In a Groove

Things are starting to really fall in line for my training.  With the help of Dr. Todd Elwert, and my "coach"  Luke Humphrey, and last but not least the wonderful Dr. Miguel Parilo, I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Dr. Elwert as provided me with many new methods of stretching in order to get these hamstrings of mine "unstrung".  3 weeks ago, my hamstrings were extremely tight.  Last night on my 2 x 3 mile, other than being extremely tired, I barely noticed my hamstrings.  As for my coach, I've come a long, long way in the last year, and there's no way I could have done it without him.  I can't talk about my success running without mentioning Dr. Parilo and his team, it is Paramount to my success to have his involvement.  With each new week I'm setting new personal records for distance.  With this, I have had to constantly tweak my basal rates, constantly lowering with the increase in miles.  

This weekend I will get a chance to see where I stand as I'm running the Heart Mini Marathon, this will mark my 5th Heart Mini.  I plan to PR, and I'm hoping to set the tone for a great Flying Pig.

Cautiously Optimistic

So, I did the exercises with the Pilates bands last night (50), this morning (50), lunch (50), and before my run tonight (50).  It was my best (pain free) run in weeks.  

A big part of running is staying healthy or avoiding injury.  Any runner goes through minor aches and pains, and the serious injuries usually start as minor ones.  The last couple of weeks this hipt thing has been nagging me like a streak of "bad" blood sugar readings.  I CAN'T STAND EITHER OF THEM!  Struggling with an injury gives me anxiety in the same way unexplainable high blood sugar readings do.  You will do anything to try and correct it, and try to look back on what you've done different to cause the result.  I will continue to do these exercises, as long as it keeps the hip pain away.  The Pig is 7 weeks from Sunday!

Hurting

Sunday marks 7 weeks to the marathon. Unfortunately, I'm hurting.  It's my right hip / quad.  Some days it's the hip, some days it's the quad?  It actually gets better as I run, but never completely goes away.  I'm 90% sure it's not a stress fracture.

My blood sugars have been pretty good, no major complaints in that department.  I've actually been having some serious issues with my Transmitter on the CGMS.  The problem is that I can't keep a signal between my pump and transmitter for more than 2 hours.  I've been on the phone with the help line, and they tell me that everything checks out ok.  But I'm sure something is wrong, I talked to my WONDERFUL Medtronic nurse, and she has loaned me a transmitter.  Voila!  I haven't lost a signal in over 2 weeks.  I'm working on getting  a new one from Medtronic. I spoke to them today and it sounds like I've been approved (probably b/c my initial sensor came from the money out of my pocket)!  Anywho, I should be getting my new sensor in the next couple of weeks.

I went by the local running store here in Newport, KY this evening, and told them of the issues of my hip.  Ann, the guru there gave me some exercises to do in order to strengthen the area.  So, immediately after I spoke to her, I was off to Target to buy some Pilates bands.  I did 50 exercises with each leg, and I will tomorrow.  Hopefully my pain will subside!

I've made a promise to myself, to start posting atleast.......once a week.  I'm going to try like hell to get something in.  Even though I don't think it's important to anyone else, I know how I feel when I go to the other blogs and nothing is updated.