Merry Christmas – Santa brought running gifts!

It’s been a week and half since my first treadmill run and I can see progress already. Not only can I see progress, I can FEEL progress. Following my PT’s guidance, I’ve been taking two full days off after each run to allow my body to heal and get stronger. This is something that I thought I was paying close attention to pre-injury, but now that I’m not in the midst of the noise that comes with a full on training cycle, I can hear my body speaking to me in more subtle ways than before. Before injury, I was a years long period of pushing the parts of my body that were the least sore and tired in rotation. Running, weights, cycle, and repeat and repeat with yoga in between. Most days had two workouts, dozens of days had three , very rarely were any days that didn’t have anything.

Not sure how this is going to shape my training plan coming, but I’m thinking it will be more based around time on feet/saddle + quality distance and not distance + quantity. I’ll definitely post about it here as it starts to shape up.

Run #DateRun/Walk IntervalsDistance in milesTimePace Avg/Top
112/19/1830/90 second116:273.7/4.7
212/23/1830/901.4721:164.1/5.1
312/26/1845/751.520:104.5/5.3
412/29/1845/751.5820:144.7/6.0

So, How has the running been going? Good! As you can see from my data above, I’m gaining confidence in my running stride and the pace/distance is improving. I haven’t got the sense that knee wants to buckle as much and my stride isn’t as “hoppy” as the first couple of runs. There is still a unevenness to my gait that I can’t quite identify, but I’m sure PT Jon will figure it out. I suspect that since I’m getting more confident and my pace is increasing, things are smoothing out. I’ve always been a “bouncy” runner.

Between run #2 and #3 was Christmas. While running around doing some final Christmas shopping, I decided to pick up some new running shoes. One of my nearby running stores CapitalRunWalk had some Addidas Boston Boost 7’s on the clearance table for $59, so I picked them up in place of my beloved On Cloudflows. I’ll save that purchase for when I get ready to transition off the treadmill as a reward.

I also ordered some cheaper bluetooth headphones from Amazon for myself a stocking stuffer. I’m not happy with them, they tend to fall out and the music quality is not the best. The low end of the music is almost completely lost. I’ve still not found any earbuds that make me happy as my $20 wired Yurbuds. They lock in my ear, sound great, and have lasted a couple of years. I’ll keep looking.


Weeks 1-6 Yoga Modifications and Why

Over the past week I was able to take 4 hot yoga classes.  I modified heavily and still felt like I was getting a solid practice in. Being constantly focused on how each muscle movement impacts my weight distribution, where my center of gravity is, was, and is shifting towards absolutely brings a new level of being present in my practice. There is no autopilot. No cruise control. Nothing but what I am doing at this very moment. I want to capture this awareness and bring it to my practice forever. It’s a whole new level.

DISCLAIMER : Having a regular Yoga practice for the past several years including teaching for several years has given me a solid base to work from. Please assume that you know half as much as you think you do and that you should modify twice as much as you want to.

I plan on reviewing this with my ortho tomorrow to get his feedback. I’ll update with his feedback.

How I modified the postures and why…

  1. When in doubt, sit it out. It’s not worth getting reinjured. Be smart and be present.
  2. Use blocks and straps.
  3. No deep knee bends.
  4. No weight allowed on the injured leg. Any posture that normally would use both legs, like standing (tadasana), down dog (adho mukha svanasana), chair pose (utkatasana),  I would support myself on my good leg and use a “toe tap” weight on my injured leg.
  5. Don’t pull on feet, ankles, or shins on the injured leg. Pull on hamstrings instead. I am still able to get the hip opening benefits, however there is no knee pressure.
  6. Balancing postures which leverage one leg, I would stand on healthy leg as normal UNLESS THERE WAS RISK OF FALLING AND NEEDING THE INJURED LEG TO CATCH MYSELF.  This includes Eagle, Warrior 3, Balancing Half moon. When completing the asana on the injured leg rotate in space 90 degrees and complete laying on back.
  7. Sometimes just do the posture on the same side twice.

 

Asana

Healthy Knee Leg

Injured Knee Leg

Eagle No Change Horizontal

Pigeon Figure 4 Figure 4 – No torque

Down Dog Full weight healthy leg No Weight

Upward Facing Dog

Chatarunga

Full weight healthy leg Hook ankle of injured leg over good ankle

Crescent Lunge

Runner Lunge

Warrior 1

Warrior 2

Peaceful Warrior

Triangle Pose

Side angle Pose

Runners Lunge Twist

Injured knee forward, kneeling

 

Injured knee forward, kneeling