So I had another follow-up appointment with my doctor on Monday. I basically filled him in on all the things I shared in my last hip post.

Running is pretty Ok, though my hip gets tight and sore afterward, but certain yoga poses are still not very comfortable.


A gorgeous fall run along the water on Monday.

The doc did some more tests and then we talked for a bit about surgery and next steps.

The immediate next step is that my doc put me on a very short course of steroids to see if they would help at all with the inflammation and lingering pain.

I go back in two weeks to access progress again.


My 'roids

But the real next step is to decide if I want to do arthroscopic hip surgery.

My doctor told me at this point, it's my choice, and I basically have to decide what level of pain and discomfort I'm OK living with.

And I'll be honest, I don't have a good answer to that question.

There are some days when my hip seems pretty fine. I'm slowly starting to be able to get back to some running. I took a barre class last night. I rode a bike to that barre class. I didn't have any pain.

There are other days when I sit in a strange position on my sofa and go to stand up and there's some pain. Or the soreness is worse than normal after a workout.

It's annoying and I don't like it, but it's not debilitating (or at least not as much as it was over the last six or seven months).

I also realize all this minor relief is likely tied to the cortisone shots I got, which means it's potentially temporary. I've heard some people get the cortisone shots and then they end up not having much if anymore pain years later. Those stories seems pretty anecdotal though, and there's no guarantee that will be what happens for me.

Surgery scares me though -- even arthroscopic surgery, where the incision would be small and the recovery time wouldn't be too terrible. I'd still have to get knocked out, be cut open and fixed up, and then deal with some level of recovery. There's always a chance of complications.

I have two friends who had this surgery last year. They are both pretty fine now, back to their normal activities and both are so glad they had the surgery. That makes me feel a little bit better about things if I do decide to have surgery.

There's also the argument that if this is going to be a life-long thing that it's better to address sooner. I'm young and fairly healthy, which means recovery would likely be easier than if I were to end up having to have this same surgery in like 20 years.

I'm just really conflicted. Surgery seems so drastic right now when things aren't terrible. I'm getting by.

I don't plan to make a decision this minute. I have time to think on it, make a list of a million questions to ask my orthopedic surgeon and see how things progress. Basically this is where I am now: Surgery is scary. I don't want to do it. But at the end of the day, it might end up being the right choice.

If you recall from my last hip update, my orthopedic surgeon sent me home with a second cortisone shot for bursitis and instructions to try to get back to some of my favorite workouts to see how things were going.

After the soreness of the second cortisone shot wore off, I took his advice and cautiously tried some runs and yoga classes.


As scene on my run, some embassies decorated for Halloween.

The results have been mixed, and I've had some really good days, but also some really frustrating moments.

On the positive side, I've been able to do a handful of runs relatively pain free. I started with a couple of slow three milers that were probably more walking than running. They seemed to go pretty well during the run, but I had some pretty intense soreness in the hours and day or so following the workout.

I gradually increased the time on my feet to see how things went. This week I've done two four milers. Again there was plenty of walking mixed-in, especially on some of the big uphills. But the actually act of running was fairly pain free. I was still getting that soreness afterward though, so I've been spending a lot of time icing my hip after runs.

I've also done a couple of different yoga classes to see how my hip would do there. Some of the poses in yoga are still pretty uncomfortable/painful for me to do, which definitely leads me to believe the cortisone is doing a nice job managing my pain, but it's clearly not a long term fix here.



The poses that cause the most pain in yoga are child's pose because being hinged over at the hip like that causes a painful pinching sensation in the joint.

The other pose that causes some pain and discomfort is pigeon. This makes me so sad because pigeon is one of my favorite yoga poses because it's such a great stretch.

Most other poses in yoga are pretty OK. Pain in child's pose and pigeon pose make me nervous though because they are very similar motions to what my doctor has been using to test for a torn labrum.

I go back to the doctor next week to evaluate where things are and determine next steps. My plan for this week is to keep experimenting with workouts to see what continues to cause pain and what feels OK. The more detail I can give my doctor, the more likely we are to be able to pinpoint exactly what's going on and hopefully find a long term solution for the pain.

First a quick thanks to all of you for your really kind comments about the new look and feel around Run Girl Run.

Guess what? I got a job teaching yoga at the Gold's Gym a few minutes from my house! I'm so excited!

It's been about a year since I've taught any sort of fitness classes like I used to in college and I was really missing it. I had looked briefly at the gym in York, but they weren't hiring at the time. I hadn't even really started looking for real back in D.C., but when I took that yoga class last Monday on a whim, the instructor mentioned they were looking for a new yoga instructor to replace one who was about to have a baby.

He recommended me to the director of fitness programs and I met with her last night and she offered me the job. I start Thursday night!!!! For now I'll just be teaching one hour-long yoga class once a week, but I think that's the perfect way to break back into teaching easily.

Plus the best part, is that one of the perks of being an instructor at Gold's is that they give you a free membership! So I can go whenever I want for free now! How awesome is that!

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In knee news, it wasn't as bad today as it was yesterday. I think resting it is definitely helping. All I've been doing is my commute to work, which is only about 1.5 miles round trip. I'm registered for a Valentine's Day 5K on Saturday and I think with a few more days rest I'll be OK to run it. I just won't race it. I don't want to risk making things worth for my half marathon in March.

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In nutrition news, I've kind of been all over the place lately. For the last few months, I had wanted nothing to do with sweets, like not even at the holidays. But lately the past few weeks, I've been really wanting them again. Maybe it's just because people have been bringing all kinds of food to the office lately and so I see it and "want" it. Maybe it's because I haven't been able to run or really workout a ton lately. I've also been really bad about eating at home lately. I've been eating a lot of Subway (which isn't horrible because I always get the veggie on whole wheat) and other take out food. Some of it is the BF's fault. He doesn't keep food in his house so when I'm with him, we almost always go out to eat. The rest of it is just my laziness.

I'm kind of getting sick of it though, so at the grocery store tonight, I picked up some easier dinner stuff. Yes, I grabbed a couple Kashi frozen dinners, but sometimes that's what I have energy for. But I also picked up some oatmeal and all kinds of fun toppings. After reading Caitlin's blog and seeing all her yummy oatmeals, I got a little inspired. I don't have time to make it in the morning, but it's a quick, easy and healthy dinner.

Tonight I made it with strawberries, some berry trail mix and granola sprinkled on the top. It was delicious.

That's it for tonight, I'm off to finish watching the Biggest Loser!

Well it's official. I dropped down to the half marathon from the full this morning. I can barely walk this morning my knee hurts so much. I tried to go out for a run Sunday while the weather was gorgeous. I got maybe a quarter of a mile before I had to stop and walk back home. It was disheartening to the say the least.

I guess it's back to rest and ice and stretching out my freakin' IT Band.

I'm trying to keep my chin up. I love half marathons. They are such a fun distance and it will be my first race ever in D.C. and my friends can still come watch. I'm just nervous my knee won't heal up in time for me to get some quality runs in before race day. I don't want to DNS or DNF this race.

I'm bummed but OK with dropping from the full to the half, but I would be heart broken if I couldn't run at all.

This week at work has kicked my butt. I have been drop dead tired every morning when I've woken up and every night when I get home I've wanted to collapse into my bed. Last night I fell asleep around 9 p.m. And it's only Wednesday.

But last night I also managed to get in a speedy (by my standards) six miler. I'm not sure where I found the energy. I literally dragged myself out the office collapsed in my car and thought I was going to fall asleep on my two minute drive home.

But the crisp fall air must have invigorated me because I got home threw on a long sleeve tech top and some shorts grabbed my iPod and was out the door. I clocked the six miles in 1:02.10. I felt great the entire time. My left knee hurt for a second in mile five, but went after that.

When I got back home though, my right knee was acting up a little bit. Nothing too serious, but it caught my attention.

I slept a lot better last night and I have to credit that to taking the melatonin. I had stopped for a while because I wasn't having any problems and I don't like taking stuff if I don't need to. But man it makes all the difference in the quality of sleep I get. I'm 99 percent sure I'll be taking it again tonight. (I mentioned the melatonin in a post a while ago, but just a reminder, it's not a sleeping pill, it's a supplement my doc. recommended that helps your body sync to circadian rhythm.)

Anyway, after an awesome night sleep, I woke up this morning to meet Michele at the gym for spin class at 5:45. Except Michele wasn't there when I got there. Turns out she had way overslept. No biggie though. I didn't stay for the whole class because I had to bounce out to get home to shower and get ready for work, but I did about 45 minutes and felt pretty good. My legs weren't too tired from last night's run.

However, when I got home my right knee was acting up. It buckled three times when I was walking around the house getting ready for work. Not cool.

I'm skipping my soccer game again this week because I don't want to aggravate the knee. Instead I'm going to ice it down and watch my Phils in the World Series.

Physical Therapy...two to three times a week for the next four weeks.

How much does that suck?

But anyway let's back up for a minute so I can give you a run down of what happened at the doctor yesterday.

I have never had such great service at a doctor's office as I did at this place. They are a huge orthopedic and spine specialist operation that specializes in sports medicine, which is awesome.

I got in, did the paper work and then explained what happened to the nurse.

About two minutes later I was off getting X-rays taken. Then I was taken back to the room and the X-rays popped up on the computer screen there.

No more than five minutes later the doctor came in, introduced himself and I told him what was going on. He took a look at the X-rays, which he said looked great. So no problems with the bone. Whooo hoo! He also said my knees sit better in the knee socket than most females, which was good news for sure.

Then he had me lay down on the table and he moved my leg in a bunch of different directions and measured different angles and stuff. From there he determined that I have no problems with my ligaments or cartilage (also good news).

What he thinks happened is that my "knee cap tried to jump the track." What I got from that is that it tried to slide out of it's normal position so the tendons had to strain really super hard to hold it in place.

And the reason the tendons had to strain so hard is because they are attached to the quad, which because I don't lift with the lower body, after repeated beating from running was not strong enough to stabilize the tendons to help hold the knee cap in place. Soooo the tendons got majorly stressed.

(In my and many other runners' defenses, getting in the miles has always been more important and I was always afraid that my legs would be too sore after lifting that I wouldn't be able to get in a good run the next day.)

Physical therapy is going to help strengthen the quad muscles, it will help me run with good alignment to make sure the knee doesn't try to jump the track again and the therapist will teach me a certain method of taping the knee to help provide additional stabilization until the tendons have calmed down and the quads get stronger.

I start therapy Monday night.

As far as what I can do right now, the doc said anything that doesn't hurt it. That leaves me with swimming and yoga, which he highly encouraged.

He said the Rock N' Roll half isn't out of the picture yet. It will just depend how well I do with the therapy.

Seriously though he was an awesome doctor. He spent the time to sit down with me and explain to me exactly what the problem was and what we should do to fix it. When I asked him if I had to stop all activity he said the last thing he wanted to do was make an active person inactive. He also took the time to answer all of my questions and address any of my concerns. I got pretty lucky with that I think.

So yes, not being able to run sucks. Physical therapy is probably going to suck, but maybe I'll pick up some new things and hopefully I'll be back on the road to running again soon. I'll make sure to keep you posted.

Well my doctor's appointment is tomorrow. It's been two weeks since my last test run that failed miserably so I know I'm going to need to try to get something in tonight or tomorrow morning so I have something to report back to the doc. (Because if I tell him I haven't run in two weeks and I don't know where things stand I don't think that will be very helpful to him)

Don't worry though, I'm not going to do anything crazy. I'm going to go nice and slow and easy and stop as soon as I feel anything. I just want to have some specifics about where it hurts and what kind of pain so I can give me an accurate description.

It does seem a little twisted though that I'm going to go try to make my knee hurt so I can tell the doc. so we can make it better.

I really have nothing to write about on the running front. I'd post another DC United video, but I don't want to make anyone feel old.

P.S. Marcy...those guys are either like 22, 23, or 24..older than me haha.

I'm feeling a little bit like Casino Drive this morning. Don't follow horse racing? He's the one who had to scratch the Belmont Stakes at the last minute.

How am I similar to said horse you may ask? Well I'm thisclose to scratching the Baltimore 10-Miler because of my stupid knee. But before we get to that, I'm going to focus on the positive of this weekend -- that besides running it was awesome and I accomplished a ton.

Friday I hit a rocking spin class and it felt so good. I was sweating like crazzzy, but was working my butt off and I liked it haha.

Saturday I played tennis for about an hour and a half with a friend from work. It was insanely sunny and hot outside leading to unfortunate sunburn lines. I was wearing a sleeveless Under Armour top (who's surprised?)and my shoulders are really red and there's a very distinct line between red and ghostly white haha. It doesn't hurt too badly though.

Sunday was the day I was going to test out the knee. I headed out around 9ish and it was already 86 degree so I made sure to carry some water with me. I started off fairly slowly just trying to take my time. After little more than a mile I could feel something twinging in my knee. S of a B. I didn't want to push it so I headed home raving mad.

Because I was pissed off at my knee, I decided to head to the gym for some nonimpact stuff. Did an hour of yoga and about 40 minutes or so of laps.

Because I am stupid/was antsy from sitting around/am extremely stubborn/figured if my knee was hurt already what the hell was more tennis going to do for it, I went out Sunday night and played about 30 minutes or so of tennis. It was a good thing it got dark when it did.

Anyway, going to try to make an appointment with an orthopedic dude sometime. Goody goody.

Please kill me now.

Spinning this morning was fine, but then it started to bother my knee. What the heck else is new? I"m swimming tomorrow because at least that can't mess anything up.

GAHHH!!!!

Edit: Hey all make sure to check out M*J*C's new blog. She's a Terp alum (which means she's obviously awesome) who just registered for her first marathon!

Soccer was canceled Wednesday because the weather was very monsoon like. Yesterday was nicer, but hot and very very humid. I decided to head to the pool to swim some laps, which is something I haven't done in a good long time.

I found a pretty basic plan on some Web site somewhere scribbled it down and then ran out the door to the gym. The plan called for 1200 meters, which I figured was a pretty decent distance. It consisted of some arm and leg drills and then a bunch of 100's and 150's. The workout felt good. It was nice to be back in the pool again.

This morning was one of those mornings where you wake up and you can't figure out where you are. My alarm went off, and I was really disoriented, but once I figured out that I was in my bed and that it was my alarm making that strange noise, I realized it was time for spinning.

The instructor kicked my butt like wow. I was literally dripping in sweat by the time I finished. I don't think I've ever sweat that much working out, ever.

I am going to run this weekend. It will have officially been two weeks no since my knee first started hurting and I think it's time to test it out. My race is only two weeks away, and I need to see if I'm going to be able to finish.

For some reason unknown to me, I woke up ready to face the day at 3 a.m. Seriously it wasn't cool. I tried to fall back to sleep, but gave up at 4 a.m. and thought maybe I would try to read and eventually fall back to sleep. Well no such luck there either so at 5:20 a.m. I got dressed and went to the gym.

I hadn't been to spin class in about a month and a half because when the weather gets nice, who wants to be inside in a gym? I'd much rather be outside running.

But as I'm sidelined with this knee thing running was out of the picture.

Spinning was great. The regulars had missed me and asked me where I'd been, which made me smile.

Tonight I'm supposed to have a soccer game (if it doesn't thunderstorm). I'm going to play, but if the knee starts acting up I'm going to stop. I'm hoping that running on the grass will be a nice easy way to break it in.

If things go well tonight, I'm planning on trying a short run tomorrow.

Just a quick post today.

I didn't run this weekend again because the knee is still acting up. It may be time for me to actually get it checked by a doc. Ugh, if I spend the money on an appointment, only to be told just to rest it some more I'm going to be angry.


Today (or I guess yesterday) kicks off Viv's Weight Loss Challenge. This is fabulous timing because it will help me get closer to my wonderful new bike.



My blog is green! I stumbled across this sweet movement when I was doing some research for work. I thought it was great and so I slapped it on my blog. If you're big into the green stuff (or just try to be mindful of it when you can) check out the 350 Challenge.

Bahhhh my knee is no better. I don't think it's any worse, but it's definitely not better. So I'm not running again today. Please kill me now. (Ok not really, I'm just frustrated as all hell.) To those of you who asked, I don't think it's my shoes. I just bought new ones last month.

New plan: Rest today, rest tomorrow (which is a rest day anyway), try to run sometime this weekend, nothing strenuous just something short and easy.

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Ok on to other really cool info:

I want this:



But it costs this: $599.99

It's the cheapest road bike I could find at any local bike shop. It's pretty and I like it and I want it because I can't tri without a bike. And I've been thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it and I think really want to try a tri. (LOL)

So I made a little deal with myself. Because I obviously don't have the money to spend on it right now, I decided that I would buy it for myself as my reward for finally losing my college weight. (The freshman 15 stuck around after the first year and then was joined by five of its friends so that means I've got about 20 pounds I'd like to get rid of.)

I don't think I'm going to do a specific diet or anything. I'm just going to pay closer attention to what I eat and try to make sure I'm eating healthy stuff.

We'll see how it goes. I really want that bike (or a bike, that one's on sale and has been discontinued so I may have to settle for a different model).

What kind of pointers do all you experience triathletes have about picking out a bike? I'll take any advice/help you can provide.

I haven't run since my long run on Saturday because of my knee. I spent most of the holiday weekend hobbling around.

Yesterday it felt a little better and I thought about testing it, but decided it against it. I was on the phone with my mom who made a good point. She basically said, if I ran 8 miles last weekend, I will definitely be able to cover 10 in time for the race, even if I have to take time off and rest. But if I go back too soon and get hurt, there's a very good chance I won't be able to do the race.

Sometimes my mom's a pretty smart lady.

So I didn't run yesterday.

I am however, going to attempt to play tennis today. The knee doesn't seem to be acting up and I figure tennis is a good way to get a little bit of running in and see how it feels. If all goes well, I may try to get a shorter run in tomorrow.

This isn't exactly how I planned for my training to be going, but I'm fairly confident I'll still be able to do the race -- just probably not as fast as I would have liked to.

YAY! This girl is running again!

I'm not sure when my leg magically healed itself, but because it was semi-nice out today (minimal wind, a bit of sun, temps in the 40's instead of the 20's like it had been the past few days) I decided now would be a good time to test it out. So I went for what I planned to be a short and slightly disappointing run (I didn't think it'd be completely better yet, and I didn't think I'd be able to go very far from being off for so long)

But to my surprise, it didn't hurt. I went my normal 3 mileish loop around campus with no problem (except my nose running like crazy) I didn't feel like I had to run really slowly either. I was moving at my normal pace.

I'm so happy to be back to running. I know because it's winter and the weather isn't always the greatest that I won't be able to get outside to run as often as I would like, but just knowing that I can run when I want and not having to worry about being injured is such a relief!

I think maybe some of the fitness classes I'd been taking at the beginning of the semester helped. Like kickboxing and step classes have a decent amount of impact which I think helped prep my leg for the longer runs.

All in all, it's been a pretty good day and a decent start to the semester. :o)

So Friday I went out for a test run. Only about a half an hour. I went really slow probably only covered about 2 miles, maybe a little more. I wasn't really keeping track of time or distance or anything, I was more trying to be sure everything was in working order.

My knee felt pretty good throughout the whole thing. I didn't notice any substantial problems. I took Saturday off because I didn't want to push my luck. And today I just got back from an hour long swim. Everything's feeling pretty good. I didn't lose too much of my endurance (or well so far it doesn't seem like it) so I think I'm going to pick my training back up tomorrow. I'm going to have to back up in the training schedule a little bit, but I don't think it will cause too much of a problem. At least I hope not. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic now because I was so pessimistic in my last post.

But I'm hoping from here until October 14, everything will work properly. No more freak injuries and sicknesses.

YAY for being able to run again! **crossing my fingers and hoping tomorrow goes as well as Friday**

Ok, so honestly I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Although it sort of seems like it. I've been dealt a pretty big set back to the running schedule/marathon training. First there was finals week, and although I was able to get out a few times during the week, it def. wasn't enough and I fell a little bit behind. Then I got sick (again) with an awful head and chest cold. There was no way I could run if I couldn't breath. And then I was back to training, for a whole three days before something happened to my knee.

I don't know what happened. Wed. morning I went out for my run first thing, and my right knee was a little bit stiff, which I chalked up to it being early in the morning and my sleeping on it weird. It got kind of painful after a minute or two so I started walking to see if that helped. It did, and after a while I started running again, and the knee didn't hurt at all. I thought I was home free. But then in the last couple tenths of a mile before I got home there was searing pain through my knee. It was unfrickinbelievable how much it hurt.

I got home, popped two Motrin, busted out the ice pack, did the whole RICE thing. Holy mother of pearl I couldn't walk the rest of the day or all day Thursday. Thursday night we had my brother's Baccalaurette Mass and I looked like a fool hobbling around, and kneeling...yeah it just wasn't happening. Friday it felt a little bit better, but still there was no way I could run, I could barely walk.

I thought this morning I might be able to at least go out for a walk, but again no luck. I'm really started to get frustrated. I'm losing so much training time. I don't know how I'm going to ready for this marathon if I keep getting hurt and can't train. It's so frustrating, and I just don't know what to do about it.

I'm going swimming tomorrow in attempts to at least keep some of the cardiovascular endurance that I built. But it's not running and it's not the same. It's the most frustrating thing in the entire world. I just want to be able to run again. I really hate being laid up like this.

AHHHHH!