Ahhhhhhhh.........

So, I got the release from the doctor on Friday (after two weeks of physical therapy). So, yes I have a lot of issues!!! Weak muscles ALL OVER THE PLACE. Got a ton of stretches and strengthening exercises to do, but he said that running was GOOD for me!!!! YAY!!! Gotta work on my hamstrings, hip flexors, hip abductors (or something like that), core and so on and so on......but I am back on track with the running!!! He told me to start out at 50% of what I was doing and just increase however I felt...as long as it felt good.

So, I didn't complain one BIT about getting up at 5:00am on a Saturday morning. I was just so excited to go running with my girls. Them running without me felt like I was back in high school and my parents had grounded me while all my friends were going to the prom. But NOT today...I was going too!!! They had already ran 7 or so miles by the time I joined in. I didn't need to run the full 14 miles that they were running. It wasn't my fastest and it wasn't my farthest...but I was just happy to be there!!! So anywho...below is the route and the stats.....





Oh, on a side note I am trying out some products by Advocare. So far I am loooooving them. Becoming addicted actually!!!!

Air Dog!!

Frisbee dogs

These dogs are AMAZING!!!! And they are all rescued dogs. The dogs in this video lived the first 18 months of his life locked up in a tiny crate for 23 hours a day inside an apartment. We had a blast watching all of them!

Typical...

So this is a typical Saturday for us beginning this time of year.....hanging out with daddy at work. It's the alligator hunt.......

Cambo is in black jersey

Cockeyed....

Yes people, I am cockeyed! Because of that previous hip injury my left leg is 3/8" shorter than my right leg. This throws my hips out of balance and is just throwing EVERYTHING out of whack. I'm going through some physical therapy to strengthen some hip muscles and other stuff. ALSO, the doc wanted me to wear this shoe insert to get me back even. It felt weird at first, but I think I'm getting use to it.

Oh, and get this. Part of my physical therapy is to work on the stationary bike some to help keep my cardio endurance up. I spent 10 minutes on the bike this morning and was about to DIE!!! What is up with that!?!?!? I can run 12 miles but can't bike for 10 minutes. Talk about feeling PUNY!!!!! It works a whole different set of muscles and boy were those muscles mad at me!!

Interesting...

Something interesting I bet you didn't know about me. When I was 4ish I fell off of a slide and dislocated my left hip. The quack doctor at the time didn't know my hip was dislocated. Apprently a hip injury causes pain to show up below your knee. He thought something was wrong with my knee and put a cast on my left leg. I walked around with that cast on my leg, pulling that ball out of the socket even more for about 6 weeks or so. At some point after the cast came off a family member noticed that my left leg was longer than my right. Went back to a different doctor and this doctor said that my ball was out of the socket and that blood had been cut off to the area all that time. So they did some sort of surgery and I was put in a body cast to immobolize both hips for some time. There is a picture of that somewhere that I'm gonna try to find and post. I mean, I laid flat on my back for some time...I have no idea...I don't remember ANY of this! But....apparently they told my parents that they didn't know if my leg would ever grow normally, or would be a normal size, or that I would ever walk again on it. I was in and out of several reconstructive surgeries. At some point I got fixed I suppose. Ok, fast forward...several years ago I went to an orthopedic doc for a hurt shoulder. He was more interested in talking about my hip. He talked about the trauma to it and blah, blah, blah. Well, fast forward again. I was going to see a sports medicine doctor on Friday about my hamstring. I thought he might want to see the x-rays the other doc took several years ago of my hip. So I went over and picked up a copy. Here they are. You may think this is all boring...I think it is pretty neat. Looking at my pelvis (hahahahaha, sorry, that cracks me up) you'll notice that the right hip (the left side of the picture) is a nice round ball. You'll notice that the left hip (the right side of picture) is shaped more of like a mushroom. Yeah, well, see, a mushroom is NOT gonna fit into that round socket for very long. Eventually, from what I am told, that cartilage is gonna rub thin on the outside edges. So, none of the doctors have told me I can't run..or that I should stop running. BUT, both doctors have talked to me about the eventual need for a hip replacement...or the new doc talked to me about something new that is just a ball replacement. BOTH docs said that by the time I need something there is NO telling what advances may be made in this field though. I've pretty much told the docs that that hip is about the ONLY place I haven't felt an ache or pain since I've started running. My philosophy is I'll run until it hurts and then when I can't walk or run anymore I'll talk to them about getting me something new!

My left hip is on the right side of picture and my right hip is on the left side of the picture.

My left hip. Looks like that mushroom is fitting in that round hole pretty good if ya ask me!

Bad news...

I've been having a lingering ache in my right leg, upper hamstring area for about a month now. It has progressively gotten worse, nothing more that a bad ache, but my biggest fear is that the more I ran the more I was injuring myself to the point that one day I wouldn't be able to run anymore. So I decided to get it looked at. Good news, nothing serious. Bad news, no running for two weeks! So bummed!! And all my girlfriends are headed out for a long run in the morning WITHOUT ME!!! Doctor said that the area where the hamstring joins to the bones is irritated or inflamed or something like that. Probably an overuse injury. Anywho, nothing two weeks of rest and physical therapy shouldn't take care of. I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle two weeks without running. I've already been trying to come up with some alterior modes of crosstraining. Maybe this will be good for me. Think outside of the running box a little bit. Anywho, will check back in a couple of days and let ya know how everything is going......

No training wheels!

PR

Nope, not public relations. In the running world it means personal record....and YES...I set one Tuesday night. It was the Crime Prevention 5k. That race is special to me. Let me tell ya why.......we had just moved here 4 years ago. I had not been running much but was trying to get back into it. I didn't know anyone here, so I was all on my own. I signed up for this race because I knew how much motivation going to races provides. I didn't know a single person to run it with. I was at the office, downtown, had my clothes in hand, needing to change and get ready for the race, but scared to death. "I can't do this by myself, what if I can't run the whole way, what if I'm the last to cross the finish line, everyone is gonna know I'm not a 'runner'". All these thoughts were going through my head. I was just about to pack up my clothes and head home when I had a revelation....."I am too darn old to care about what anyone else thinks about me. This isn't high school!!! I'm gonna do this for me and if people wanna laugh...I'll give them something to laugh at!!!". So, I put on my running clothes, put my hair up in pigtails and thought "if they are laughing...I'll just assume they are laughing at the pigtails". So I ran the race, by myself. I did have to walk some...and it wasn't my best run. But I did it! And I wasn't the last to cross the finish line. And I stayed at that finish line and cheered every last single runner across. And I had a blast. Flash forward 4 years. Me and some of my best running buddies decided to do the race...and again the theme was 'if people wanna laugh.....then we'll give them something to laugh at and we are gonna have FUN!" So we put on our running clothes, put the hair in pigtails and we ran! And I set a personal record....29:14. My goal was to do under 30mins. And we had been under a heat advisory that day!!! It was HOT!!

Some of the most fantastic ladies I know. Paige, Melanie, Mindy, Katrina, Laura, Ann, Dana, and last but not least...me!

We crack me up!

Being serious!

We do silly really well!!!

ummm, Cambo is in there somewhere

Not me

So, I didn't run this route. I was running with the Couchto5k ladies, but Mindy borrowed my watch and ran with the 5k to 10k group. Thought I would post the stats for her to look at...

Sole2Soul Sisters

This was the Causeway 5k back on June 19th. We had about 50 ladies running.....

This is the five of us who really had a passion for getting this ministry going. I'm second from the left....

I am NOT ready for this.....