**Windows Live Writer won’t let me upload pictures right now.  I know your going to miss the gazillion pictures I post of myself.  Oh the sadness.  Sorry about that…not really.  

Yesterday was my last day of PT.  I went twice a week for 6 weeks and absoutley loved the torture!  I’m kinda special like that.

My arch is not 100% yet, but it’s a lot better.  I’m able to run short distances completely pain free and when I do push it (moving) it bounces back a lot faster.

Jeff did an amazing job working with me.  He deserves a medal for putting up with me.  I’m so thankful for his help and the day I run my next half marathon, I’ll make sure to thank that guy.

The only thing I’m a little worried about in the back/inside of my left knee.  I injured it pulling a hill on my bike back in Feburary and hasn’t felt the same since.  It only mildly bothers me when I ride or run and only sometimes.  I’m so tired of these injury punks, but they will not hold me back. 

I ran 2 miles on Tuesday which went well until about 1.50, both of my knees were aching so I wrapped it up a bit earlier than I’d planed.

Yesterday I did hip strengthening exersizes for an hour with Jeff.

Today I ran a 5K competley pain free.  So, I wonder what’s up?

Anyway my plan is to keep doing strengthening exersizes 3 to 4 days a week and running every other day.  If something doesn’t feel right, I’ll skip trainin or stop and try again the next day. 

I finally feel like I’m on the right track.  We’ll see when I start running 5 or more miles.

But for now, I couldn’t be happier all things considered.

I started running consistently this last week!! 

Under Jeff’s advise (run at a 5 mile pace) here’s what I’ve been up to.

Sunday:

Average pace per mile:  9:31

Today:

APPM:  9:31

Funny how my pace was exactly the same without even trying. 

I’ve had zero pain & very little tightness in my arch and today my right hip was a little tight too.  I can totally deal with that, it just means I have some strength training to work on. 

Tomorrow will be my 11th PT session with Jeff and will determine if I need to continue or he may kick me out.  I’m really going miss the by-weekly PT party.  I’ve gotten to know him and Jackie (his intern) and look forward to chatting & catching up with them.  Mostly giving Jeff a hard time because I think he sit’s around day & night thinking of ways to torture me with the resistance band.

Last week he put the band around my ankles and chair on wheels, sat in it and told me to pull him around backwards.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun though.  Just don’t tell him, mmmkay. 

I can’t wait to run my next half marathon.  I won’t even allow myself to start looking for one quite yet.  I think I’ll wait until I really start piling on the mileage & see how I do before I get my hopes up again. 

But Jeff assured me I’ll be ready for the fall.  We shall see…  

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go throw away all of my running skirts from Target (they ride up with my iFitness belt on), shower, grab a Starbucks and get to work on the backyard.  It’s a work in progress.

I’ll update you when I’m done.

Run on my friends!!

Hello from Pismo Beach!! 

Oaky so now let’s back up & fill you in on the last week or so.

Saturday the movers showed up bright & early, loaded all of our worldly belongings in a truck and moved us to a condo in Mountain View.

After moving twice in the last 6 months, we were spent.  Now I completely understand why moving is one of life’s most stressful events.

The next few days were spent unpacking, cleaning & organizing our stuff.  The usual.

Then on Tuesday morning Mike got a call to interview for his dream job in our dream location.  San Luis Obispo, CA!!!!

Yeah…

And I’m about 80% unpacked.  Needless to say those boxes can stay right where they are.

We are super uber excited!!  No, that doesn’t even describe how stoked we are.

I’m trying very hard not to get my hopes up, because it’s not a done deal, but man it’s not easy.

But 3 days after we moved!?  Dang, that’s why it’s called life, right?

So last night we dove 210 miles south to our family beach house in Pismo Beach.

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Yesterday Jeff told me to run 15 to 20 minutes at a medium pace outdoors.

This is another big day in SCB land!!!!

Is there a better place to run my first time outside than this!?

We’re off to eat lunch, hopefully at our favorite sandwich joint, Stacked.  Then his interview is this afternoon.

Hopefully we’ll be able to call this place home soon. 

Oh hey look, I be runin’!! 

Well kinda.

Under Jeff’s close supervision, I ran/walked a mile.  12 minutes to be exact, but who cares about how slow I was.  I got to run!

I had mild tightness in my arch, but he said that’s okay, just as long as I’m pain free.

Then he said the sweetest thing I’ve heard in a long time.  “If all goes well, I’ll have you run 2 to 3 miles outside this weekend.”

It’s all about the simple things, people.

Yesterday Mike & I went to the city for the day.  We bought tickets for the Go Car 2 hour Tour from Groupon that were about to expire & the weather was supposed to be sunny & 70, a perfect day.

We got there around 11:00, found street parking (!) and had lunch at Bubba Gumps.

Alcatraz was our view.   

Mike had the Cajun Shrimp Bucket and I had the Cajun Chicken Sandwich.  I wasn’t impressed.  But our server was really good.  He quizzed us Mike about the movie, which was fun.

Then we went on the GPS guided Go Car Tour.

We visited Fisherman’s Warf, Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, Golden Gate Park, Baker Beach, Lombard Street and a bunch of other points of interest like the site where the Zodiac killer murdered one of his victims. 

It was cold, windy & foggy.  Stupid weatherman lied to me. 

We stopped in one of the shopping districts, (I think it was Union) for Starbucks.

Obviously the weather didn’t stop me from ordering my beloved iced Starbucks Double Shot.

We both agreed the tour was a lot of fun & we’d like to do another one next time.  But the guys running the shop were dry, rude and left a bad taste in our mouth.  Also it is really expensive as with everything else in the city.  If we didn’t have a Groupon, we probably would have passed. 

Now I’ll entertain you with my “Only in SF” pictures.

A bunch of dudes on bicycles singing Happy Birthday in their Birthday suits on Beach Street, near Fisherman’s Warf.

The “sign my car” dudes.

A guy advertising the Wax Museum.

And how the city of San Francisco makes a gazillion dollars by confusing drivers.

My husband.  Ladies, back off, he’s all mine.  I get to keep him forever.

Now I gotta finish packing.  We should get the keys to our new place tomorrow and I plan of cleaning, painting & getting it ready to move in on Saturday. 

Have a great day!!

It just keeps getting better every year!!

I started packing up our life again yesterday.  I’m actually a lot more excited about this move.  Well more than the last one anyhow.

The nerd in me is uber excited to be practically neighbors with these geeks!!

And the fact that I just found out Instagram is available on Android!!

Nerd alert.

Yesterday I asked Jeff if he could evaluate my progress.  Seeing results help keep me motivated.

I was a little shocked at how much progress I’ve made!!  I told him “hey, you actually do know what your doing!”

Good thing he get’s my jokes. 

He had me lay on my left side with my right leg in the air.  When I did this on my first appointment, I had zero resistance.  This time as he pushed down, I was able to hold strong.  Not 100%, but we’re both very happy with my progress.

Word on the street is I get to start running next week!! 

Before I get into my trip to Ikea, I’ll update you on how physical therapy is going.

I’ve been working with Jeff twice a week for 3 weeks and feeling a little better.  It’s still too soon to see a huge improvement, but I’ll take what I can get right now. 

He tortures me (in a good way) with different hip & butt strengthening exercises, then uses this metal device to break up the scar tissue.  It’s almost completely gone now so that’s a big plus. 

Then he massages & stretches my arch.  That’s the best part.  I thought for sure I was going to be in so much pain after he aggressively worked on it.  But it feels so much looser and better every time.  I’ve also been making an effort to stretch it several times a day. 

Oh and I finally found a semi stylish pair of kicks that both my podiatrist & PT approve.  Sperry’s yo.

source

The first day I wore them I boxed them back up because they gave me 3 blisters.  A few days later I decided to give them another try.  I’m so happy I did.  They are uber comfy and go with practically everything.

I don’t think I mentioned it on here, but our lease for the apartment we’re in is up in May.  They thought it was cool to try to gouge us and raise our rent.

Good news is, we found a condo with 200 square feet more, a small back yard for the dogs, and many other cool perks for the same amount we’re paying now.  Oh and the coolest part is we’re renting from real humans, not a corporation.

On to the cooler stuff!!

We all know I’d rather run in the mud, than try to decorate my house I decided to go to Ikea & steal their ideas.  Okay truth be told, the cinnamon rolls lured me in.

Here are a few of my favorites.

It’s a little hard to tell, but the color is a light pearl grey that I really like.

Love all of the extra storage over the bed.

They think of everything!!

Mike hate’s the glass cabinets but I love ‘em.  Oh and the sink is so beautiful.

I have no idea how they do this, but I wouldn’t mind living in this tiny studio when it’s all Ikeaed out.

Okay I’ll stop now before WordPress kicks me out for posting too many pictures.

Round 2 of physical therapy went really well today.  Jeff had me do the exercises I’ve been doing at home to make sure my form is correct and added new ones.  My favorite part in the massage & stretching at the end.  Hurts so good.

Funny story, I started doing leg lifts with a weight around my ankle.  After what seemed like forever, I asked Jeff how much longer he was going to torture me?  He said “oh you were supposed to do 75.”

Only he forgot to tell me that part.  Bahahahaha!

Promises of more pain & torture were made.  Love it!

Mike took the day off to hang out with Lissy & I.  She’s spending spring break with us.  I jumped in the car and Mike said they wanted to hang out in Santa Cruz for the day.

It was a perfect day.  Well once we got off the crazy, anxiety inducing winding road with barriers(!) in the center divider to get there.  I still shutter when I think of that.

They wanted to get on the rides.

While I’m more of a beach bum.  Worked out well!

We have one happy kid today.

Now I’m a lobster but a happy lobster. 

After 6 months of not being able to run over 4 miles without pain & tightness, a faulty pair of custom orthotics and a lot of frustration, I asked my podiatrist for the second time to give me a referral to physical therapy.  Well I actually made it seem like it was his idea and it worked. 

Yesterday was my consolation.  After asking me a bunch of questions and doing things like squats, jumps and resistance stuff, he figured out what he thinks is the root of my problem.

My hip muscles are uber weak.  Especially righty. 

Who freaking knew it was my hips that derailed my foot all along!?

And now I know why my hips & right knee would scream at me for days after long runs.  Stairs would be the death of me.

So basically he explained mechanics of how this all works. 

Weak hips are unstable—> wobbly knee—> overwork foot tendons & ligaments—> broken runner.

He did a sports massage with lots of stretching and used a metal object to break up the scar tissue.  It made my foot feel crunchy.  Didn’t hurt much, but kinda weird.

As much as he worked on it, I thought it was going to need a Jazzy to get around, but it hasn’t felt this loose and actually kinda normal in quite a while.    

He has me doing hip strengthening exercises at home and I’ll meet with him twice a week for the next 4 to 6 weeks.

When I asked a very scary question, “when do you think I will be in half marathon shape?” He told me to shoot for this fall.

I’m very cautiously hopeful.  Not too excited yet because I’ve been let down before.  At least I feel like I’m doing something instead of racking my brain trying to figure out what to do next.

With that said, I’m off to do my exercises. And eat dinner at 4:00pm.  And take some Metamucil.   

Cheers!!