Rant

I'm receiving a lot of conflicting advice. The PT says to stretch the shit out of the tendinitis. Jess's PA co-worker said that stretching is the worst thing you can do for tendinitis. It did, in fact, feel quite a bit worse after stretching.

I'm reluctant to go on and on about this, but I feel that I must put my thoughts to words. As I've said before, my gut has always told me that it is not tendinitis--whether it's something more serious, I do not know. Because, in the decade that I've been running, I've had only one bout of tendinitis--caused, without question, by a more serious, underlying injury--I do not believe that I'm prone to tendinitis, unless there's something else going on in the background.

Furthermore, given that I was very well-conditioned (i.e., in the best shape of my life) and the injury presented the very next day, after a very hard, hilly effort of 17+ miles, I'm even more inclined to think that it is not tendinitis.

Before I even saw a doctor, I ruled out a knee injury (e.g., a meniscal tear), because I could bear my full weight on the injured leg and even do single-legged squats ad nauseam, without a hitch. I would think that a serious knee injury would make that type of exercise quite painful.

As I've previously reported, both doctors essentially diagnosed me with hamstring tendinitis. I say essentially because the first doctor wasn't quite sure if it was tendinitis or bursitis but was satisfied that it, whatever it was, would go away with the prescribed treatment of just "cut-back-your-activity." That treatment did not work. The second doctor did not know what to make of the injury, so he prescribed an MRI, which turned out to be normal. At my first visit, he didn't even consider tendinitis until I told him that my previous doctor diagnosed me with it. Then he jumped on the bandwagon. To me, that's piss-poor care, yet I'm still under his care. And now I'm not particularly happy with the care I'm receiving from his clinic's PTs. See note above. Talk about frustrating.

At my last PT visit, the PT told me that if it's not tendinitis, the only other thing it could be is a meniscal tear. But, what about a pulled or strained tendon or an avulsion? (IT HURTS A LOT WHEN I STRETCH THE TENDON!) It's not likely an avulsion, as such an injury would have shown up on an MRI, as I understand it. A pulled or strained tendon probably would not have shown up on an MRI, but this diagnosis was never considered by any doctor I've ever seen. I'm trying to be a good patient, and to provide all the details, but I'm not getting the feedback I expect. I have yet to see a doctor that has seemed to consider all possibilities (unlike Dr. Reach, who fixed my left foot--the most amazing case of doctoring I've ever seen). That's pretty sad, given the $200+ I'm paying/5-minute visit.

Back to the way the injury happened: it happened suddenly. It didn't happen over any period of time any longer than 24 hours. It was at it's worse the day after I went hard. It did not get progressively worse, as I think tendinitis typically does, as I continued to train. To me, that sounds like a pull or strain or tear of something. What's more, I ran a marathon without any pain. And I wasn't any worse for the wear. So, what the hell?

The problem with doctors who aren't accustomed to treating serious athletes (even though they claim to be experts in sports' injuries)--or who aren't serious athletes themselves--is that they are not able to understand what you're going through, despite your best effort to convey the problem (or so it seems). To find an empathetic doctor, who really understands, is unbelievably difficult. However, what sucks, is that, at times, we're at the mercy of doctors to help fix us. In the end, I realize, the body fixes itself. But, sometimes, we just need to be pointed in the right direction, but no one has seemed able to do that for me yet. I realize that things could be a lot worse, but I'm not asking for a miracle. I'm simply asking for a definitive diagnosis with a clearly defined plan of treatment, and I'll do all the rest. I can promise you that.

Injury Report

I've run only once in the past three weeks. I think that rest is finally helping. I wasn't so sure it was after only a week or two, but I guess the injury just needed more time. In addition to rest, I'm now doing physical therapy two times per week. I've gone twice so far, and I've got two more sessions booked. My insurance authorized only four visits. My physical therapist has got me doing a lot of stretching. Much more stretching than I was doing. She also has got me doing various strengthening exercises that target my weak muscles. Apparently, I have very weak gluteal muscles on my right side. To determine my muscle weaknesses, she had me lay on my stomach with my leg bent at 90 degrees. She then instructed me to lift my leg straight up, as far as it could go, and to hold it there as she pushed down on the bottom of my foot. Needless to say, I couldn't hold it there, and she couldn't budge my left leg. The only thing she has got me doing at home is the stretching two times per day (five 30-second sets). She told me that I should introduce light running at the end of next week.

I finally discovered some new music. Listen below for a great song (Grown Ocean) and music video by Fleet Foxes.

Physical Therapy

I saw my orthopaedist again today, after two weeks of complete rest didn't seem to improve my injury much. He re-examined me and said that I wasn't presenting with anything that would show up on an MRI but that he would look at it again just to make sure there's not something more serious going on. The problem here is that I'm not very good at sitting around doing nothing with no direction/plan to get better. I identify as a runner, so not being able to run is very difficult--even though I've somewhat filled the void with some silly hobbies, like growing truckloads of wheatgrass. Pretty soon it's going to take over the apartment. Anyway, given that I don't have anything more serious than stubborn tendonitis, I'm going to be doing physical therapy 2 to 3 times per week for 6 weeks and then follow up with the doc at the end of June. I'd do PT for a year if that's what would heal my injury. That's how badly I want to get better.

Sad news

Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru died today (yesterday?) at the age of 24. He won five of his seven marathons and broke the half-marathon world record three times. I'm going to miss watching him compete.

It's rumored that he committed suicide by jumping from the balcony of his residence after his wife found him in bed with another woman.

First run in huaraches

I finished making my huaraches today. I bit the bullet and purchased a revolving punch (leather punch) for $11 for the six holes that you need to put in the rubber for the laces, so if you decide to invest in a pair, I've got the tool you need. I tried lacing the huaraches to my feet using the traditional/toga style and the slip-on, slip-off style. I like the slip-on, slip-off style better. I ran for about 18 minutes in the huaraches, and I really like them. I like them better than VFF but not quite as much as barefoot. Sand and rocks tend to get stuck in between the rubber and the foot. And the laces irritated my foot in spots. I think I just need to adjust the lacing, though. As for the tendonitis after six days of rest, I did feel a few faint twinges and tightness, but it felt much better than it did a week ago. I know that I still have a problem because the tendon is tender to the touch. I'm going to take another week off and see where I'm at next weekend. I think I'm going to take this week by week and see how it progresses. It was nice to get out there, though, even for a few minutes. Man, injury is so frustrating.

On another note, I've got a new obsession: growing and juicing wheatgrass! I'm trying to take two ounces every morning. It takes a lot of grass to yield two ounces of juice, so I'm trying to get a good crop of it going on a consistent basis. Here's the latest batch, ready to be juiced and enjoyed!

Longest breaks from running since May 2007

145 days (1/1/08 - 5/24/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

34 days (10/20/07 - 11/22/07): torn spring ligament

22 days (12/2/07 - 12/23/07): torn spring ligament

21 days (5/28/08 - 6/18/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

18 days (11/28/08 - 12/15/08): recovery from surgery to remove arthroereisis

14 days (12/14/09 - 12/27/09): illness

13 days (6/16/09 - 6/28/09): illness

10 days (6/22/08 - 7/1/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

10 days (7/17/09 - 7/26/09): road-trip to Seattle

5 days and counting (5/8/11 - present): hamstring tendonitis

Seeking inspiration to take time off.

Week 6 of Barefoot Running

5/2/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/3/11
2.9mi; 29min 13sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Picked it up at the end. Probably did some core at home afterward but can't remember.

5/4/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/5/11
1.9mi; 20min 52sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Feet were tender. Core?

5/6/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/7/11
2.3mi: 24min 12sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Core?

5/8/11
12.9mi
Bike with Jess as she did her long run. Core and pushups at home.

Even the barefoot running and significant reduction in volume and intensity is not allowing my injury to fully heal, so I'm going to take Monday through Friday off of next week and see how I feel for a few on Saturday. :(

Total barefoot miles: 7.1

Huaraches

I bought a huaraches kit from invisibleshoe.com for $31.55 shipped. I was going to go with the neon green laces but decided on black.

Word on the street is that...

Jess Borsotti is training for the 2011 Missoula Marathon. Are the rumors true?

As for me, I haven't been running in a pair of shoes since April 13th, and I plan to keep it that way. Here's a slow motion video of me running barefoot in Stony Creek. I come into the picture at 1:51 and again at 4:03. Clearly, not textbook form, but interesting to see in slowmo.

POSE Running in Huaraches

I thought I'd share a video of this guy really rolling in huaraches with SOLID technique.

Week 5 of Barefoot Running

4/25/11
Strength training at home.

4/26/11
Nada

4/27/11
3.1mi; 32min 11sec
AM Barefoot run in Guilford. Chip and seal burned up my feet pretty good.
5mi
PM Bike ride with Jess in Guilford. Strength training at home.

4/28/11
Nada

4/29/11
2.2mi; 22min 30sec
Took a half day. Couldn't bear to be in the office any longer on such a nice day. Barefoot run in Guilford. Planned shorter run, as my left heel was feeling sore and achy. Did at least a few more minutes with Jess afterward. Strength training at home. Harvested and juiced some wheatgrass for the first time. Yum. Hoping to make this a daily thing.

4/30/11
Nada on the exercise front. Picked up a few pots and a tray at Salvation Army for wheatgrass and barley grass. Started some more wheatgrass and barley grass. Now I need to get me a wheatgrass juicer. The centrifugal ones are not ideal for juicing wheatgrass, I've learned.

5/1/11
2.1mi; 23min 49sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. I think the warmer pavement is giving me blisters. My brother gave me a Timex heart rate monitor. My heart rate at an 11mpm pace was in the 150s. Seems high. Guess I'm out of shape. Growing tired of running only 7mpw. Stretched out on the Green afterward. Strength training at home.

To celebrate this big week of running a whopping 7.4 miles, I think I'll go out and get drunk off half priced wine at 116 Crown tonight. Sounds like a plan.

Total barefoot miles: 7.4

I no longer own a pair of running shoes

I've sold my NB Minimus Road ($39) and VFF ($54) on eBay. I now have only my bare feet. Once my injury heals--and I think it's come a long way since going unshod full-time--I'll probably buy a pair of sandals for hot days. Right now, though, I don't see a need for them. Initially, I had a bit of trouble with rocks, but I don't really feel them anymore. Even chipped pavement is now tolerable. With time, my pace has also increased. I could run a lot harder, but I hold back because of the injury. I look forward to running harder when I'm 100% healthy.

Great website:

http://www.trtreads.org/

Great video: