Injury Update

Hi girls,

I went to the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday and I do have an IT band injury - he prescribed some medicine and gel to ease inflammation. I put the gel on 4 times a day!

I am also doing some physical therapy. I am really happy about this because when I visit the physical therapist I feel like I am doing all I can to recover quickly. The doctor spent 5 minute with me but the therapist spent an hour - telling me that my right hip is rotated up which causes the IT band to tighten - resulting in pain on the side of my knee. He explained a bunch of other stuff in a thick Alabama accent and I didn't quite catch it all :) First he tried to align the hip properly by making me do certain exercises and kind of pulling on me - he couldn't quite get it - but I also learned some stretches for the it band and did some strengthening - I need to strengthen the areas around my hip to keep it from rotating. Then they put ultrasound on the knee for about 15 min to break up the scar tissue - and they also put this little electric pads on your knee and kind of electrocute you for 15 minutes with ice on the knee - I'm not quite sure what that does. Anyway, he sent me home with homework - so I do my exercises twice a day.

Today I went on the bike ride I usually go on. I was a little timid at first that I would make my knee flair up like it did last Saturday - I was pretty scared. But I rode with the slower group and was able to exercise with no pain - I felt some nagging in the knee at times - but nothing that wasn't bearable. I am glad I at least got that workout in. I am going back to the therapist on Tuesday - and hopefully I'll keep getting better - I am going to secretly run (the doctor said no running for two weeks) on Wednesday - just to see how its going - nothing hard or long.

These three weeks of training were pretty important because they held my 4 longest runs - so I am bummed -and NEED to run in order to be able to complete the half. I am going to try to do some running while Brian is here and see how it goes. I've got to find a balance between making sure I've healed and still trying to get the half done. Thankfully I can not create long term damage by running with a hurt it band - so as long as I can handle the pain - or get rid of the pain - I'm good to go :) Hoping it keeps healing - I am so focused on it - I've been pretty distracted from school work - it's all about taking care of the leg :)

Larissa