Plugging along

Last night, I spent 30 minutes on a spinning cycle and then did some upper body lifting - high reps, low weights. It was pouring outside, so riding outside wasn't really an option.

This morning, I saw the chiropractor before work. I have a PT appointment this afternoon.

The chiropractor said that things are looking much better, my stride is better, and he thinks I'll be running in about a week or so. For a grade 2 hamstring strain, 2-3 weeks is about typical to allow for return to limited activity, and it's been 13 days right now. So, while I'm impatient, it sounds like I'm right about where I should be. And, I'm still managing to work out every day.

Tonight, I'm going to try the stair climber for a while and see how that feels. If that doesn't work, I'll find something else to do. I want to take today off the bike with a longer ride tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'm going bike riding with the person from whom I bought my road bike. He took the money I gave him (plus a bunch more) and bought a new road bike. So, we're planning 40+ miles tomorrow, if he can go slowly enough for me. We have to ride fast enough to finish before the rain starts.

I had to see how it felt

The weather yesterday turned out to be less nice than predicted, and the roads were still wet after work. Rather than working out at the gym, I decided to see what would happen if I tried to run. I decided that no matter what, if I felt like I was hurting myself in any way, I'd stop immediately. I also refused to take the dogs along. They know when I'm going for a run and they always want to come along. But, if we'd seen a deer or a turkey, I would have been fighting 200+ pounds of strong Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and I was afraid I'd get hurt trying to control them.

My main goal was to see how my stride would be. Would I be close to normal, would the range of motion of the left leg be compromised, etc.?

I ended up doing a total of 2 miles - a mix of walking and running. My stride was definitely not OK and the range of motion in my left leg was not there. So, I took it very easy and just enjoyed being on my feet. The leg felt no worse after the excursion (it's really hard to call it a run), but I immediately iced it anyway. After dinner, I spent some time with the portable e-stim unit as well. Today, everything feels the same - no improvement and no harm done.

But, I'm clearly not ready to run yet. I'm really not close, regretfully. I'm entered in a 50 mile race 17 days from now. If I can run in that race, even if I don't go the whole way, I'll be very, very happy.

Tonight, I'm going to do some indoor spinning and then do some upper body lifting. Tomorrow, I have a chiropractor appointment and a PT appointment. The weather forecast for Saturday has improved and it's possible that I'll be able to do a long bike ride. Otherwise, maybe I'll take Andy's advice and buy a trainer for my road bike.

Oh yeah, I've dropped 5 pounds in the last 3 weeks. I don't know if I'm losing muscle mass because I'm not using it or if I'm losing fat mass. But, it's nice to see the scale heading down right now.

Weather not looking good

Now that I know I can at least train on my road bike, I've been looking at the weather forecasts more and more. I was thinking that I could get in a ride of at least 3 hours on Saturday, but the weather doesn't look very promising for days right now.

It rained all of this morning, but the afternoon is supposed to be drier. Hopefully, I'll get out for a ride after work tonight. The next two evenings look very discouraging. The weekend looks discouraging as well.

All of March, when I wanted precipitation (in the form of snow), it was dry. Now that I want dry weather, it's raining almost non-stop.

Last night, it was raining, so I went to the gym. I did a short but intense ride on a spinning cycle and then did some upper body lifting. All in all, it was a pretty short workout. It was also my 4th consecutive day doing some sort of cycling. Later last night, I was on the couch, watching the Yankees and Red Sox play baseball in a downpour in New York, and my right quad suddenly cramped up on me. Clearly, I'm not yet adapted to cycling as often as I'd normally run. My butt is telling me the same thing.

I've got more treatment appointments scheduled for the next 10 days or so. PT and chiropractor on Friday. PT next Wednesday. Chiropractor and sports doc next Friday. Plus, I have work to do at home - stretching, icing, foam rolling, the "Stick", heat, and e-stim. There's not much more I can do right now except follow the treatment protocols and wait things out.

It would be nice to be able to ride outdoors if I'm going to try something as stupid as a 3-hour bike ride.

Bike Ride and Continuing Treatments

Last night, I was planning to go for an easy bike ride with my daughter. But, she ditched me to go riding with the neighbor girls instead. So, I decided I could get in a real workout on my bike instead. At first, I was going to ride my mountain bike, thinking that I could put the seat in a lower position to stop from stressing the hamstring too much. But, I decided I'd try the road bike first. I was very surprised that everything felt OK on that bike. So, I rode for almost 90 minutes. The only problem I had was that I forgot my sunglasses. I took a few bugs in the eyes, but nothing too bad.

After the ride, the hamstring felt really good - the best it's felt since the injury. Overnight, it tightened up again somewhat, but the ride was encouraging.

I saw the chiropractor this morning and he said that just spinning on the road bike is going to help a lot with blood flow to the injured muscle. He wants me riding as much as I can for right now. This morning, he hooked me up to e-stim and really cooked the top of the hamstring, and then did two adjustments. I could really feel (and hear) each adjustment as he got things to move the way he wanted. Then, he started talking chiropractor speak, something about "two vector something or other in the boot, blah, blah, blah..." I wish I understood more of what he was saying. Even though I work in healthcare, I sometimes think that providers sometimes make up things on the fly just so their patients can't question what they are talking about.

Later today, I see the physical therapist, and the chiropractor told me to tell them that they should focus on ultrasound on the injured part of the muscle. He's trying to fix the range of motion issues and wants them to work on the injury area itself.

So, I've really got a team of people helping me out, and I've been able to work out for 3 straight days. After Laurel's comment yesterday about her experience at WS in 2007, I'm even more optimistic. Although, considering how she ran at MMT last year, I know I'm not in the same league as her on tough courses.

The real question that I want answered is "How long until I can go for a run again?"

Director of Information Technology

I was going to write about this earlier today, but I was being a coward. I needed to tell my current boss that I was going to be resigning from my full-time position, and I was afraid to do that. I like my current job, and I feel bad about leaving. But sometimes opportunities come along that can't be ignored.

I have now talked to my current boss, so I can post this here.

Last week, the company that I work for part time made me a very generous offer to come to work for them full time. Not only that, they offered me the position of Director of Information Technology. For now, it's mostly a title because the company is very small. It's so small that I'll have a title and still be writing and testing software on a regular basis.

But, it is an exciting opportunity - the kind of offer that doesn't come along very often. Even with a shaky economy, I'm going to take the job and see what happens.

It's exciting and scary at the same time. But, it's also a small company of very smart and focused people, and I'm looking forward to working with them full time.

Alternate Workouts

Still no running. I see the chiropractor and the physical therapist tomorrow and I'll see how everything feels after that. Right this minute, I feel like the trip to the chiropractor improved things on Friday, but everything has been static since then.

On Saturday, I started the day by icing the hamstring. Later, I went to the gym and spent 15 minutes on a spinning cycle, and then did some upper body lifting.

Yesterday, I iced in the morning, rode a Lifecycle for 30 minutes later on, and then spent some time in a hot tub. So, I'm moving again, but I feel like I'm not getting any closer to running. Hopefully, the appointments tomorrow will help in that area.

The highlight of my weekend was my daughter and her new bicycle. A bike shop in Montpelier does an annual bike swap and it was this past Saturday. On Friday night, I took 3 bikes to the shop to sell in the swap. One of them didn't even make it to the swap because a lady offered me cash for it before I had it in the store. The other two bikes sold on Saturday morning.

But, we weren't just selling bikes. My daughter had outgrown her old bike and she had recently ridden a friend's bike without training wheels. She really wanted her own bike, so she and I went back to the swap on Saturday morning as customers. The crowds were outrageous; I was truly shocked by the number of people there. I heard someone say that 300 bikes had sold in the first 10 minutes of the swap.

One of the first bikes we saw was one that my daughter loved, but it seemed pretty expensive for a used bike. It looked as if it had been barely used, but the price just seemed too high. So, we looked around the swap and didn't find anything else that seemed appropriate. We went inside the shop for a bit to look at new bikes and I saw a new version of the bike that my daughter had liked. When I saw what the bike sold for new, the used price outside suddenly seemed like a bargain. So, we went outside and grabbed that bike for her. Then, we waited in line forever, it seemed, to pay for the bike. Then, we went back inside to buy a new helmet for her.

She spent the rest of the weekend on her bike and she's really pretty good. Her older brother broke his arm the day we took the training wheels off his bike when he was 6 or so. He hasn't ridden a bike since. (One of the bikes we sold on Saturday was the bike he was riding when he broke his arm.) So, neither of the kids has ever been very interested in bike riding, but my daughter suddenly seems to love it. I think I'm going to go out for a ride with her tonight, using my mountain bike on our dirt road.

The pendulum swings the other way

I almost cancelled my chiropractic appointment this morning. I figured there was no need to have my hip adjustment done given my hamstring situation. But, the chiropractor was of a completely different mindset. He went right to work, looking for areas where my hips were tight or as he put it, "locked up", near the top of the hamstrings. He said he had to get my hips moving again so the hamstring can heal.

He said that the lack of swelling or a hematoma is very good news and he thinks we'll still get me to the starting line at WS. He was only able to do a limited adjustment this morning, but on the way back to work, I could operate a clutch with no pain for the first time since I got hurt. My walking stride is also much improved. I'm still having some problems sleeping because every time I move, something hurts and wakes me up.

On Tuesday, I see the chiropractor again and I see the physical therapist. I really only need to do two more long runs and I think I'll have a decent shot at finishing WS. After this morning, I think I can go to the gym and do some upper body lifting, just to burn some calories.

Bit by bit...


Also, given the current economy, this little news blurb from yesterday was very interesting, to me, at least:

Vermedx gains $500,000 investment through FreshTracks Capital.

I believe it was the WSJ that reported that only 1.5% of companies trying to get first round venture capital in the past year have pulled that off. Why is this relevant? Vermedx is the company where I currently work part time.