The adventure in healing

As I've probably expressed before, I'm not a very good patient. I don't like going to the doctors until I have to and even then, I still don't like going. As my posts have stated before, I have a nagging hip injury and I've had enough of said nagging hip injury so I sucked it up and went to the doctor.

The doctor, thankfully, said nothing was broken. So, now I have a nagging hip injury where I have to suck up some humility and have to work with someone to get better. And today was my first PT appointment. The last time I had therapy was for a nagging elbow injury. It was one of those 20 years of swimming followed by one to many falls on the snowboard and some mountain biking added in and you get an elbow that you can't straighten. The OT worked with me for a few weeks and we finally got it straigtened out only for me to get a stress fracture in my foot and 12 weeks on crutches to wreck it again. But for the most part, my elbow doesn't always feel great, but it doesn't limit me from having fun.

Now, I have an injury that is limiting me from doing something that I really would like to do pain free. Here comes the kicker.... I don't get paid to run so if someone were to say to the insurance company, she can't run so she needs physical therapy to run again, the insurance company might say... uh... no... but thankfully, it doesn't just hurt to run, but it hurts to sit for long and short periods of time. Since my job is to sit behind a computer for 8 hours a day and I'm pretty much in pain for 7.5 hours of those days then yup... insurance likes me again... Which all in all really made me miss my days being a D1 athlete.

Back to PT... So, she pokes me and prods me and asks me 100 questions. One of my favorite conversations of the morning included this:

PT: "So, what do you do as hobbies? Obviously, you run, what else?"
JP: "Well, I'm training for a triathalon so I swim and bike as well, but I also mountain bike, surf, snowboard, and hang with my dogs"
PT: "So, you JUST run, swim, road bike, mountain bike, surf, snowboard, and hang with your dogs?"
JP: "uh... yeah... I JUST do all those"

In the sucking up humility lesson that I'm learning, I wanted to look at her and say, "If I just do all those then you must be doing something cooler... maybe I should get your cell number now so you can take me to do some of these cool activities"... I didn't though.

She then said something along the lines that there are typically three things that can cause hip pain... and I have all three... I don't remember what she said after that as all I could think of was, "oh crap, I'm going to be doing this FOREVER".

And the last thing that transpired was the homework assignment. She wants me to be able to "isolate my lower ab muscles". She told me to put my fingers about less than an inch inside my hip bone, then I need to flex that area, but I can't use my diaghram or flex my bum muscles. I was able to get a hint on how to do this from my PT friend, Anna, so I might be able to complete my homework assignment before my next appointment. So, what makes me laugh about all this is that I had two massages recently. I was told to relax my bum muscle. "It is relaxed"... "no, it's not"... "yes, it is"... "Jenny.... It's not relaxed. I can tell"... "oh"... "thank you"... So... I'm going to try this isolating bit, but since I don't even know I'm flexing my bum I think it's going to be a lot harder then it sounds...

Hey, I'm on the road to recovery... Hip Hip... HOOOO RAY!!!!

New MB Trails

So about two weeks ago now, Nate and I dared to venture outside our usual mountain biking trails and it paid off. It was a longer drive then usual, but there was some super duper sweet trails. If you have ever been to Kingdom trails, this place has a very similar trail to Sidewinder, but it's free... :)

Here's the video:

If you are interested in checking them out, let us know and we'll schedule a trip!! That's how we roll... :)

Hip Update

This is my Pesky Hip update: The long and short of it... My hip still hurts! I haven't ran in almost a month. It still doesn't hurt to ride my bike or swim so I've been riding a lot... :) I've been doing a little stretch routine every other night and the nights that I haven't been doing the routine, I've been trying to do yoga. I have had massage twice... my massage therapist blew me off on Tuesday, when I was actually looking forward to it... Don't worry, Amanda... we can still be friends!! :) I have been trying to talk longer walks with el pupperrooeys and it's started aching a lot again. From every injury I have had and all of the aches and pains that I have felt in my lifetime, the only chronic-like pain that I have felt like this is when I have fractured something. But I've also noticed that when I finally do decide to go to a doctor, that most of the pain subsides... So, I scheduled an appointment for tomorrow at 2:00pm. I'm looking forward to telling them that if their solution is to rest, that it's not going to happen exactly as they see it so come up with a list of exercises that I can do and a list that I cannot! I refuse to let this injury ruin my summer so I'll still be hitting the trails and the road soon!!! Speaking of trails... we found some new ones... that'll be next post!!!

Bike Accidents Checklist

This will probably be one part of many!

1) The Endo - Complete... the slow motion endo, the downhill endo, the trying to jump a rock endo, you name it... I've done it!

2) The high speed, downhill slide off your bike onto pavement - Complete...

3) The not as high speed, dog pulling you off the bike onto pavement - Complete!!

4) The slower speed car turning into you and you end up wripping off the side mirror - Mark that one complete! And here comes the story... Last night, my friend Brian and I were riding our bikes to Amanda and Sarah's for our normal Wednesday night dinner. We were about a mile from Brian's house and we were coming down the main street in Dover. The car traffic was pretty thick and we were riding in between the driving cars and the parked cars. All of a sudden, a truck decided to turn into a parking space. He didn't bother turning on his turn signal at any point and I was coming up alongside of him. He turned right into me essentially. I yelled and tried to turn with him. I ended up wripping off his side mirror with my arm. I lost some skin on my knuckles and my forearm. My pinky feels a little funky but I think it's just a bruise of some sort. I didn't hit the pavement at all!! I got mad skills! :) He did get out of and ask if I was ok. He offered to get me an ambulance. I was fine, just a little shaken so I said, 'no thanks' and we continued on to Amanda and Sarah's! (After we pulled away, I thought about going back and getting a picture of the lack of mirror, but I decided not to... he might have made me pay for it!).

It's always an adventure!

Jesus was a runner

These guys also ran the tough mudder on Saturday...

Half way through the race, I saw them again... a little dirtier this time.

They needed help getting up the evil knivel obstacle. In turn, they helped others get up the wall as well.

I wish I had it on video, but as they were helping someone up the wall, the helpee yelled, 'Ah Help Me Jesus!' I almost peed my pants!!!

Don't Shake the Baby!

*Thanks mom for making a collage of all of the pictures of me hanging out with a baby niece or nephew! :)

I have 11 nieces and nephews and I have probably handled all of them as a baby...but NONE of them have done this to me:

Yes, that is baby spit up.. and yes, it is ALL over my face and near my ear, and down my shirt, and Nate would NOT let me clean it up until after a picture was taken!

You silly Caad9...

*Not my bike... I'm too lazy to walk down the stairs to take a picture of my bike...

I have a love/hate relationship with my bike. I love the idea of riding my bike, but I hate when I ride my bike and I $UCK... Here's how it went down...

I needed to take my car to the shop this morning to get it inspected. I figured it would be a good idea to ride home since I need to get some miles on my bike. I looked at the weather report and it said, winds North/North East 15 mile per hour with 20+ mph gusts. I was riding north, so I figured I would have a tailwind the whole way... Well, I'm not that smart with the weather report and when it says winds North/North East,  it means that the winds are coming from the North or North East... Not that they will be blowing North or North East! (LESSON LEARNED) So, I get about 4 miles away from the car shop and most of the ride is uphill from the coast to inland so for me and my lack of hill ability, I was already struggling. Then the winds started blowing. There were more then a handful of times that I was peddling down the hill, my speedometer would say, 19, and then wind shot, back down to 16. There were uphills that I was trying my darndest and barely getting above 13... It was a sad morning... There was even a point where I cried and told whomever that I would be nice to the world around me if the winds would just stop... The winds didn't stop...

Oh well... I'll keep riding and keep trying... Maybe by September, I'll be able to ride my bike!!

My Man is a Mudder... I already knew he was Tough!

My main squeeze, Nate, did the Tough Mudder New England on Saturday. It was quite a race. It was a 10 mile course with 27 obstacles throughout the course. Some were physically challenging and some were mentally challenging. Most involved mud so I chose not to do it this year. :) Nate joined a team of about 20 with his buddies Wes and Brian.

This is the team:

Here is Nate and his team at the starting line:

And Nate and his team doing the braveheart charge, which is just running down the mountain where everyone yells...

And now they begin a mile run/walk up Mount Snow. Nate said that this was one of the worst parts. Just walking a mile up a hill...

Brian's wife, Cassie and I, waited for the boys at the 5th obstacle called Boa Constrictors. This is Nate approaching the obstacle. He was still clean but still smoking... :)

And that is Nate entering the obstacle. This was two sewer pipes where the bottom of the first and the top of the second were nearly submerged in water. The mud and water smelled like funk!! Cassie and I stood down-wind from this obstacle and I believe we both almost gagged a few times.

That's Nate getting into the second one!

And Brian coming out of the first...

And that's Nate walking away from the second one....

Brian, Nate & Wes after they went through Boa Constrictors:

Nate running through tires:

And then Nate and his team climbing up yet another hill:

The next obstacle that I saw the team pass was called Evil Knivel. This is Nate and Brian approaching:

Nate, Brian and Wes waiting for their team:

Nate's team was very smart and made him get up the obstacle. Then he could help everyone else as they were getting up. Here is Nate:

The next obstacle was called spider webs. This is Brian getting over:

And then Nate:

The next obstacle I saw them at was called Glacier. This is Nate moving down the glacier.

Nate after glacier. He was looking pretty yucky!!

After running over the snow, they had to run up an area where there were hay bail hurdles and fire hoses. Somewhere in all that spray is Nate... charging...

Running up yet another hill:

This is Nate and Brian getting into Blood Bath:

Nate coming out of Blood Bath:

And the two guys covered in green food coloring and freezing...

Nate running over some hurdles. Everyone else was walking in between the two pipes, using their hands, and getting over the hurdles. Nate was running on them...

Nate and Brian leaving the fire obstacle:

The second to last obstacle was a slip n' slide. As Nate and Brian were approaching the obstacle, I was sort of suprised that they didn't hold hands and slide down together... It sort of looked like they were going to... :)

And the final obstacle, electroshock therapy:

Brian and Nate finishing... Nate surprisingly let Brian beat him... :)

CORRECTION: Nate did NOT let Brian beat him... He clearly passed the finishing line before Brian!