I had my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday, and it’s messed with my sleeping schedule so much that I was actually awake to watch the end of the Panther game tonight. What a great second half… I’ll never get to sleep now.
I had gotten up to about 3 miles at a time on the treadmill before the surgery, and everything felt great, so once I’ve fully recovered, I should be out on the road again. That is all.
I”m in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK this morning, on my way to Austin to take my qualifying exams. I meet with my committee chair Monday morning at 9, get my 4 questions, and begin writing around 50 pages worth of answers by 5pm on Friday. I polled some of my colleagues and have decided on the following as my game plan:
I’ve brought with me my APA publications manual and a bunch of pdfs and things I’ve written, but that’s about it. I’m excited and nervous to see the questions I’ll be answering.
Kelly and I are staying in Austin until the 12th, so we’ll have time to relax once it’s all over.
The only real bummer I can foresee is that I’m still in physical therapy for my leg so I can’t run Town Lake at all while I’m there.
Ok, going underground….. now!
Not that it was much of a choice. I’ve had to come to terms, over the last 4 weeks, with the fact that I am not able to run the NYC marathon this year. My strained leg is taking too long to heal, and there’s no need to push it. That’s the lesson I learned in Charlotte last year. Better to take the time off now than to risk worse injury just out of pride.
Luckily, I’ll just defer my admission to the marathon until next year. I’ll have to pay again, but I have little choice now. Oh well. I’m not beating myself up about it, just working hard to get back on my feet. Been to a few cycling classes, and have continued consistently stretching and practicing yoga. Sadly, my two favorite yoga classes at the gym got discontinued, probably because I was one of only 2 or 3 who ever showed up. Hopefully those teachers will be back at other times, they were my 2 favorites.
Relatedly, I finally got in to the physical therapist this week. It has been a nightmare to schedule these appointments, since I have to take off from work early to get to the office before they close. Visiting this place is like stepping back to the 70s. It’s basically a railroad apartment, mauve walls and brown trim, divvied up by orange, brown, and green striped curtains. Behind each curtain is a cot and an aged brown-plastic machine covered in dials. It definitely seems like more of a rehab-after-workplace-accident type place than a sports medicine practice. Thanks HIP! If it weren’t so close to my house, I might seek another place.
Anyway, they hooked me up to this shocking machine for 15 minutes, then gave me an ultrasound massage on my hamstring, and then I rode an archaic stationary bike that looked like a discarded The Price Is Right prop for about 6 minutes. Two feet from the bike was the receptionist’s desk… she was filing as I peddled. A strange place indeed. Perhaps I’ll get some pictures next time– have a few weeks of this ahead.
Oh, and I went to see My Bloody Valentine last night. They were terrific, and the fact that I brushed past J Mascis in the crowd would have made my 15 year old self ecstatic. Haven’t done much that would impress 15 year old me lately, so that felt good. (I can feel him shudder each time I put on my running tights!) The highlight for me was actually the extended noise break they closed with– it was overpoweringly, sensory-overload loud. Like thunder on pause forever. I was fine with earplugs, but people seemed to be losing their minds a bit. I can only imagine that this event had some negative impact on the Jersey Boys performance in the theatre next door. The highlight for Kelly is that she didn’t go to the show and therefore missed it.
Apart from not playing “Cupid Come,” they covered everything I wanted to hear. Alphabetcityblog documented the show way more carefully than I ever could have, I’m just glad I got their in time for the whole set, had a decent view (though this person had a better spot! — this was more like where we were), and was able to meet up with Jon and Melissa beforehand. Well worth the price.
My legs feel better today than they have in weeks. My left knee is still a little tweaky, but I when to a cycling class today and felt good as new. My leg actually felt better after the hour ended. It was nice to sweat without grimacing in pain, been a while since I did that. Stretched more and iced afterwards, and, as of 10pm, still feeling great. We’ll see how I’m feeling in the morning.
Planning to hit up a couple of more cycling and yoga classes this week, and then I’ll have some recovery stories to tell (I hope) when I finally get in to the physical therapist next Monday.
Sound wise, I just realized that my current (and several-months-standing) favorite band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a free EP available on their site to get us excited for the “Drippers” EP, which drops scratch-n-sniff CDs & 10″ vinyl soon. A few other mp3s on there site as well. Enjoy.
The Bills and the Panthers have never gone 2-0 for the first two games of the same season.
The last time the Panthers went 2-0 in their opening games was 2003. That’s right… we all know what happened then. Only undefeated team in the NFC South!
The Bills have the strongest offense I’ve seen in a while.
Sundays promise to be nice despite the lack of long runs, at least for a while. I got my Physical Therapy referral this week, and should have some idea when I’ll be back on the streets this week.
If you’re not up on SBNation yet, check out Buffalo Rumblings and Cat Scratch Reader.
I was feeling so good after Sunday’s 2 miles, I decided to go to an easy yoga class Monday evening, then try for another 2 on the treadmill. I was nice and stretched out, but about 3/4 of the way through my run, I got stiff in my left knee, this morning it was very sore and weak again. I guess I’m not ready for two-days-in-a-row again yet, no matter how loose I am.
I had visited my doctor just before the yoga class, and we spoke about where I should strengthen. He know’s I planning to run the marathon, but he didn’t seem worried. Interested, though. I think he’s just glad he doesn’t have to break any bad news to me. He told me to beef up the ibu dose, ice more, and gave me a referral to physical therapy that he seemed to think wasn’t so important. I am, however getting worried that the next 7 weeks will breeze by with out a chance to recover fully. I’m making the promise to myself that I won’t run if I’m not up to it. Even kinda not up to it… the aftermath of no running for weeks is not worth it. I can always just run across the bridge to Brooklyn and straight into an ice bath. No shame in that.
It is amazing, though, how much a little strecthing can make unbearable pain disappear immediately, I’ve been good about getting at least 2 20-30 minute stretching sessions in daily, even despite the working late so much. I found my knee brace today, and hope that’ll give me the support and compression to get me though the day between stretches.
I was meeting with a good friend and music professor on campus today, and when I told him about my sorta injury, he asked to make sure I was using the RICEV method.
me: of course! Wait, what’s the V?
him: Vodka. It goes with the ice.
I made a lot of progress on my paper last weekend, and got some very helpful feedback from my doctoral committee chair on Monday night. Tuesday night, I went for another see-how-it-feels run that ended badly. At the 2-mile point, my knee was barely hanging on, so I walked another two (walking is painless) and headed to an easy yoga class. The good news is, every day since Wednesday, the fatigue has been gone from my legs, and the pain is reducing. I still fully intend to run the marathon (8 weeks away still), but I am not going to push the training at all– definitely not going to try and get back up to the 40/50 miles a week range. I ran the last marathon with only about 25 miles a week, so I’m not worried about finishing. Maybe it won’t be my fastest race ever, but I’m going to do all I can to keep from injuring myself.
Paper-wise, though, I’m at the point where I’m putting the finishing touches on this thing. Nearly two years in the making, it’s the biggest milestone I’ve had since starting graduate school. The next step after it is accepted (might have to do a revision or two) is to fly down to Austin the first week of October and take my qualifying exams. Once that happens, and after some relaxing and celebrating, I’ll begin my dissertation proposal.
Knee’s feeling much better, so’s the psyche, thanks to the good folks at AskMeFi. That is all.
My accidental 2-mile overage on Sunday seems to have been a bit too much for my tendons– the back of my left knee is very, very sore. Apart from a bit of walking around campus, I took Monday off, and didn’t go running until Tuesday afternoon. I had decided to just run a couple of miles to see how it felt. It was not so good. My outer-calves felt very week, and the back of my left knee was a little… pinchy? I struggled through a mile, walked a bit, and then ran a second mile that felt a little better. But I knew I shouldn’t go any further. I stopped by the gym on the way home to give my legs the big stretch I should have energy to do on Sunday: rolled out my quads and IT band, rolled out my shins and calves, and stretched the front of my legs on that ankle/calf strengthening machine.
Once I was back at home, I iced. I think things are less painful today, and I brought the heating pad to work for some additional therapy. I found a few things online that have me believing that after a few days off, I should be ready to go again. It’s the only thing keeping my spirits up; every day I can’t train bums me out a little more. I just hope that the time I take off doesn’t force me to step down the last several weeks of my training too much.
It’s been a while since I updated do to travel (bus rides to Fredonia & back), visitors (Jeremy was here), and lots of miles logged on the roads in the last two weeks (86!). The Fredonia runs were great– make sure to click on the maps to see the satellite view. It was pretty hot while we were there, but the change of scenery was great.
The only back-in-Brooklyn run I’ll comment on was yesterday’s 18 miles. I got a bit of a late start and was feeling quite sluggish all along. The splits tell a sad tale– I went to my dark place at the end of mile 15 and walked .25 mi or so for each of the last three miles. It turns out that I was really only supposed to go 16 (an error on my fridge sheet!), so I can’t feel too bad about it, but I know that getting up the endurance to run it all the way through will be slow to come. I have another chance this weekend, with 17 on the same course. The first 15 miles were right where I need to be pace-wise. I took an ice bath afterward, and though I was moving slowly this morning, I feel ok now. You should have seen me get off the bus this morning at work, though. Here’s the links to my runs:
18 miles Sunset Park to Coney Island & back
8 miles in Prospect Park
4 miles on treadmill
8 miles in Prospect Park
4 miles on the treadmill
10 miles in Prospect Park
7 miles in Western NY
3 miles around Lake Erie State Park
7 miles SUNY Fredonia to Lake Erie State Park
3 miles around Lake Erie State Park
14 miles Lake Erie State Park to SUNY Fredonia & back
The trip to Fredonia was great, and we got to see many people. Had tons of great food, but I’m glad to be back on a regular diet again. The one bad part about the trip was that I ended up in the hospital with stomach pains one morning, but it seems like it was just a bug (though they mentioned the possibility of an ulcer!). The hospital in Dunkirk has a bad reputation, but it was about the best ER experience I’ve ever had. Got checked out by my own doctor this afternoon, and it seems like I should be fine– he took more blood to check to see if there was anything to worry about. He gave me the additional good news that my cholesterol numbers were great (which I wasn’t expecting) and that I have the blood pressure of a pre-teen. I’m interpreting that as permission to eat buffalo wings and bacon at every opportunity.
There is probably so much more to tell, but I have a million other things to do. Including finishing my redesign of this site. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, but left me with the irresistable opportunity to overhaul everything. Some stuff still points to older pages, but that should be over soon. Let me know if anything starts looking kooky.