Running On Air

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche    


What is it like to fly? Flying is something that I've always put together with running. The two have always gone hand in hand for me. Running, I've always thought is the human version of flight. Luckily I got my chance to try my hand at running on air yesterday. 

Besides being the best physical therapist in the world, my physical therapist has one other thing to offer that most do not. An alter-g treadmill. The alter-G is an anti-gravity treadmill developed my NASA scientists to mimic running in a zero gravity situation. No joke. 

  

In preperation to run on this treadmill my therapist had me put on what I like to call the bike tutu. The basic construction looks like a pair of bike shorts...spandex that came down to a little above my knee. Around the waistband however is a circular piece of fabric, making it appear that I am wearing some sort of biking short/running skirt hybrid. In other words, if Lady Gaga were to write a song about athletics...she would wear this outfit for a concert. 


Next you step onto the treadmill. You raise the "enclosure" to your waist and zip it to the bike short tutu. Press start, and gravity starts to disappear. How it works is that the treadmill weighs you as the chamber fills with air. 


After this you start running. The machine starts out at 100 (i.e. 100% of your body weight) and  from  there you can press the + or - button to choose what weight you want to run at. The lower the percentage the more the chamber inflates. The air pressure lifts you off the ground to match the weight you selected. Pick your speed and you're good to go. 


But what does it really feel like to run in zero gravity? It's weird. It took me a solid 15 minutes to get used to. Because you're not pounding like you usually do when you run you really have to concentrate on your foot plant. I found myself having to think about putting my feet on the surface of the treadmill. A lot of this was due to the fact that I legitimately felt like I could just lift up my feet and float away. Yes...that it how weightless it feels. The closest thing I can equate it to is aqua-jogging....but without the resistance of the water...plus your feet are making contact with solid ground. 


I only ran two miles on it for the first time. Though the Alter-G provides the same amount of cardio that regular running does, without the pavement pounding your body isn't stressed nearly as much as it is with normal running. So besides the intial "noodle legs" feeling your legs aren't half as taxed as they would be with a  regular run. 


Getting off may have been the hardest part. Remember when you were a little kid and you played the game where you jumped on a giant trampoline and then you got off and felt how strange it was to jump on solid ground again? That is the final feeling of the anti-gravity treadmill. In everything I read no one ever described what it was like to get off of the treadmill. It's a terrible feeling really. Coming down from running in the clouds is never easy. The first few steps that I took my legs felt like lead. When the anti-gravity chamber released I was pretty convinced that I would sink into the ground. 


I'm so thankful for the opportunity to run pain free. I realize that actually finding an anti-gravity treadmill is next to impossible. Finding an anti-gravity treadmill and not having to second mortgage your house to find the money to run on it (most charge $15/half an hour for use)-that IS impossible. I can't believe that I was the .001% of the population who found a physical therapist who happens to have an Alter-G. Maybe the entire world isn't working against my love of running after all?

So here's to running on air until I can run again for real.

Hope and Hip Exercises

"Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about"

Alright. I'm back.

Before anything, I'd like to start off by thanking all of the people who encouraged me not to give up on myself. I've gotten a lot of very wise advice from from very wise people in the past few days. I've also come to realize what a wonderful group of people I've surrounded myself with. I can't tell you how much it meant to me that ya'll didn't let me sit here and wallow in self-pity.

That said, I fully realized this morning that I needed to snap out of it. If I'm ever going to kick these injuries and get myself back to running I can't just sit around feeling sorry for myself. So I've been doing my best to be proactive. {This means thousands of sets of hip exercises and constant stretching}

 On Tuesday, after I wrote my last post I realized that I needed to do SOMETHING. So I stopped in to see a physical therapist on my way home from work.

I've known Kurt since I was 15 years old. In 2005 his sport and spine clinic was brand-spankin new and I was a high school sophmore with a fractured leg. He brought me through that, through tendonitis, and everything else along the way. So why didn't I go to him immediatly? Stubborn independance I suppose. Luckily he remembered me and we set up an appointment to see if somehow he would be able to put the fractured pieces of me back together again.

So this morning at 4:40A.M. fueled by 5 hours of sleep and 2 big cups of coffee, I jumped on my bike and rode across town to the clinic.

After an hour we set up 3 appointments for next week and I rode off with even more exercises that I'm supposed to do a few times a day. However, for the first time in a long, long while I started to feel some sort of hope after talking to him. Don't get me wrong. My IT band is apparently more solid than a steel rod. My knee does still hurt. My biomechanics are messed up. But with some hard-core physical therapy it looks like this is something that I will eventually be able to move past.

I went for a 16 mile ride afterwards before I had to leave for work, looked up at the sky and saw the sun peaking out. A sign, perhaps, that my silver lining is out there somewhere, and somehow good will come of this. It will make me a stroger runner but a stronger person as well. It taught me patience and to listen to my body when it's crying out in pain. This injury caused me to buy a bike....maybe it's facilitating my journey to become a professional triathlete.{haha}

In all seriousness however, I suppose what I'm really trying to say is that I'm not going to give up on running, or myself. As humans, we don't really have much if we don't have hope and faith. Losing hope, I learned, means losing everything. Without hope we have no chance.

So here's to the hope that I will be able to run again in time for the season. To hope that doing about a gazillion hip exercises every day will heal my knee. Hope that I continue to run, not just now, but for the rest of my life. Hope that I never give up on myself again.

What's Next and What's Left

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.~Confucius

My knee started hurting on Saturday again....and according to a physical therapist that I asked I shouldn't run for another 2 weeks or so for safety. All I wanted to do is run...but as always, I did too much, to fast and my legs couldn't take it.

I, the poster-child of looking at the sunny side and the glass being half full...I am finally out of answers. For me, all that's left are questions. I don't have any wisdom for this post or any sudden realizations about life.

What am I doing wrong that I can't get better? Why does the entire world seem to be working against me and running? I don't want a lot from life. I don't care about money, or fame, or big houses or fancy cars. All that I really want is to be happy and go running. And for some reason it's the one thing that I can not have.

All that's left for me now is not to give up entirely. I'd be lying if I told you that I think it's all going to be O.K. I realize two weeks doesn't seem that long, but every time I think I'm healed it's always "two more weeks"  What I'd like to do is concentrate on biking and swimming for now and train for a triathalon (half-ironman distance)....But I still have a whole year of collegiate running. Meaning that injured or not I have no choice but to be ready to race come September.

Forgetting everything to train for a triathalon, simply because I'm afraid to come back after this injury clearly isn't the answer to these questions.

For now, my goals isn't to get back into running, or to get faster, or to train for the season..or for an ironman for that matter. My only goal, all that's left really, is to not give up on myself and my legs. I can't focus on running, or getting back to it, or getting fast again. All I can focus on is not giving up, because that's all I feel is left for me.

What's next is to wait for my legs to heal and what's left is to hope that my heart can follow them.

The Most Amazing of Days

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." -Confucius


-The first journey of learning how to run again 

Today was not really a special day. Not by many people's standards of "special". But to me it was nothing short of the most amazing of days.
Nothing extraordinary or unusual happened. This is surprising considering the amount of extraordinary, usual and strange things which tend to happen to me on a regular basis.
I woke up at 7:00a.m. Just like millions of other Americans at 7 this morning I'm particularly unmotivated to drive the hour to work. And by drive I mean get held up in traffic. Have intense road rage. Speed the rest of the way to get there on time.
Slow Down Katie
I get to work and again nothing funny or unusual or exciting develops. I spend an hour cleaning. I spend some more time dusting the fake ficus tree. Finally I file all the reports on all of the patients we've had this past week. To everyone but me it seems like an ordinary day. But to me it's anything but that.

So. Now to the big part. I drive home and for the first time in 3 weeks I pull on my running shoes.

Easy. Easy does it. It's been so long and I barely remember how to do this. After 3 weeks of swimming my legs barely remember what it's like...
Slow down, Katie
It's super super hot out today. Like record hot. We're talking 100 degrees out people! I haven't run in 3 weeks. I'm not used to this. My body hurts. I'm sweating. I'm stiff. I'm scared.
Slow down, Katie
I wait for the pain. Gasping every time I step wrong with my knee. Waiting on eggshells for my PF pain to come back. 5 minutes in it hasn't hurt. 10 minutes in it hasn't hurt. Has it? Everything else is hurting, like my body doesn't know what's going on anymore. My stride is off. It's hard to find it after all these weeks. Maybe I've forgotten how to run?
Slow down, Katie. Deep breaths
I get back to where I parked my car after 2 miles or so. I've had enough. I head over to a soccer field. I pull of my shoes. I pull off my socks. I run barefoot around the field for the last few minutes. There is no pain. There is no pressure, no racing, no track, no fans, no competition. There is only a girl and her love of running, there is only me and a field of grass. There is only running and freedom.
Run faster, Katie. 

a final note of encouragement

To my strong, wonderful legs,
     Tomorrow is the day. No really, I mean THE day. The day you get to try running again. I know it's been a really long time, and I know you're a little bit afraid that you've forgotten how to move quickly. It's O.K. don't be nervous! I have a lot of confidence in you. No, I DO! I promise. I'm sorry for being so angry with you. I know this injury wasn't your fault. It was mine. Here are some things to help you out tomorrow:
      I know you're afraid of getting hurt again but remember how much rest we've had! Holy cow! You haven't run since May 13th. Now it's June 6th. You're so rested. There's no way it'll hurt.
      In that time, yes, you've gotten a lot of rest but you've also become so much stronger! I can't believe how well you handled those excruciating days of cross training...learning to ride a bike..somehow increasing your pool endurance.(volume AND speed). Plus the hip-strengthening exercises and all of the physical-therapy type activities I've been faithfully doing for you...wow.
    You've come back from WAY worse injuries than this. IT band being the most recent. Nothing can be more horrible than ITB Syndrome! Well, except perhaps the stress fracture a few years back....but that's my point! This is nothing compared to that. So don't worry :)
     We'll start off slow with just a mile or two and then go swimming afterwards O.K.? I promise that I won't go crazy. Before you know it we'll be back up to 50 miles a week. And you? You'll be as fast as ever!
     I'm sorry for everything I put you through these past 8 months. I promise to be nicer to you in the future, and take better care of you as I should have. You're the best. Thanks for carrying me through this past year.
     Have confidence, believe, and smile! I can't wait till tomorrow!
                                                                                                                                       Love,
                                                                                                                                            Katie

One week to kick patellofemoral pain butt

Stretch. Stretch. Stretch.
-Hamstring stretching, Quad stretching,Calf Stretching...basically constant stretching
Strengthen and Mend
-I WILL faithfully do my hip exercises every single day. Sometimes twice a day!
-I WILL wear my knee brace at all times OR tape my knee {even though the knee brace is ugly}
-Tape knee until muscles are strengthened/retrained. Kinesiotape is a miracle worker!!!!   
-Foam rolling, massage
-I will stop using the bag of corn in my freezer, I will buy an actual ice pack and be faithful to that as well
-I WILL take a few days of torment rest and  nothingness. {i.e. no running, walking, swimming, biking. just nothing. period.}vomit I mean...yay relaxation
-Physical Therapy :(

Desperate Measures {I'm willing to try anything here}
-Vitamins. I've heard of many many things that are supposed to help my poor knee.
      Ginseng. Is supposed to strengthen tendons/muscles
      Fish oil/omega 3's are supposed to be a natural anti-inflammatory
      Vitamin C-just because it might work.
-The mysterious world of barefoot running.
   I've read a lot that running barefoot can help your muscles retrain themselves so that they track naturally as they're supposed to. It's not well researched but I plan on running barefoot around a soccer field for my first run back.
-I will dedicate myself to reading everything possible on PF syndrome and figure out what I may be doing wrong.

No. More. Injuries.


P.S. Have your own PF pain youre trying to kick?  Click Here