April 8, 2007
Go, Me, Go
Its been about 4 weeks of physical therapy on my knee. Been going two times a week. Its about a 30 minute visit. My doctor does stretches on me, then he does some kneecap mobilization, then an ultrasound on my knee. At home, I have to continue stretching in the evening. I concentrate on my quads mostly. Some hamstring and some hip. Then some leg lifts with leg weights. All of this is supposed to help loosen my muscles to let my kneecap track where its supposed to. And its working! My pain is pretty much gone. I have been increasing distance slowly week by week to try and get back to normal. After each run, I spend time with the ice bags. The good news is that this is the earliest I have ever started a season and the hardest. Today, I sailed through a 10 mile run in about 90 minutes. It used to take me until mid-summer to hit that distance. Most of it is more confidence in running I bet. So the first race is about 4 weeks away. Nothing like starting the season with a big marathon.
On top of all of that work, I have been tuning my diet. Tweaks here and there. Been eating salmon one meal a week...usually at Texas Roadhouse. Theirs hits the spot. Drinking Mix1 after runs. Eating Powerbars at lunch before a run for clean nutrition. Spiking my late day with a sugar-free Red Bull. I thought I used to be addicted to Mountain Dew Code Red. This stuff is better. I used to think it was a caffeine powerhouse until I saw that it only has 1/3 of the caffeine in a tall Starbucks. So oh well.
Today's run started out running in a light snowfall with nobody on the streets. Those are the kinds of runs you hate going on but once you get out there, you realize why you do it.
