solar squirrel

I went to the Dr. on Friday and the short story is that they think that I have an alignment problem that was aggravated due to my increased mileage and speed work.  They have ordered physical therapy to get to the bottom of the issue.  Two different Dr.’s spent about an hour with me moving my knee and leg, watching me do single and double-legged squats, comparing both knees, etc.  I was thoroughly impressed.  (I went to an Orthopedic sports Dr. based out of Akron Children’s Hospital.)  My first day of physical therapy is Wed.  They told me to bring in my running shoes so that they can also look at my wear patterns and also possibly do a gait analysis.  This is great!  I think I’m finally going to get over this dumb knee issue!

So what have I been doing since I haven’t been running?

Watching amazed as Todd transforms the old, hideous bathroom into a modern spa paradise!

New Shower

(More pictures to come soon in a post dedicated to our bathroom transformation)

Drinking WAY too much at Blues and Brews and then drinking margaritas:

B and me after Blues and Brews

Having fun with my intelligent, athletic, talented, funny, cute, all around AWESOME and HARD CORE boyfriend:

My cutie

Making yummy plates of food and indulging waaaaay too much:

Olives, cheeses, meats, breads, fruits and wine!

So yea, life has still continued and I’m getting by without doing my favorite pastime.  I’m sooooo ready to get back to running and I’m being hopeful that this physical therapy will work out.  In the meantime I’m going to continue doing my cross training to maintain a moderate level of fitness.  (Plus with all this eating and drinking, I’m going to be 500 lbs. by the time I get back to running!)  I miss hanging out with my running girls.  Worst case I go and have fun with all of them at Columbus.  (I’m signed up for the half marathon which I may or may not be able to run).  I sure do miss running with all of my SERC friends…

Today I woke up to this strange knocking noise.  I went out to the porch and saw Todd outside doing as he calls it ‘Man Stuff’ - today it’s splitting wood.  We had the park come and take down 2 dead trees and Todd asked them to just leave them so that he could use the wood for the fireplaces.  Earlier this week he did ‘Man Stuff’ using the chain saw.  Today he’s splitting it.  He cracks me up - when he’s doing ‘man stuff’ (anything involving a chain saw, ax, car parts, heavy lifting / moving, demolishing, or building) he is in his element.  He’s like a rooster standing tall with a big poofed out chest.  haahahhahaaaa!!!  He is going to kill me when he reads this…

Todd doing some 'Man Stuff'

It has been well over a month since I first started having weird knee pain during running.  My hopes of running the Towpath Marathon are obviously extinguished and now I’m not even sure I can run a 5K without having to stop.

Today was the end of 2 full weeks off from running.  I went out this am. to do an easy flat 4 miles to start back up slowly, and I had to stop at 2.7 due to the SAME exact pain!  Yes, I went to the Dr. and he told me it was nothing and gave me 0 advice.  I am so over our inadequate healthcare system and can tell everyone who is a runner - never go to Dr. Timothy C Gajewski.  He obviously has a bias against runners.  I should have known better - all of my Dr.’s are women and I was just desperate for an apointment.

So - back to resting and I’m going to make another appointment.  This time with someone who is specifically related to sports injury.  I will call tomorrow.

In other news I’ve been biking (spin classes) 2 days a week which has been nice.  I’ve also been doing some body sculpting and last week did Yoga for the first time.  I’m going to continue this unless the Dr. says not to.  I need to get exercise some way!

In other news school is starting in a week, work is work, and I’m signed up for the Akron Marathon Relay and the Columbus Half Marathon.  I think I’ll take the rest of August off of running (depending on what the Dr. says) and hopefully be back to 100% in time for the relay (Sept 26th).  Thank goodness I have such a good aerobic base!

I am going to have my MBA after this semester.  It’s really crazy to say that since I didn’t think I would ever be finished since I’ve been going so slowly.  (I started in 2006).  I’m also going to *hopefully* be able to have my transcripts state that I have a concentration in sustainability since I will have completed 4 courses that count towards it.  This semester is sustainable operations.  It should be interesting - there are only a handfull of us in the class.  The syllabus looks good, though.  I’m also taking a product and brand management class, which should be pretty neat.

Ok.  Glad I got that update out of the way.  I’m going to go put these Oriental Style Vegetables that have been sitting on my knee back into the freezer and attempt to mow the grass (that is a jungle) with the reel mower.  (Running, you may have beaten me for now, but lawn mower aerobics is HARD CORE!)