Sunday, July 11, 2010

Free at Last!

Free at last, free at last
I thank God I'm free at last

Sorry to be so melodramatic, but I'm out of my sling.
Orders are to work on regaining the range of motion.
Therapy starts in three weeks. That's gonna hurt more than the original injury.
Currently, I'm hurting myself more than the original injury. I'm shocked at how much range of motion I've lost.
I'm not supposed to lift any weights, but he didn't say anything about surgical tubing, so I've been doing some limited triceps exercises with my ceiling-mounted rubber tubing. I also use it to hold onto while raising my arm higher. The most pain is coming from the front of my arm. The bone certainly is not strong, and sometimes the pain from inside the bone actually gets bad but not dangerously severe.
My arm is getting stimulated a lot. It's getting stronger real fast, but there's a very long way to go. In spite of setbacks, my diet and religious following of doctor orders has led to a faster progress than normal (so far - knock-on-wood).
Overall, though, in spite of all the pain, I feel better. I really enjoy using my left arm, almost like I used to, getting dressed, tying shoes, taking showers, driving my car...

I ran last Thursday with DTR, and at Elk Meadow near Evergreen in my Five Fingers before my friend, Andy's, birthday party. I'm not running on rocky stuff at full speed, and I'll walk if there's the slightest possibility of falling. My left foot hurts today, so tomorrow will probably just be a gym workout. The great news is that my running at Wash Park can proceed at full-speed. There's no reason to run any slower on the manicured track around the park.

A little over a week ago, I hiked 18.6 miles at Red Rocks with a new set of friends - Run Rebellion. About once a month, they do something fun, free, and a bit on the dare-you-to side of things. They like to pick lap-courses and see how many laps people are willing to do. Jason and I have already talked about doing 100 miles at Wash Park. That's 38.8 laps.
Years ago, The first long trail-run I ever had at 24hr/100miles was a self-supported event where I only made it 76 miles. I finished that time with blisters, very severe chaffing in my crotch, and no so good in the armpits, either. I could have kept going, but not the full 24hr nor 100 miles. I quit when I did because I would lose too much quality training if I made my issues ever-worse. And the event didn't even count for anything but training. And I figured I learned everything I had hoped to learn from the event.
But this time, I already know about chaffing, blistering, nutrition, etc. Yep, I'm really, really out of shape, but I'm not exactly "racing", either.
Coming off PF and a broken arm, it's kind of ridiculous, but are any of you surprised that I would go for this? There's no pressure - maybe I'll quit after 40 miles? Or 80? Who cares? It's all just simple fun.

3 comments:

  1. Keith constantly jokes about having "forearms of steel" and being "ambidextrous" from his all of the "special exercises" he's been doing 'cause his wifes too damn tired all the time. :)

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  2. So THAT'S why I'm ambedexterous!! I'll be looking like Popeye in no time!

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