My 30 Day Bikram Challenge

I was only about a week into my true "No Run" ruling by my doc, and about 2-3 weeks into my seriously cut back running schedule when I hit a breaking point. Although I'd started to hit up the gym and do more weights and other types of training, my mind and body were both feeling a little less than happy. I wasn't getting nearly the workout I wanted, or was used to at this point. These days I'm used to getting home and running at least 4 miles, or going out and doing the bike, hitting up yoga class, or SOMETHING. And while I've been hitting up the bike and elliptical at the gym, it just wasn't the same because I didn't have those 3-4 times a week where I was able to get out and run.

Running has become a huge cathartic activity for me. It allows me to get out and workout my frustrations with the road, to feel challenged, to have a goal to strive for. And lets face it....if you know me you know that I'm goal driven. That I do best when I have something to aim for. Because I'm a very determined person. I don't like failing. And we saw what happened after college when I all of a sudden did not have a clear set goal path in front of me. I became lazy, I put on weight and became a generally unhappy person. 

Well I'm determined not to let that happen again. Now, let me just say first off that I KNOW I may be a little overworried at this point. REALISTICALLY I know that having to stay off my running schedule for a few more weeks won't kill me and won't dredge me back to the horrible place I was a few years ago. I really DO know this. Especially since I have been keeping up my good eating habits, and my other workouts. BUT, I also know the difference between how I feel when I'm really happy and when I'm not, and how thats affected by the amount of activity I'm getting on a daily basis. 

SO I was in search of something that might give me a new goal for the time being while I heal my knee, and rehab myself into better running shape. Low and behold I already had my answer. I'd received it at the beginning of my training by a good friend of mine (Miss Bulgatz). Bulgatz and I had started talking about training activities for my half way back at the beginning of my training in July. She'd done a couple half marathons before and told me how much easier her second training had gone when she'd added Bikram yoga to the mix, and that was after she'd just finished a 30 day Bikram challenge (doing 30 classes in 30 days - no days off).

Now I'd already been doing bikram/hot yoga on and off throughout my training. I mean you all should know considering HOW MANY times I'm pretty sure I've told you that I LOVE hot yoga. That WAS me right? I said that? I'm not just pretending I'd written that somewhere? Or am I?

Well, 4 months later we come full circle and I started talking to her about it again. And I thought more and more about it. It really made sense. 30 days of going to a class that is fully focused on stretching and strengthening your entire body (and mind might I add). It seemed like JUST what I needed. A brand NEW focus to keep me going and challenged, as well as something that will help strengthen me toward my end goal of doing my half marathon. BINGO! Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner. 

So today I sit here on day 6 of my Bikram challenge. Yes I've almost completed the entire first week successfully (woohoo)! And I won't lie to you its been challenging. And I know it will only continue to be challenging as I go on. BUT in the 5 classes I've taken so far I feel happier on a daily basis, I feel more focused, I feel stronger, and my flexibility has already improved dramatically from day 1. The 30 days ends on Tuesday, November 29th. This little plan takes me directly through Thanksgiving (which I think is a complete blessing!). Not only will it keep me focused/balanced, it will help me survive the first of the holidays this season without going overboard. 

I can't wait to see what the rest of the challenge brings my way, and how I feel at the end given how I feel after just this first week.

The Knee That Just Wouldn't Cooperate

By now, most of you know that for the last few weeks I've been having problems with my left knee. What started out as just a slight pain turned into something that side-lined me for two weeks of training, and stopped me completely mid-race.

Well on Monday, October 24th I got to go to my doctor to start figuring out WHAT was wrong. The recap....they're not REALLY sure. My doctor came in and tested my range of motion, putting pressure on my knee, my heel, twisting me, poking me, prodding me...trying to provoke my symptoms. Well of course, now that I was FINALLY in my doctor's office, my knee didn't seem to want to show any signs of pain. Perfect. Freaking figures my body won't cooperate. Of COURSE my body wanted to be difficult and be the oddball...would anyone expect ANY less from me? Seriously? :)

Well it turns out maybe that's a good thing when it comes to my knee. Because it was a sign that there is no tear in the tendons/ligaments/meniscus. There was no swelling or tenderness to the touch, and the twisting and pressure giving no pain was also a good sign that there was stress fracture either. Nothing appeared in my exam that would give the doc cause for significant worry, or additional testing (e.g. MRI, x-ray, etc). Well that's all great news (seriously it is) but COME ON! Give me a diagnosis! Tell me what I can do! And in a way she did..but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.....No running for a month.....that was the original order.

I guess I say goodbye to the half.....not so fast she says. My doc seems to think if I keep up my endurance training (low/non-impact), that I could still run my half...IF my knee gets better. In the meantime I was ordered to physical therapy twice a week for the next month. Well I wasted no time called up the PT office and made my appointment for a couple hours later.

I went in and basically got a more in depth evaluation than my first doctor did. Lots more twisting, pressing on my ankles, testing strength in my legs....trying to provoke my knee pains. Nothing really happened, except for when they'd ask me to flip from my back to my stomach, or when I'd lower my leg down from some random position. I have to grimace at the fact that I'd have the pain on the most RANDOM times....but it also makes me laugh because it 100% matches my personality. Go figure. I'm a quirky chick.

After the first session, there really wasn't any specific diagnosis other than what they could rule that it WASN'T. Again, no thoughts of any real tears to tendons/ligaments etc. Probably that my knee was just irritated with the increases in distance and pace. Maybe an IT band issue, or patella tracking. They gave me a couple of leg strengthening exercises to do while I'm not running and then we scheduled the remaining appointments.

I will say that it was hard NOT to be downhearted at the end of that day at the doctors office. I mean....I continuously thank my lucky stars that I didn't do something TERRIBLE to my knee, BUT it is almost MORE frustrating to sit in this limboland. To have no idea what caused it, and to not know a straight path as to how to fix it and get back on my feet (literally). I sat in bed that night wondering how in the world I could make my training schedule work with being off my runs for a month. That would mean I'd be cleared to run MAYBE on the 17th of November, which would give me only a week and a half before the taper week for race day. Could I really just hop back on and do an 8 or 9 mile run in that time, and then be prepared to bust out 13.1 on race day? And would that be smart?! Because after no running on the knee I feel like just hopping back into that distance would probably work ON race day, but afterward I'm sure that my knee would be putting up a major fight. But maybe it wouldn't....TOO MANY MAYBES!

I guess its just a wait and see game. Which SUCKS for me because I don't tend to have much patience to just wait and see what happens....I think for me its going to be a new type of training. Training my mind to deal with things one day at a time, and not allow myself to get downhearted before the game has ended. Because nothing is ever lost. Maybe delayed but never lost. Because you can always change, adapt and grow. You just have to have a little faith... a little hope...a little strength.

Training Week #15

So as you know, during week 14 I had started feeling quite a bit of pain in m knee and so for week 15 in the training schedule I got a free guest pass to LA Fitness by my work and each day I'd go in and do the bike for 40 minutes. NO PAIN! YAY! I didn't even try to walk Green Lake (grumble grumble). Nothing with an impact that could set back my knee. If it hurt my knee I stopped immediately. Icing it every night, I even went and got an IT band roller to work out my leg (at the advice of multiple running friends). 

After a full 5 days of no running, and no pain it was Dawg Dash 10k time. The morning of the race I felt good. I'd been able to go up and down stairs with no pain, walking around with nothing hurting and so I thought it was a sign of my knee healing up. 

I started the race and felt pretty good for the first mile. I had a slight twinge one mile in, but it quickly subsided and I thought it was just part of my body getting warmed up since it went away. Throughout mile 2 it started to kick in a lot more though. Especially on the hills. I ended up having to stop and walk for little pieces, resting the knee and when I'd start back up the pain would subside. And then it'd increase and I'd have to walk. This continued through mile 2 and 3. During Mile 4 it started to be pretty damn excruciating. I was basically running in constant pain and bending my knee was starting to get pretty difficult. 

I'd made it a little over the 4 mile mark and at this point was pretty much just walking. And by walking I mean limping. And by limping I mean hobbling along being able to walk with my right and pretty much being locked leg on my left because bending my knee made me want to scream. And at this point in the race I was on a very narrow path. Runners for the 10k going both directions (there was a turn around at one point on the path). And I was pretty much directly in everyone's way. AWESOME. Given the amount of pain just hobbling around, I stopped and told a volunteer I was injured and needed to be brought back to the finish. Well apparently these volunteers SUCKED. No way to communicate with the main camp and no way to transport injured people off the course....SERIOUSLY PEOPLE?! At the 26th Annual Dawg Dash you have NOT YET figured out that people get injured and MAY need help getting off the course?!?! I wanted to bitch slap the idiot volunteers who told me I would just have to WALK the last 2 miles back. If I COULD walk I WOULD you freaking MORON!!!

Luckily, the point in the course was just directly across from the parking lot we'd parked in. So I texted my mom and told her to meet me at the car, and then proceeded to hobble my ass down the hill and across the street to the lot. By this point I'm infuriated. Infuriated at the incompetent volunteers, at the horrible pain in my knee and the fact that I see the last almost 4 MONTHS of training slipping out from under me.....I'm basically a MONTH till race day and I can't run 4 miles without my knee going out of commission....W. T. F.

The rest of the day was spent with my knee iced and elevated. Most of which I could not bend it without pain. But by the evening my range of motion had improved drastically, and I had my cousin Annie running me through some positions via phone (btw Annie you're thebomb.com! Thank you for dealing with my depressed as via phone to help figure out what the heck was going on!) to try and figure out if I'd done something severe to my knee. I was able to do a lot of the movements without pain which was a good sign. And luckily a week ago during the 7 miler I couldn't finish I'd been smart enough to request an appointment with my doc. 

Through it all I was trying to keep my motivation and positive frame of mind. That this was NOT going to sideline me for this race. That I'd push through. Figure out a solution......because nothing is EVER lost.