Januaury – Off and Running

Wow, practically one month into the New Year and it has been a busy one. But, I have not progressed very much in my running.

One morning, frustrated,  I really, seriously thought about how could this bilateral knee pain be such a problem. I didn’t have knee pain prior to going to Pt for my ITB symptoms way back in March. The only real consistent change since then was my treadmill workouts. Could those have been the culprit?? Maybe its the way I am walking/running on the treadmill?? Seemed logical to me, so I decided to stop the treadmill workouts.

Instead, I decided to take those workouts outside. I wasn’t released from PT to run yet, but I thought since I could walk without pain, that running 30 seconds at a time wouldn’t hurt. At first, it seemed that everything was okay. But, as I added more runs, the knee pain came back. It wasn’t horrible, but it was enough to get my attention.  Scott joined me on one of those runs. And as a side note, check out the beautiful area that I get to run in!

 

Also, I  stopped doing some of the exercises that Pt had prescribed. I felt like some of them were putting too much pressure or strain on my knees.

Well that was all about to change and I was about to go back to doing what the PT told me to do!! I had missed my last couple of appointments (out of town on one and the other one was due to weather). So, a couple of days ago I had my first appointment of the year with my PT. And she basically put me back on the treadmill and gave me some additional exercises to do or changed up some of the ones I was already doing. 

And after only one workout, I already feel better. I can walk down the steps without pain again! Guess if I am going to the professionals then maybe I should listen to them?? I admitted to the therapist the changes that I had made. And she told me exactly why I was having the knee pain. It pretty much boils down to lack of strength and poor running form.

Once she put me on the treadmill, she said that I “plod”along and that puts more pressure on my knees. Also, I don’t exactly push off on my toes, more like just slapping the ground. I need to stand tall. I need to run faster. According to my pt, I have better form when I am running close to a 180 spm (steps per minute) pace.

And I added back in the exercises that I thought was putting too much stress on my knees along with doing the others listed above (don’t you just love the the little stick figure demonstrations..I need those reminders). That last exercise though was pretty hard for me. I must have really weak hamstrings and glutes because I could only do 6 of those! And she wanted 20?? I have some work to do! Seriously!As for the running, I will do a 5 minute warm-up (walking) on the treadmill, then run 4 segments of 30 second runs with walking in between and then a 5 minute cool down. These runs are to be done at a fast pace and on an incline of 10. They actually felt really good and my knees did not hurt during the runs. Once I can get up to running a full minute x 5 with the walk breaks then I can progress outside. At that time, I will start this very tedious running program that she has prescribed.

Whatever works, right?

I fessed up to the PT that I hope to run the Chicago Marathon this year, and she believes it is possible. So, I really want to increase my strength, improve my running form, and anything else I need to do to make it to Chicago!

Besides increasing my strength and correcting my running form, I am also working on cleaning up my diet. I am past 3 weeks no cokes! This is a really hard thing to give up for me. Love my cokes! But, I do want to see if they make a difference. I haven’t noticed much of a change yet, though.

I have decreased my sugar intake but still have an occasional dessert or something sweet. Probably more often than I should though. So, I plan to decrease the sugar a little more significantly. I am also trying to figure out which other inflammatory foods I need to consider cutting out. There is so much confusing information on the web. I have been to two different naturopathic doctors and they didn’t even have the same opinion of the most inflammatory foods. But, what I do know is that sugar is bad, so that is where my focus will be for now.

Recently, I made this post holiday detox salad and it was so good. I have had it every week practically since I came across the recipe. Very healthy and very tasty!

If you want to try it, you can get it here.

I believe spending time with my family is also part of living healthy! Sonja, the grandkids and I had dinner recently. I just enjoyed so much being out with them.

Happy baby!

Speak easy is one of our favorite drinks at the Spenard Road House. Okay, it is the only drink I ever order there! And this vegetable dish was sooooo good!

Love hanging out with this guy!

Maddy was there too, but I didn’t get a picture with her 🙁  She has a loose tooth and was very excited about it coming out. I found out today that she did lose her tooth.

I, occasionally, get to see Sonja as she is leaving work and I am coming on.

This picture was taken almost 4 years ago. Just to clarify, I do see her more than once every 4 years at work ha ha

She sent these pictures of the kids iceskating. I didn’t get to go hang out with them, but I love getting photos of them and hearing about what they are up to. Grandkids are the best!!

So getting off to a decent start for the year. It  is going to get even better. I just know that my running is going to improve and I am looking forward to seeing more of my family. Actually, I am going to visit my Mother and hoping some other family members will be there as well to celebrate her 86th birthday! Can’t wait!

 

Happy Running!