Afternoon! My PT appointment was at 7:45 this morning. I was a little nervous — but a good kind of nervous.
Breakfast was easy and stabilizing:
Chobani, a crushed Kashi TLC Bar, a banana, and flax. Plus a coffee.
I got dressed for PT and put on one of my race shirts:
I wanted to look "super serious." Haha!
The PT clinic is a private facility near the orthopaedic doctor I went to last week. One side of the facility has a bunch of workout equipment:
And the other has massage tables and whatnot.
The PT struck me as kind and competent. We went over my diagnosis from the doctor and she asked me a bunch of questions, like when my injury started to act up (January 2008), how much I was running (20-25 miles a week), why I went on a running hiatus in April (too painful to run), and what type of cross training I had been doing since (walking and cycling). She also asked me about my goals for PT (running again). Lastly, she did a bunch of manual manipulations and listened to my knee make that awesome popping sound.
Just like the orthopaedic doctor, my PT thinks my VOM muscles are weak. She also thinks my hamstring and IT band are tight. So, I’ve been prescribed strength training and stretching.
I learned two new stretches and three strength moves. They weren’t anything super fancy or strange, but it was nice to have a professional show me how exactly I should be doing wall squats, etc. She also said that cycling is awesome for my knee recovery and I should stick with it as I start to run more!
Lastly, the PT showed me how to tape my knees to keep my patellar from tracking laterally. Basically, taping works the same way my knee sleeves work, just a whole lot better.
Sexy! The tape will last a few days, and she asked me to go on a run tonight to see how they feel. YAY! It feels strange — I can literally feel my patellar being held in place to the side.
Before I left, we talked about how I can get back into running. Long gone are the glory days when I could pound out 15.0 miles…. the most I’ve run in 2 months is 2.0 miles! I need to build my mileage back slowly. I told her I wanted to get back up to 5.0 mile long runs by the end of July and she said that was realistic. Wooo HOOOO!
PT went so well that I must admit I’ve already started to chart out my Fall race schedule….
The Miracle Miles 15K, Celebration 10K, and Space Coast 1/2 Marathon are definites (well, pending knee recovery). The Melbourne Marathon is kind of a dream race. We’ll see.
I came home and snacked on melon:
Then I started work. I had lunch around 11:
I made a sweet potato and black bean burger with flax (baked in the oven for about 30 minutes) and placed it on a piece of toast with mustard. I couldn’t finish it — too big — but it was really good!
Plus, snow peas!
Question: Do you think of yourself as an "Athlete"? I totally do. I think training for races made me think that way — I was never on any teams in high school. But something about RACE SEASON just makes me feel so semi-professional. 🙂
I'm happy your appointment went well! That looks like a great race schedule, race season is so exciting 🙂 I never really think of myself as an athlete because I run but if I did as many races as you're planning I definitely would!