My PT experience

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On Wednesday, I had my first physical therapy session to try and get this whole IT band injury figured out.  I was nervous going in, but also excited about the prospect of gaining some sort of hope that I will be able to run again without pain.
The whole appointment took almost an hour.  I was really surprised that I was in there for that long, but glad that they were taking their time trying to figure things out.  They did a lot of different movements with my ankles, knee, and hip and compared my left to my right, the bad side.  I was AMAZED at how different my right leg acted when put through all of the movements.  Seriously, I had no idea that my right side was so jacked up.

One thing that surprised me was that my right ankle didn't rotate nearly as much as it should have.  The PT asked if I had ever had an ankle injury, which I haven't, because usually he sees the lack of movement from people who have had ankle strains, tears, ect.  He was thinking that if my ankle didn't work properly, allowing my foot to do it's natural pronation thing, then my hip would have to work to overcompensate that problem, maybe causing the IT band injury.

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He continued doing all of these different movements, but then focused on my IT band length (as pictured above).  WOW..what a difference between my two sides.  I had pretty much full range of motion on my left side, but my right was sooo tight.

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  Then, he tested my glute strength on both sides.  Basically he had me lay on my left side and raise my right leg up.  As he pushed down on my leg, the goal was for me to keep my leg up in the air.  However, my right glutes were so weak that it was REALLY hard to keep my leg up.  My left however, did awesome.

My new best friend!

So, as of now, I have 4 exercises, along with foam rolling 3X/day that I have do for homework over the next 3 weeks before my next appointment.  He said in the mean time, that I can continue to RULK (run/walk) as long as I take it easy and don't try to do too much too soon.  So, I'm going to start a walk/run regimin to get my miles in (along with the EFX machine) and just go from there.

The good news is that IMAZ isn't until November.  However, my training officially starts in 3 weeks.  YIKES!  

And, did I mention that I'm supposed to be running the Colfax 1/2 marathon in May?  DOUBLE YIKES!

BUT, I am not going to even think about the what-ifs at this point.  All I can do is hope and pray that my stretching, rest, and PT will be enough to get me back in the game. 

I know there are horrible things happening in the world right now, especially in Japan, and my IT band is nothing compared to what those people are going through.  I feel silly even complaining/whining about it.  But, running is just so much a part of who I am.  Without it I feel kind of lost and it is something that mentally is taking a toll on me.  So, this blog is my way of getting my frustration/stress/fear out so I don't keep it inside and self-destruct, or worse, start taking it out on my boys, which would be horrible!   

I really hope you all have a great weekend! :)

A week in review and other things too

Training:

*  Swimming: I was supposed to get up at 4:30 for a swim today, but the alarm went off, I shut it off, and went back to bed.  I was tired!  But, instead of skipping my swim all together, I decided to bring my little one to kids' club and go to the pool right after the Aqua class.  Usually I can't swim during the day b/c the lanes tend to be filled with the older men and women with their floaties, walking up and down the lanes.  But, I thought since they would pretty much all be in the Aqua class, they wouldn't stick around.  It was a gamble, but it was worth the try.
I went out to the pool 10min. before the class ended.  I was shocked to see how many people were in the Aqua class!  Seriously, the whole pool (3 lanes wide) was filled with older men and women!  Wow!  The class ended, and they all swarmed to the hot tub, leaving the lanes nice and open for me to swim!  Woohoo!
I had a great swim and will probably make this a daily thing from now on!  One less day of waking up at 4:30AM would be awesome!! :)

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*  Running:  BLAH!  What can I say?  A big nada, nothing, not happening, zilch.  I decided to contact my dr. and see if she could get me a referral to see a Physical Therapist. It has been over 2 months since this whole IT band issue started and it's time to do a little bit more than just stretching and foam rolling!  Hopefully I'll get an appointment soon!  If not, I got some great referrals from Jill at Run With Jill (thanks Jill) to check out!

*  Biking:  I have yet to ride my bike outside!  The days are unseasonably warm here (although we did get a little layer of snow last night, which is already melted) and I have been aching to get outside.  But, it's on my trainer and that's where it will stay for now.

Other Things Too:

*  Guess what started popping up in our little garden??  Spring Peeps!!  Yay!  My boys saw them and got so excited.  Spring is coming!! :)

*  Our REI dividend is here!   Woohoo!  With all of our remodeling this year, we got a nice chunk of change for our dividend this year!  Now, what to buy?????

*  In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make broccoli potato soup and give my boys green milk for dinner!  The soup looks kind of gross, but it's actually really good.  My boys got a kick out of the green milk and thought it was the coolest thing! Ha ha!

*  See that lovely bandage around my youngest son's head?  Well, my boys were playing outside after dinner when all of a sudden we hear our youngest crying.  We got out there and he told us that our oldest had hurt his head.  I asked him wear it hurt, and that's when I saw blood gashing out of the back of his head.  I remained calm (even though I was freaking out on the inside), brought him inside, and held him while my husband checked him out.  In the mean time, our oldest sat in time out until we were done.

Here's a little tip for all of you mom's out there that have yet to deal with head wounds.  They BLEED  A LOT, even if there is just a little scratch, which is what my youngest ended up having.  We put a cold pack on it and wrapped it up really good.  We didn't really need to do it, but it helped my son feel better and relax.

It turns out our oldest got a little upset with our youngest and threw a rock at him.  Can you believe that??  I was so furious!  What was he thinking??  We showed him the wound, which made him really upset, and I don't think he'll be throwing anything at anyone again (hopefully).

*  I know I have some new followers (woohoo!), so I wanted to let you know that I still have some tri clings left.  If anyone wants one, email me at trirunveg@gmail.com with your address and I'll mail one out to you!

I hope you all have a great weekend!! :)