super easy pace and I had walking breaks after every mile. But three miles into it my knee started to hurt. It was like I hadn't rested it at all. Before the pain got intense I started walking and finished with some ab work and a generous amount of stretching. I forgot to ice my knee afterward, but it felt fine once I stopped running--I guess I caught it early enough.
Sigh.
On Sunday I did weights. Not too boring since I haven't done them in a while. I made sure to do weights on my oft-neglected quads and hamstrings.
I'll be calling the doctor this week to see about Physical Therapy.
Sigh.
On Sunday I did weights. Not too boring since I haven't done them in a while. I made sure to do weights on my oft-neglected quads and hamstrings.
I'll be calling the doctor this week to see about Physical Therapy.
2.02.2008
Two weeks
A while back I noted that nine days was my threshold for consecutive days of not running/working out. It has now been two weeks. Peoples, I am down.
I stopped running on January 3 because of my IT Band. Since then I've only done weights because I'm scared to do anything that involves my knee. But it got boring after two weeks of nothing but weights. I seriously don't know how those guys I see in the gym do weights day in and day out. Sure, running is a repetitive activity, but at least you're not sitting in one place being repetitive. So I've stopped doing weights in order to not go crazy.
Then, somehow, two weeks of non-activity suddenly happened. Due to me not having a team at work and trying to squeeze in doctor appointments before the Texas trip, the week of MLK Day was shot to shit. And then I didn't take any workout clothes or shoes on my trip to Texas--because I thought "what's the point?"
So here I am, getting a blog entry in before wifey wakes up and we head over to the gym. I am mostly dreading the return to the treadmill since it has been so long. I am also revising my planned races for 2008, seeing that I missed Austin and probably won't make it for Great Bay. But I should be in fine shape for Fairfield and Vermont, since they are so far off. I'm not sure about DC at this point. I'll see where I'm at this summer, so it'll stay on the list for now.
In loosely related running news. While in Texas I bought the Runner's World Complete Book of Running since for a long time I have felt the need for some kind of guide to running. (Going on my gut instinct hasn't always proven the wisest track.) It's filled with stuff that I've already gathered over time, but now all that knowledge is in one convenient place. Funny how I'm only half-way through the book but I've already marked it up more than any of my college text books.
I stopped running on January 3 because of my IT Band. Since then I've only done weights because I'm scared to do anything that involves my knee. But it got boring after two weeks of nothing but weights. I seriously don't know how those guys I see in the gym do weights day in and day out. Sure, running is a repetitive activity, but at least you're not sitting in one place being repetitive. So I've stopped doing weights in order to not go crazy.
Then, somehow, two weeks of non-activity suddenly happened. Due to me not having a team at work and trying to squeeze in doctor appointments before the Texas trip, the week of MLK Day was shot to shit. And then I didn't take any workout clothes or shoes on my trip to Texas--because I thought "what's the point?"
So here I am, getting a blog entry in before wifey wakes up and we head over to the gym. I am mostly dreading the return to the treadmill since it has been so long. I am also revising my planned races for 2008, seeing that I missed Austin and probably won't make it for Great Bay. But I should be in fine shape for Fairfield and Vermont, since they are so far off. I'm not sure about DC at this point. I'll see where I'm at this summer, so it'll stay on the list for now.
In loosely related running news. While in Texas I bought the Runner's World Complete Book of Running since for a long time I have felt the need for some kind of guide to running. (Going on my gut instinct hasn't always proven the wisest track.) It's filled with stuff that I've already gathered over time, but now all that knowledge is in one convenient place. Funny how I'm only half-way through the book but I've already marked it up more than any of my college text books.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)