Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Some More Acupuncture

As I wrapped up our basement project (seen here) about 6-8 weeks ago, I lightly tweaked something in my back. I think it was from holding a gallon of paint with 1 hand for hours/day. A few chiro visits started to help, but it was lingering. So I added in 2 acupuncture visits at the end of last month:

I thought this was a funny sight when I got off the table: masked and topless after my treatment.

It helped a lot after the first visit, and about totally took care of it after the 2nd.

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Injury Update: More Acupuncture, Rest, Heat, & Drugs

ONE: I've had 2 more rounds of acupuncture since this post nearly 2 weeks ago. The 2nd round was the most uncomfortable I've been laying on that table for 40 minutes. Robert did some "estim" (or "electric stimulation") on 4 points in my foot: a pair up my ankle, and a pair near the arch. It caused my toes and foot to flex about once/second (just a bit faster). Here's an Instagram video of estim on my quads from 2.5 years ago - it was like that, but less "constant" as the pulses were close to a second apart. My foot was then sore the next day, as it had a "workout" at acupuncture.

TWO: I had another PT appointment this week, and she's telling me to do what I think is best. It wasn't until we were chatting that I realized it had been 2 weeks since I swam, and I realized (as I was saying it) that I was OK with that. I think the resting is helping A LITTLE, so I'm going to keep it up for another few weeks.

So still no swimming, biking, or running. No weight-bearing leg exercises. Off my feet as much as possible. And those boring "toe yoga" exercises to build strength in my foot.

Stopped swimming over 2 weeks ago - just strength training.

THREE: PT told me to try heat. Before that, I'd been trying localized icing at her recommendation. There's not any noticeable inflammation to speak off, but icing still felt good. Now we'll see what heat can do. (Not noticing any difference yet.)

FOUR: It's time to try an ibuprofen regimen as well. My pharmacist wife is guiding me on a safe ibuprofen regimen: for the last week, I've been taking 3-4 pills (600-800 mg) 2-3x every day. The trickiest part is to make sure I have food in my stomach for the middle dose (on days I take 3 doses). I've been doing OK about having HEALTHY food (like a banana and a clementine) as a mid-afternoon snack when I take my middle dose. The idea is to have my body always have some of ibuprofen's anti-inflammatory properties in my system to help "kill" anything that's inflamed and sore. It's not for the pain killing benefits, but for the inflammatory killing benefits. We'll see if that does anything.

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Trying Some Rest

Last Wednesday, I saw my PT for the first time in 2 weeks. The week before, I cancelled my appointment saying this:

I had told her that running was a bad idea from the start. And it got hurt on a run 2.5 weeks ago. So back to not running.

When I saw her last Wednesday, we agreed to try as close to TOTAL rest as I can do. So no swimming, biking, or running. (I hadn't been running or biking, but I cut out my 3x/week swims as well.) And no weight-bearing leg exercises. And I think (as she suggested) that stretching isn't helping and could be hurting, so I'm not doing any calf stretches either. I'm just doing some "gentle" foam rolling when I need it.

She asked what percentage better I was since I started seeing her a number of weeks back. I said "well, I AM a bit better... I'd say like 20%?" She smirked and said "Do you know what we call 20%? We chalk that up to the 'placebo effect.'" She's saying I haven't improved. And I think she's right.

Also, on Friday I got in with my old acupuncturist, Robert:

This wasn't a thing I initially thought acupuncture could help, but he relieved a lot of pain on Friday. I'm headed back again this week.

So as of right now, no swimming, light stretching, light rolling, off my feet whenever possible, out of my shoes whenever possible, doing "toe yoga" (more on that later) when I can, and icing that spot daily. We'll see if that yields any added results after 2 weeks.

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Acupuncture After Housework

Back in late June, I posted that I FINALLY figured out where my 6-year-old still nagging injury came from: it was some specific foundation work I did on my house. About a month ago when I wrapped up with it, I stopped by Robert's office for some acupuncture to relieve some pain:

Henry took this photo.


Charlie wanted to try it out when I was done.


Then Charlie proceeded to give Henry a butt massage.

Oh, and here's what the final product looked like:

After pressure washing/scraping, after patching, and all done.


Before patching, and all complete.


Steps: before, and after some concrete and caulk work.


Steps: after priming the areas that needed it, and all complete.


Back wall along driveway: before, patched, and all complete.

Back with a training/injury update soon. Have a good weekend!

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: An Acupuncture Bruise

Before and after Goldy’s Run, I had acupuncture appointments to help ease the pain/tightness in my sacrum. He also worked on a tight glute. When I saw him the 2nd time, he said “Whoa, sorry about THIS last time.” I didn’t know what he was talking about, so he had to tell me he bruised my butt the time before:

My hip / glute.

I laughed and told him “I don’t often look at my butt in the mirror, so if you bruised it last time, I hadn’t seen it!”

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Two Injury Scares, But I Think It's All Good Now

Two weeks ago was the O'Gara's Irish Run where I lightly sprained my ankle. I got some therapy for it (having my chiropractor use Graston Technique on my lower leg which HELPED SO MUCH, and having acupuncture as well), and it got better quickly. I had no worries racing the next weekend at the Lake Johanna 4 Mile with both boys in the stroller:

This photo from my "race photos" post on Wednesday.

I NEVER had to give my ankle a thought in that race, which was great news! ESPECIALLY because the road was really rough in areas, and I could have stepped wrong and turned my ankle. (The stroller helped here - it's easier to take a longer stride and "fly" over a pothole when holding onto the stroller.)

Then the next morning after the race (last Sunday), my right butt cheek started to ache deep inside. I had just been on the trainer an hour before, but not doing anything weird. I stretched it out, but it never really got better. It got worse. Going up stairs hurt. I was bummed. I didn't know what I had done.

I saw my chiro (Dr. Backus) on Monday, and he figured it was a tight (maybe "strained," but not really "hurt") piriformis muscle deep in my butt:

Image via.

He massaged it with his elbows to help loosen it up. I'm supposed to keep stretching. I wonder if really pushing it up those hills at Lake Johanna while pushing a stroller just made something deep in my glute angry.

Then I had acupuncture 2 days later on Wednesday. I basically had to pull down my shorts and let my ass breathe for 45 minutes while being treated. He stuck some needles in it, and even hooked some up to electricity and did some e-stim (similar to what he did to my quad in this video from 2 years ago). It felt a lot better by Thursday.

And then on Friday, I had a massage my wife got me for my birthday, so it got even MORE attention! Jeez, 3 days of work on that butt between Monday and Friday - that's pretty good! ;)

This morning, I went on a long run, and it seems to be OK. It's a little tight right now, but I'll keep stretching it and I think we'll be good! Back with a training update soon!

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Recent Therapy

Well, the newly (and lightly) sprained ankle from a week ago at O'Gara's Irish Run 8K held up FINE for a hard 4 mile race with the stroller today!

I noted that I had Dr. Backus work on my ankle on Tuesday, and after he worked out my lower leg with his Graston tools, my leg felt 100% the rest of the week! Then the pain was just isolated to just below my left ankle bone, and only when I sat down funny to play with the boys, or sit to stretch and yank around on it. (That's where I figured the trauma took place, but I had pain up my leg for 3 days too.) It held up fine for 2 runs this past week (4 and 5 miles).

Then on Wednesday, I saw Robert for some acupuncture. I had the appointment set up for my lower back thinking it would be good to have it worked on the week between 2 races. I asked if he'd rather work on my ankle, and he said "Oh, I LOVE ankles! I find that ankles and wrists are areas that acupuncture can help where other methods have trouble getting in there." So I laid on my back and he put a bunch of needles in my legs and feet:

7 needles in this photo: 5 on the outside of my leg/foot,
1 on top between my toes, and 1 on the inside.

The ankle was JUST FINE on the pothole-laden course this morning. Dr. Backus was right: he said it should be getting back to normal soon. I feel like it will get back to 98% within this next week, but I'm curious how long it will take to get back to 100%. If ever.

Back with a race report shortly which includes me pushing the boys for the race.

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More Acupuncture with Robert

About 2.5 years ago, I started seeing Robert for acupuncture at (now closed) Magna in Minneapolis. Then he moved out on his own, and I saw him a LOT as part of Taproot Acupuncture during the summer of 2016 and through the middle of 2017 (which was my best mutlisport year).

Recently, I realized that he's working at HCMC (where my wife works, meaning insurance covers everything pretty easily). SO SEEING ROBERT COULD BE COVERED BY INSURANCE!! I made an appointment last month at HCMC's "North Loop" clinic...

... and yesterday I saw Robert at the downtown "Be Well" clinic:

I thought this Be Well room was much more "hospital like," but both photos are actually
quite similar. Not that ambiance matters when you're face down with your eyes closed.

He's working on loosening up my lower back and sacrum which have been getting tighter again lately. I have an appointment for next week too - maybe I'll see if he can do anything with my calf (but if I remember right, that was a harder spot for acupuncture to treat).

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Final Trinona Thoughts

I just have 6 final post-race thoughts from the Trinona Triathlon just over a week ago:

• The 5K I did 2 weeks before this race helped my triathlon. The Brian Kraft 5K was 13 days before Trinona, and I think that hard run helped me feel more "comfortable" on the final 5K of the triathlon. It was a well-timed race pre-triathlon.

• I emptied my water bottle over the course of the 11 mile bike! I've never done that before. It was warm and humid, but not HORRIBLE. (I didn't feel like the heat was getting to me on the final 5K run.) I mentioned in my race report that I was pretty sweaty on the bike, but I forgot to mentioned that I nearly drained my water bottle over the short 11 mile ride. Whew. It was sticky out there. (But at least there wasn't any sun, and I've come to realize THAT'S what zaps me.)

• I really felt happy with my "consistent" effort. I didn't have a KILLER swim, bike, or run. But they were all "solid." I keep thinking I could have MAYBE biked a LITTLE harder, but in the end, who knows. But as I mentioned in my race report, I was happy with my pretty even age group placement of 2nd, 3rd, and 1st in swim, bike, and run.

• Glen got a photo of me with my camera. Post-race this is usually what I look like:

Stalking people with a camera. And with a fresh mosquito bite on my jaw.

• Here's a bunch of "thank yous" in a Facebook recap. I posted this 2 days after the race:

This kinda wraps it up nicely.

• Everything is feeling good! (On my body.) In fact, I just dropped from an acupuncture appointment every 14 days with Robert at Element Wellness Group to an appointment ever 28 days. PROGRESS!

That's all for now! Back with some awesome/funny race photos soon, and some training updates.

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Bike, Bike, Bike, and Bike Some More

This mild late-winter has been AMAZING for my biking. After last week, I hit 225 miles outdoors on my tri bike for the year. (And another 7 hours and 22 minutes on the trainer.) I've had more trainer miles by mid-March in the past (4 out of the last 7 years), but NEVER so many outdoor miles! Here's how the last 8 years look for trainer time and outdoor bike miles through March (there's still 11 days left in March this year, so 2017 numbers WILL grow):

2017:
7:22 trainer time
225.51 miles outside

2016:
12:04
124.42 miles

2015:
7:51
71.38 miles

2014:
9:21
8 miles

2013:
3:18
0 miles

2012:
1:16
102.26

2011:
9:47
0 miles

2010:
4:42
35 miles

So in the 7 years from 2010-2016, I biked a total of 341.06 miles outside from Jan-March. If I get in a few more rides this month, I hope to be around 300 miles outside in the same stretch from 2017 alone! WHAT A NICE WINTER! :)

Also, I looked at what month I hit 225 miles of outdoor miles for the year over the last 8 years. It was May 4x, June 2x, and July 1x (when I was injured last year in April and May). And this year, it was mid-March. Double nice.

Anyway, here's what the last 2 weeks of training looked like:

I was taking it easy the 2nd through the 7th because of a sore knee, but then I was back at it pretty solidly this past week. On the 12th, I had a quick, easy trainer ride while my wife did a longer ride:

She likes me, I swear. She was just really into a movie she was watching.
And the light glimmering off my nipple was a bit too much for her.

On Thursday the 16th between classes, I got out for a quick 4x3 mile interval ride down the greenway. (I usually like to do 3x5 mile intervals, but I didn't have time for that - being it's an odd number, I end up a long way from home when I'm done and have a long cool down.) Here's what my pace chart looked like (with the intervals highlighted in red):

When I finished my ride, I saw that most of my interval was a "segment" on GarminConnect, and I ended up on top of 3,500+ by nearly a minute:

(And just a few weeks ago, I ended up at the top of a shorter segment here in St. Paul.)

My intervals were good. I didn't think there was much of a breeze, and I thought I was going out INTO it. I was at 24.0 mph for my first interval for a bit before it dropped to 23.6 mph. I thought I was a stud. But then when I turned around for #2, I realized I was NOW going into the wind. Dang. Here were my average speeds for my 4x3 mile intervals:

- 23.6 mph
- 20.6 mph
- 22.8 mph
- 20.5 mph

- 21.875 mph average

Not great, but not bad for mid-March in Minnesota.

That night, I had a check-in with Robert at Element Wellness Group for some acupuncture. He said it wasn't a "pretty" treatment, but he worked on my tight calves:

... and stuck an EXTRA big needle in my hip. He said half of that gold-ish needle was inside me!
(And it took him a few "pushes" to get it deep enough in my fatty/delicious hips.)

Friday I ran with Charlie. I mentioned my Wed and Fri runs in my weekend post. Some "nice" numbers to those runs. :)

Saturday was an swim of 3x500. I really tried to go hard, and post-workout, I tweeted this:

Last month, I did this swim at Hamline between classes in 7:33, 7:33, 7:36.

And then Sunday (yesterday) I did a St. Paul loop twice (River Road to Shepard Road up Ramsey Hill and down Summit Ave). After 2 Ramsey Hill climbs and lots of stoplights/stop signs, I still ended a 34 mile ride with a 19.8 mph average. Nice end to the weekend!

Let's keep these numbers going in the right direction. Happy training!

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Knee Feeling OK, so I’m RACING This Weekend!

Yesterday, I ran for the first time in 5 days since I noted some knee pain last week. My knee ached, but there was no sharp pain, so I think I’m OK. I’ve started seeing Robert for acupuncture every 2 weeks on Tuesdays, but he got me in yesterday (on my “week off”) so he could do his part to loosen up my knee:

Thanks Robert!

This morning, after running and getting poked yesterday, it’s feeling good. So I’m glad that yesterday I signed up at the last minute for this weekend’s YWCA Indoor Triathlon. I had talked with Nicole last week at the Y, and she noted that they would be finalizing the race/heats early this week, so I QUICKLY signed up after getting home from my run yesterday. (And then I actually got an email with finalized heats just 6 hours later - JUST made it!) Here’s what I noted my race splits could be when I registered:

I’ve done 2 indoor tris at the YWCA, and I did this shortest distance once nearly 3 years ago. Compared to that race, my predicted splits above are 18 seconds faster in the pool, 3 seconds faster on the bike, and 12 seconds slower on the track. Last time, I finished in 25:42. Let’s see if I can break that by a few seconds on Sunday.

p.s. Check my race report from this same race 3 years ago to see cute pics of Henry, along with pics of my wife racing in a heat after me when she was 7 months pregnant with Charlie!

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Three Weeks of Lots of Running

Over the last 3 weeks, I quietly stuck in the best “running streak” I’ve had in probably a year. I had every-other day runs for three weeks. Here’s how my training calendar looks with my running highlighted:

(Nov 28th and Dec 9 were 1/4 mile runs with the stroller part way to school
as to not make Henry late - those don’t count towards my streak.)

Since July (when I started my “back to running” program), I think I’ve only had 1 or 2 weeks prior to this month where I haven’t had a Wed/Fri/Sun run. That’s been my normal 3x/week running, with then a 2 day rest on Mon and Tues. Well, when I realized my wife and 2-year-old were going to be gone Dec 5 - 8, I figured I could maybe more easily fit in runs on days where it’s usually harder to do. So I started a hopeful streak at the end of November, telling myself that I’d easily break the streak if something hurt or ached or if I just needed an extra day of rest.

Everything ended up feeling pretty good, and I didn’t have any major issues finishing my mini-streak. Each weekend had a 7+ mile run as well - my 3 longest runs since March. Now for a slightly easier/shorter week (because of Christmas). Happy training!

Oh, and Robert at Element Wellness Group has been keeping me going with acupuncture. This week, he laid off the back a bit and did some trigger points on my arm (and head, and legs):

Thanks Robert!

p.s. Over those 3 weeks of running, I ran 18.5, 18.5, and 23.5 miles (because that last week was 4 runs, not 3). Usually I LOVE to be at 20-25 miles/week, but I've been stalled out here around 16-18 miles/week since building my miles back up. After an easier/shorter Christmas week, I think I'll be ready to start adding a bit more to my distance. We'll see...

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November Training and Injury Updates

Every day of November had SOME sort of workout, except for the Saturday of Thanksgiving where I was instead stuffing my face at 2 different parties:

The "injury" notes on the 12th and 15th are regarding some pain in my sacrum (and slightly to the right towards my hip), and the "injury" note on the 29th is about my shoulder impingement (swimmer's shoulder) feeling a little achy and tight.

NOTES AND INJURIES REGARDING EACH SPORT:

• SWIM: 12,000 yards on the month. After deciding that I needed to start swimming faster again, my left shoulder started to ache. My left shoulder impingement (AKA "swimmer's shoulder) started to ache 36 hours after a solid swim. Dang. My right forearm is still a bit "angered" by swimming, but it's still slowly getting better. (Remember, I didn't swim for almost a year to let it get better, and that didn't help much.) Hoping for 2 swims/week with SOME intensity.

• BIKE: 13 miles with the boys in tow, and 2:41 on the trainer (or the equivalent of about another 50 miles) for November. After those 2 trainer rides the week of the 7th, I realized for the first time that cycling is one thing that really upsets my sacral pain. I need to take time to stretch out my back post-ride, and I can't ride for too long. Dang. So I took 2.5 weeks off of the bike (which was partly due to resting up before and after the Thanksgiving morning race) before riding again. This is what I'm going to keep "testing." I'll keep an eye on my lower back issues, but I still want to see if I can keep logging more bike miles. Adding my bike and trainer "miles" for last month, I logged a whopping 63 miles. In November of 2015 (when I was getting myself into the best bike shape I'd ever been in), I logged 267 miles, or over 4 times as much.

• RUN: 63 miles on the month. After starting my "back to running" program in July, I was still building miles in August. Then Sept, Oct, and Nov were pretty similar: 68, 66, and 63 miles respectively. (Oct and Nov were a bit lower because I had some races, so I had to ease back and/or take some days off.) Everything is holding steady here, but that's because I'm being smart. I'd LOVE to race the Securian Winter Run Half Marathon again in January, but that'd be stupid to try to force the miles over the next 8 weeks. Nothing too far for me in the near future.

To help with all of this, I've still been seeing Robert at Element Wellness Group. He's been really able to help relieve some sacral pain and my (chronically) sore calves:

I'm not sure how much the cupping helps, but it gives me sweet hickeys.

Here's to another good month of training, some pain-free rides, and some decent runs!

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My Body Post-Race

Three things:

First: Rose, our team founder/captain, snapped this photo at the start of Sunday's race:

This image makes the 32 teams on the trail seem a BIT more crowded, even though we spread out pretty quick. If we zoom in, there are 2 interesting things I'd like to note:

You can still see the haze from the starter's pistol in the air, and the guy making the weird face next to me from my race report seems to be making the weird face because he was trying to sneak between me and a teammate of his (unbeknownst to me).

Second: I went back to Robert at Element Wellness Group for a post-race tune up last night:

Gym shorts and a button up dress shirt are a good combo. Shut up.

The last few times I've seen him, he's done some "trigger point" based acupuncture in my legs, and that has helped loosen things up. (For the next 12-18 hours, my legs have an ache like I just had a deep massage.) And he's been trying more e-stem on my lower back (electrical current hooked up to 2 needles) to try to get some relief from my lower back pain.

Third: My legs post-race felt pretty good - about how I figured they'd feel. During the race and the evening after the race, everything felt totally fine. The next afternoon, the ache I get in the lower inside of my right leg (where they thought I had a stress fracture months ago) was a bit stronger than it had been in recent weeks, but it sure wasn't any sort of set-back or anything. Two days post-race, my lower back ached a bit more, but that's just something I've been told I'll be feeling for the rest of my life. And I'm used to that. And finally, this morning (3 days post-race) I went for my first post-race run: 3 easy miles. My calves were a bit tight, but my lower leg felt normal. (Well, "normal" as in how it's felt for the last 2 months.)

Here was my full race report from Monday if you missed it. So (KNOCK ON WOOD) everything seems to be a "go" for Rocky's Run 6K in just over 2 weeks!

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Bad News (x3) and Good News (x3)

BAD NEWS: I set a bad PR on Sunday. I stepped on the scale and weighed in as the most I've ever been: 167.8 lbs. In the last 2-3 years, when I'm in "top form" I'm about 10 lbs lighter than that (155-158). It's rare I'm over 160. Well, I've been climbing since spring, and this year's new norm is around 163-164. Sunday morning I felt pretty water logged, so I wasn't surprised I was so heavy. Sure, SOME of this is muscle, but not all of it. (Sidenote: now that I'm back to lifting weights regularly, I'm only doing it about every 3 days for my upper body. But I think my upper body likes that, and I'm lifting decent weights and putting on some muscle. FOUR people from my gym over the last few months have mentioned that my upper body is getting bigger and/or I'm looking beefy.) I've been trying to work on my nutrition a bit more, and I need to keep up with that.

BAD NEWS: Charlie fell hard on his face on Monday, and he chipped his 2 front teeth. We called the dentist, and he has us just keeping an eye on his teeth. Charlie didn't seem too affected by it, as he napped for a good chunk of our 17+ miles on the bike a bit later:

Passed out on the Greenway Trail.

BAD NEWS: Check out this gnarly bruise on my toe:

I was taking off my shoes on Sunday and awkwardly tripped. (I do EVERYTHING awkwardly.) I ended up falling forward on my toe as it bent backwards and then got all of my body weight on top of it. Yikes. It COULD be sprained, but I don't think so. It's actually fine while running. I Instagrammed that pic last night noting that it looked real sexy along with the 2 hashtags #TheToeHairIsLikeIcingOnTheSexyCake and #FirstTimeThatHashtagHasBeenUsed.

GOOD NEWS: After a few weeks of speed work, my legs are holding up OK! In last Wednesday's post, I noted some details of my last 3 weeks of speed work. My calves are getting a bit tighter (how they USUALLY feel), but the lower leg pain and my lower back are being kept in check. I wanted to do some slightly faster miles in the middle of my long run on Sunday, but being my calves were just a bit achy, I just did an easier long run.

GOOD NEWS: Acupuncture is still going great. When I saw Robert at Element Wellness Group last night (for the first time in 2 weeks), he worked a bit more on loosening up my lower back (which got a bit upset from sitting 4+ hours in a car on Saturday):

And he worked some trigger points on my calves because I told him what I just noted above about how they were starting to tighten up with some speed work lately:

I've shared photos with more needles in me, but being he worked such well-established trigger points, I really felt this session for the next 12 hours.

GOOD NEWS: Yesterday, I had my longest swim since last August! (Since I stopped swimming because of my forearm issues and then started up again a few months ago.) I logged 1800 yards total: 200 warm up, 4x300 (with a long 0:45 rest between intervals), 300 of kicking, and a 100 cool down. Nothing fancy, but my distances are really starting to feel like workouts again!

So it looks like I'll be ready to race in 11 days! I'm getting STUPIDLY excited to be racing again!

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Acupuncture Break-Through

When I first started seeing Robert (the acupuncturist) at Magna, he tried working my sore lower leg a LITTLE. Back then, we thought it was a stress fracture, and shortly after, we thought it was referred pain from a lower back issue. (Now I'm pretty sure it's actually a lower leg issue with some tendons/muscles down there.) He put 1 or 2 needles in "the sore spot," and I thought it actually made things worse the next day. So we stopped doing that.

Recently, I told him we should try working the leg again. He'd been timid to do so based on what happened in May. But he thought it was worth a shot. So ten days ago, I Instagrammed this picture:

Captioned "'You look like a puffer fish,' said Robert from @element_mpls.
Really worked on my sore leg this week."

About 15-20 minutes into the session (which usually consists of having the needles in for 25-30 minutes), I felt a tingly sensation around the side of my leg and looping below the back of my calf. It didn't hurt, but it sure was odd! It lasted about 5-8 seconds. When Robert came back in, he said that could only be a good thing. And my leg felt a bit better later that week.

When I saw him earlier this week, he loaded it up again. Only this time, he even put needles straight down the back of my calf:

(There are some on the inside of my leg here, too, that you just can't see.)

During that session, I felt a slight cramping sensation in the back of my calf for a few seconds about 20 minutes in. So something was working. We think.

After that visit is when I posted about my first "speed work" since March, and Robert shared that on the Element Wellness Group's Facebook page:

I can't WAIT to hear all of his thoughts put together in a big case study someday!

In the meantime, I'm finishing up a week of 40 minute runs, and I'm thinking about my first race back in about 5 weeks! More on that in a few days.

p.s. Robert and I have been talking for a few weeks about social media, and he's just getting his pages started for his new solo company. So check out Element Wellness Group on Facebook and on Instagram as Robert is getting things going.

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I had an ACTUAL run!

My "return to running" program from my P.T. has been going OK. On Sunday, I actually FINISHED it with my first straight-through run since MARCH. It was 20 glorious minutes of solid running. Here's what last week looked like in my training log:

W and F were both 5x(4 min running, 1 min walking), a short easy swim on Saturday
with some kick drills, and some riding with my boys on Sunday
as we cheered on Mama at the Women's Tri.

P.T. says to keep progressing with my running like I did this fall after I took time off after the Loony Challenge: I'll be running easy runs 3x/week adding 5 minutes to the runs each week. So this week I'll be running 25 minute runs, next week I'll be running 30 minute runs, etc.

I'm not out of the woods by ANY means yet. I stopped going to P.T. 2 weeks ago because she says she can't help me any more. I went to a chiropractor on Monday (and will be going back tomorrow) to check on my sacrum, which appears to be a little locked up. Here's a rundown of what's up with my injuries:


• My Chiro thinks my leg pain is NOT referred pain from my back. He thinks it was/is a separate tendon/ligament issue that didn't show up on my MRI just because it wasn't flared up that day. For certain reasons, I believe him, but I'm not totally sold. He's going to address them both, but as separate issues.

• Leg pain is being kept in check throughout these runs. It's not 100% gone, but P.T. was still OK with me running as long as I wasn't making it worse. At WORST, it's just a bit of a deep ache.

• Lower back / disc / sacrum / whatever-it-is feels the same. It's felt this way for nearly 3 years, and it's really not getting any better (with lots of P.T. and 4 months of non-running) or worse. This is part of the reason why P.T. said she can't do any more for me. She recommended maybe going back to my doc again to see if there's anything else we should do. (Cortizone shot?)

• My shoulder wasn't feeling much better over the last 6 weeks, but then I went for a swim that HELPED! Remember, I went for a swim back in July, and my shoulder had some pain right afterwards. I couldn't massage it out. P.T. said it was an "impingement" (basically "swimmer's shoulder). I've been doing some exercises for it for a few weeks, but it's just ached and ached. Then I went for a short swim just to "test" it on Saturday, and that made it feel 10x better! So maybe just a short swim each week to keep the blood flowing if it helps! I'd LOVE to get back to swimming again!

• With everything else progressing slowly in the right direction, I'm currently most worried about my left foot. I mentioned it as a possible issue in this post 2 weeks ago, and since then it got a bit better, and has since stalled out. It doesn't hurt when running, which is probably a good thing. But I can't walk around barefoot for more than a few minutes before it starts to ache. I'll give it 1 more week of running before talking to P.T. and/or my doc again.

• Acupuncture is helping to keep things loose. I didn't see Robert for a bit in June/July, and that's when things sort of stalled out. I didn't realize it was helping so much until I wasn't getting it. I went back to Element Wellness Group last night:

Nearly 30 needles in me all over my body, with current being sent through
my right side (where things are the most "locked up").


Doing some ear work this time.

Oh, and I should mention 2 concerns that readers recently had. First, someone commented wondering if I needed new shoes. My shoes don't have too many miles on them (I track them RELIGIOUSLY), but I AM thinking about trying something like the Hokas for more cushion. And second, someone commented with concerns that I was running too fast. In my 2 or 3 minute runs, 7-7:30 pace still felt "easy." (That's a minute or so off my half-marathon pace, but for just a few minutes.) Now that I'm up to "straight-through" runs, my pace has dropped because my endurance is squat. On Sunday, my easy pace for 20 minutes was exactly 8:00/mile. Don't worry - I'm not running too hard. In fact, I need a certain pace to keep my cadence up so I don't heel strike and ruin my form.

Alright, back to some easy runs. Here's hoping my foot keeps getting better!

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Foot Issues? PT Says to Keep Running (For Now)...

So in my last post where I noted having finished 6 runs recently, I noted some pain on the bottom of my left foot. Well, it's not going away. It's not bad, and running doesn't SEEM to aggravate it now (but remember, I'm only running 3 minutes at a time with 2 minute walking breaks for a total of 15 minutes of running). I had some acupuncture last night, and Robert addressed that area a bit:

20+ needles in me: a few in my lower back, in my arms, and some in my left shoulder.


I Instagrammed this earlier today. That one needle in the bottom of my foot is right where the pain is.

Robert warned me that the needle in the bottom of my foot would hurt going in. He had me do a bit of a breathing exercise to get me ready for it. It wasn't horrible, and then it was fine as it sat there for 30 minutes. The pain was a lot better last night, but is back today.

I had a PT appointment this morning. We're done meeting now unless anything "new" arises. She's a bit worried (as am I) about this new foot issue, but she noted that my return to running has been "TEXTBOOK" and that it's not because I just suddenly bumped my mileage up too fast or something dumb like that. So I'm supposed to try another week of running and see how I feel. If the pain starts to get worse when running, then we can reevaluate. (A meeting with my Doc and an x-ray to confirm any bone issues would be the next step.) But we're hoping it just goes away.

As it stands now, I'm still running! Back to my 5x(3 min running, 2 min walking) workout on Friday!

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New Acupuncture

So after my last acupuncture appointment at Magna mid-June, we all learned that Magna was closing. It was a sad day. Robert (my favorite needle-jockey [I don't know if he likes to be called that or not so let's not let this catch on]) decided that the closing of Magna was the jolt he needed to go out on his own. Here's part of a note he sent to his former Magna clients earlier this month:

I am happy to announce that my new acupuncture practice, Taproot Acupuncture, has an official location and opening date...

Together with Tara Schug and Teddy McCann, formerly Magna’s talented chiropractor and massage therapist respectively, I am very excited to continue offering the collaborative model of health care we are so passionate about! This had been our intention all along, but it was proving to difficult to find a space that was both suitable and ready to operate. Well, last week we found just that in a space in Northeast Minneapolis! Conveniently located just off of the New Brighton Blvd exit on 35w, the new location is at 1915 Broadway St NE and will offer free designated parking, larger treatment rooms, and a family-friendly reception area. Although we will all continue to run our businesses separately, we will be maintaining an overall brand for ourselves as Element Wellness Group.

Here are his new hours and info:

MWF - 8am - 4pm
TTh - 1 - 7pm
Sat - By Appointment

Robert Crane LAc, DiplOM
Taproot Acupuncture
at Element Wellness Group
1915 Broadway St. NE • Mpls, MN 55413
P. (612)999-5894
robert@elementmpls.com
www.elementmpls.com/

I sort of realized how much Robert was helping me once he WASN'T helping me any more. After Magna closed, my healing started to plateau. But now I started seeing Robert in his new location. The waiting room area is still under construction, but his room is all set up nicely:

When I went to see him last week, I complained about my shoulder from my first swim in recent months, and he worked that area too.

Working on my lower back/disc/sacrum issues.


Shoulder needles. Robert grinned when he told me he got
the little naked guy in the photo in the background because he knows I like him.


Some cupping after the acupuncture.


He was super proud of that dark coloring on my upper back.


I look like a Super Nintendo controller.

So check out Robert at 1915 Broadway NE: robert@elementmpls.com or (612)999-5894. Tell him I sent you, and he'll probably give you no discount what-so-ever. Because that's how special I am.

See you next week, Robert!

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