Monday, October 19, 2009

Physical Therapy Rocks!!


I haven’t blogged since Bay to Breakers not only because I’ve been so busy but I have been struggling with my injured hamstring. The lack of healing irritated me so much I didn’t even want to ‘blog’ about it.

Here is a recap: I injured both my hamstrings skiing in February. Did the typical, rest for awhile and get back at it. The left hamstring healed just fine but the right one didn’t.

I went to my primary physician and he told me to stay off it for 4 months. What??? I don’t think so. So he compromised and said try two months and then start back slowly. Which I did. And the pain came right back. Finally went to an orthopedic doctor who put me into physical therapy. First let me say PHYSICAL THERAPY ROCKS!!!! With only a week into therapy I was feeling much better. I’m already back on my bike full-force and I’m running with a lot less pain.

However, the Dr. wasn’t exactly honest about what physical therapy would be like. He said, “You need stretching, strengthening, and massage.” But what I heard was, “blah, blah and MASSAGE.” Sounded great! But when I got there it was: stretching, STRENGHTENING, and massage.

Seriously, three times a week I spend an hour and a half doing strength training and get ten minutes of massage. And let me tell you it’s not the spa massage that I prefer. Instead of a low lighted room on a nice warm table under soft clean sheets that smell like lavender; I’m on a vinyl covered table in the middle of a crowded noisy room where a million people are clanking weights and it smells of sweat and liniment. Yippee.

But that’s ok. Because it’s working great!! Today I took Heather (our dog) out for a run in the field near our house and ran for almost an hour (interspersed with walking breaks of course) and I felt great! Then it started to rain and I felt even better!

I didn’t feel any soreness until the very last bit. Then I got home and did a really good stretch, had a satisfying (yummy) vegan dinner. And now I’m sitting on a tennis ball to simulate a post-run massage. You know how I like a good massage!

Life is good!

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