PT!

Seems like I've been switched permanently to the guy with the painful but effective hands. Feeling quite optimistic that we're finally getting this thing beat!

:30 easy

I am in emergency mode! Survival is the only goal!

:30 easy

:25

Got home last night at a reasonable hour, had a Long Sleep, now ready I hope to face what the week will bring! (It's not an easy one.) Just did :25 easy.

:20 easy, Mass Ave edition

An overwhelming week thoroughly got the better of me. Excellent PT session on Wednesday, painful but seems to have seriously improved both back and hamstring, really happy about that. Have done neither PT exercises nor runs over last couple days, it's just been hopeless/overwhelming, but I did get out just now from my Porter Square hotel room for :20 easy, and I think the happy running chemicals will help...

:30 easy

Weather quite cool in NYC, though rather damp (it rained ALL day yesterday). This week is a bit of a write-off - just trying to get through it rather than add on anything mega-! Allergy shots downtown today, PT downtown tomorrow morning, prep meeting for a podcast interview on Thursday, workshop every day 1-5:30.

:30 easy

Short warm run

Very good evening out last night at the cinema, where the BBC broadcast the Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Have read that play many times but never seen a live production, it was great (as the reviews I'd read said, the Player King rather steals the show); forgot how strong the influence of Beckett is in the staging (also always think of Prufrock's "attendant lord"!). Just did :30 easy this morning - would have liked to fit in a yoga too, but it doesn't quite work with the time we need to get to the airport. Brent is traveling with me today, unexpectedly (it turned out to be part of best route to Ottawa, he'll travel the rest of the way tomorrow), so that is extremely nice!

:30 easy

Yin yoga!

I really enjoyed that - deep stretch, pigeon especially beneficial. Couldn't quite face the hot class!

1hr yoga

Short warm run

Ending at Cafe del Sol to meet up with Brent - the Cafe del Sol on Lawrence Boulevard is the BEST Cafe del Sol....

:30 easy

Yoga!

It sounds like it should be easy - holding various pretty standard poses for a long time and concentrating on stillness and breath - but in fact it is extremely challenging, at times the sweat is pouring off me as though from the spout of a pitcher! I really like this class - para-inspired flow yoga - teacher Keri is training now with Rod Stryker. The meditation component is especially helpful to me - I liked the breathing exercise we ended with today and am just going to note it down here so that I can remember it for times I can't fall asleep!

10 x each, even steady breath

(1) inhale at count of 4, exhale at count of 6
(2) inhale at count of 4, exhale at count of 8
(3) inhale at count of 4, exhale at count of 8 plus 2 hold
(4) inhale at count of 4, exhale at count of 10

1.25hr flow yoga

Short run

Alarm went off 5:15 for tentative plan to do my short run BEFORE 6am yoga, GRUESOMELY TOO EARLY, reset alarm for more reasonable 6:15 and just did my :20 easy on its own. Looking forward to Keri's para-inspired flow class at 10:15, my favorite class of the week! (As Brent pointed out when he got back 6:30am from "first office," it is probably not a bad thing only to do one class per day - he is obviously the voice of reason about exercise in this household.)

:20 easy

p.s. If you never lived in a warm and humid climate, you would find it unbelievable how hot and sweaty even twenty minutes of easy jogging can get you!

Hot yoga!

GRUESOMELY hot today! Not sure about factors - partly I suppose I was hot for longer earlier - usually I feel OK once I survive the standing sequence, but today even the mat stuff was a challenge to stay focused for.

Back was sore in the beginning - pinching/tight in the standing postures that put pressure on it - but feels fine now. Sciatica on the other hand reared up afterwards so strongly that I could hardly put weight on that leg! Fortunately wiggling it around and walking a bit seems to have returned it to something more like normal, but as Brent comments (he was there, unexpectedly, to pick me up, and given the pain shooting down right leg and how hot I was I was extremely grateful not to have to walk home in heat!), good thing I didn't do 2:1 earlier!

1hr overly hot yoga

Happy run-walk

The exact words in my training schedule: "1 hour easy (this can be walk:run in 1:1 ratio even)." Have only been doing 20-30 minutes so this was exciting, and I was musing on it to Brent the other day - the words "But I think I'll do 2:1 instead" may have emerged from my mouth, and he gave me a VERY skeptical look! And I had to admit - yes, it is the classic injured runner's logic...

Anyway I stuck to 1:1, with a view to seeing (a) how it felt while I was doing it and (b) how it will feel later in the day. Observations:

- hip is almost totally better, I'll continue to be careful but I'm not much worried about it any more
- back really benefits from walk breaks
- good dose of walking lets me really concentrate on form
- essential form issue: pelvic tilt! Keeping the sacrum "tucked under the pelvis" (as the yoga people say) really lets abs do their job supporting lower back, and prevents tension from building up there; also helps hip move freely in the socket (hip moving with socket rather than independently was part of my initial PT diagnosis - it's a consequence of tight lower back)
- the right glute-hamstring attachment is twingey right from the start (I believe it's where the sciatic nerve comes through the ischial tuberosity - PT is pretty sure impingement comes from there rather than from a disk, which I suppose is a good thing)
- but the rest of the hamstring was fine throughout, I didn't have that all-over tingling/numbness that is so unpleasant

Anyway, will be happy if I can build back up to longer runs, but no urgency to it...

1hr run-walk (1:1)

Short morning run/hot yoga

Must have forgotten to log this morning - just :20 easy. Hot yoga continues to feel very hot!

:20 run
1hr hot yoga

Hot yoga!

Hmmm, seems like the body really does adapt - that was quite tolerable, compared to the gruesome heat of yesterday and the day before. I made a couple other minor modifications that may help: not getting there early to do PT stretches (will have to do a session of those later in the day); wearing unflattering short shorts that let more heat exit through skin of legs. I was actually certain that it must be much less hot in the room today, but I asked the teacher afterwards what the top temperature was, and she said 107F...

1hr hot yoga!

Warm short run!

That was good. Last night I thought the better of my double yoga plan - I didn't need to get up super-early, and I just need to try and fix my back etc., not get SPA-D out to the utmost degree! Will try a longer run tomorrow morning, that's nice. And 10:30 hot yoga which I hope will be not QUITE as hot as yesterday!

:30 easy

Hot yoga!

Hahaha, that really was gruesomely too hot - it was the 1hr class rather than the 1.25hr one I did by accident yesterday, the standing sequence goes by more quickly and I was certainly upright for a higher proportion of it, but the heat just wouldn't stop. (Actually I think it's the humidity - ideal Bikram-style room is supposed to be 105F and 40% humidity, I am sure this really was at least 105 but the humidity outside is 75% and there's no real way of bringing it down - other than BY LEAVING THE HEAT ON FOR LONGER THAN USUAL.) Not sure I am cut out for this, but it is so good for everything, and also I know from regular past experience that if I go 3-4 days in a row, the 5th day will suddenly seem relatively manageable...

1hr very hot yoga

Short warm run

Just :25 or so. Worked hard NOT to sleep on the bursitical hip, and it did seem to help. Hamstring/back not right but not horrible either. Eyes on mega-yoga for the week!

HOT yoga!

Got up to run, but hip was achy yesterday and this morning (not sure if it's from running, yoga or just SLEEPING ON THE WRONG SIDE - I blame the last), so I decided it would be smarter to skip it. 8am hot yoga - I thought it was the 60-minute version, which is less overwhelming when you have no heat tolerance, but unfortunately it was the 75-minute - had to lie down for a bunch of the standing series, was just feeling queasy with heat, but the mat series is always better (not as hot and HR doesn't go as high). I do think it is beneficial for the problem area - will try and do one hot class every day for the rest of the time I'm here...

75 minutes hot yoga

Yoga!

Oh, that was so good - being back at daily yoga is making me extremely happy. Another really good class - the teachers at Bliss are so great, they all keep learning and developing (and learning from each other), truly a pleasure....

1hr flow yoga

Warm brief run!

Alarm went off 5:45, waking me up in the middle of an extremely vivid and fantastical narrative melatonin dream that I was thoroughly enjoying - I turned it off with firm words (THIS IS TOO EARLY) and reset for 6:15, but really I was awake and transferred myself to the other room for a last bit of lounging. Turned alarm off just before it was due to go off and was out the door I suppose 6:30 - noticeably cooler than 45 minutes later would be, the sun is just up but not full in the sky and you're a little more protected from heat. Hamstring not right, back OK at first but getting sore by the end - will continue with these short ones until both of those are significantly better.

:25 warm and easy

Happy yoga!

My favorite class (or one of my favorites, anyway - lots of great stuff here), Keri's para-yoga-inspired session. So good! MUST DO MORE YOGA!

1.25hr

Short warm Cayman run!

Got here smoothly yesterday but it's a tiring day of travel, didn't quite make it out the door to mid-afternoon yoga (also I was finishing the new Jo Nesbo novel). Could have got up earlier when alarm initially went off (forgot to reset phone time from eastern daylight to eastern standard, so it was a whole hour earlier than I even had intended), didn't, but did finally get out the door just after 7am. It's warm by then, sun's fully up, but these short runs are more forgiving. Keri is teaching para yoga at 10:15, I am excited! Really just in a good mood to be here with B....

:25 warm and easy

Wednesday stretch-run

Everything seemed achey all day, ugh, but certainly even :25 easy jog is much preferable to NONE! :15 stretch, :25 jog. Early flight to Cayman tomorrow, looking forward to mega-yoga and mega-Gibbon once I'm there....

Tuesday PT

A good session. By the time I got home, I was pretty much too tired to run - gotta get a proper schedule/life reset when I get back Cayman! (Flying there on Thursday for 10 days.) Allergies still very strong, eyes feel like sandpaper, worst season for it I can remember in a long time. Annoyed with myself for forgetting to make more PT appointments while I was there in person - will have to pick up the phone tomorrow to fix that (NOOOooooooooooooooo!)....

Monday stretch-run

Had to take a zero Sunday, was downtown at G.'s all day and was just completely DONE by the time I got home early evening. Also everything seemed "lit up" Saturday (to use Brent's appealing expression) and I thought I'd take my day off from running on Sunday instead of Monday.

I also think that at least for now I should do the PT stretches before the run, in that it remains hard to make myself do them post-run. Did that today and it worked well I think.

c. 15:00 stretches
30:00 easy run (very nice too, back much better than Saturday, hamstring not right but not painful as such)

Run/PT

:25 jog, :17 PT. Gonna start timing it and logging it here in the hope that it will act as an incentive to get it done. The hamstring stuff is honestly feeling worse than it has all year, I think working on it stirred things up - that plus seasonal allergies are making me unduly grumpy.

Catch-up

Thursday: an intentional no-run day (though really I think I should do a short run every day, resting hamstring doesn't make it any better given that it's nerve pain, and back is just tight for the duration I think!). Good PT session, not quite as painful as Tuesday's I would say!

Today: horrible rainy day, I was grumpy and didn't do much that was useful, but it did finally stop raining and I got out just now to return recalled overdue library books and have 30 minutes easy jog in the park. Which is FULL of water, air and grass alike...

(Need to eat first but WILL THEN DO PT EXERCISES - still haven't acquired stickers for a chart, but I think I must, surely it would help....)

Catch-up

Sunday: notionally intended to do 9am yoga class before checking out of hotel and going to airport, but Brent's alarm was for 4:30am (he was on a much earlier flight) and neither of us slept much in the hours leading up to that, so already weak willpower failed me! My flight was then quite a bit delayed, and I didn't get home till 2am...

Monday: A wash. Extreme fatigue!

Tuesday: A very good PT session with Jason. Much work on the unfortunate hamstring. Best theory: it's some kind of nerve impingement, emanating from lower down than spine (probably coming out of ischial tuberosity) and causing a good deal of discomfort. Two new stretches: "slump sliders" for "neural flossing" (I can't get over this phrasing!), one-leg Romanian deadlifts. In the early evening, jogged :30 and was VERY happy to be back out there, beautiful weather. Hip is fine, back is tight as usual, hamstring really felt sore after being worked on.

Wednesday: :25 easy. Again, most beautiful weather! Hamstring doesn't feel so good, hip fine, back tight by the end and I think I will stick to short runs till things are feeling better - really running short daily is the thing that's most valuable to me, shouldn't jeopardize it. Need to do stretches now - not a particularly appealing prospect.