Guest Post at I am moms

I just did a guest post at I Am Moms. Jasmine posts regularly on issues of indo-americans (Desis), motherhood and the juggling act necessary to a successful mom and wife --all seen through the lens of a second generation Indo-American. I contributed a guest post on How my Desi family planted the Seeds of Triathlon..

Check it out!

WTF is going on around here???

How can someone with no discernible ass have a broken butt???

I thought things were getting better after my 6 mile run. I thought I was smart to skip shamrockn and do an easy six miles on my own.

The next day I noticed a pain upon sitting at my chair at work. I emailed Dr. B Medicine Woman, "I am having some pain in my butt when I sit. Not even real pain, just feels like a bruise." I honestly thought she might say, "Oh this is a good thing!!! That means you are healing!!"

Yeah, not so much.

She wrote back, "Sounds like proximal hamstring tendinosis. You need to nip this in the bud very quickly before it gets out of hand."

Wait, what?

Then, "With all the icing you are doing you might want to consider taking a break from running for awhile." What's a "awhile".. "A few months!"

Wait, what the hell is going on? Only a few weeks ago I was doing great. Now, after ONE STUPID FALL, I NEED TO TAKE MORE TIME OFF THAN FOR A STRESS FRACTURE??"

Not happy. I spent most of last week laying in bed after work too depressed to do anything. I did my icing and my hip exercises but I wasn't happy about it. My poor family has been taking the brunt of my bitchiness these days.

I threatened them that I would start smoking, that I would only eat fast food, that I would never eat another vegetable. (Ok Ok, I'm a drama queen when upset). I would only watch Real Housewives of Orange County or other Reality TV shows.

The weekend was the worst. No plans, no running, nothing. Pain continued on and off.

I managed to get a bit of "FrostNip" on my ass from icing too much. Yeah, that's a visual isn't it?

Today, my ass doesn't hurt when I sit. My low right back is achy instead. I have an early morning appt with Dr. B., on thursday and another appt with the PT in her office the same day. "Eccentric exercises", she said would help.

I'm keeping my fingers, toes, and legs crossed hoping for a good result from my visit with her. I don't know WTF is going on around here, but it is time for it to move on...

GRR!
Later.

No Run Mama: the tale (tail) of the broken butt

Weekend contained both heartbreak and side-splitting laughter. I had every intention of racing Shamrockn' half marathon this weekend and planned my days accordingly.

Guzzled water like it was going out of style all week. I was drinking nearly 70 oz of water a day, which although it doesn't sound like much more than the 8 8 oz glasses recommended was a lot for me. Did a second test run of 4 miles on friday and the hip.felt.fine. Went to bed early on friday night but tossed and turned because a dog on the next block was barking. All. Fkng. NIGHT. At 3 a.m. it was still barking. For a sample of what I heard all night, click here.

Saturday continued on my waterfest while I took RugRat #1 to the crackhouse fleet feet and bought her some brand new running shoes. About a month ago, she suddenly announced that she wanted to run a 5k. I asked her, "Are you sure???" she was emphatic in her reply, "YES!" so I signed her up for the Run Rocklin 5k. It was after I clicked, "PAY" and printed out my receipt that I asked her, "You know how far a 5k is, right?" She replied, "1.3 miles." I shook my head and twisted my fingers and said, "Almost right. It's 3.1 miles." RugRat#1 lost color in her face and said, "ohhh...." but I encouraged her and said, "No worries you can do it. I will help you." Reminder: RugRat #1 does not have a history of being athletic. RugRat#2 in order to differentiate herself from her sister is a "jock." So off to the fleet feet we went on saturday. They had shoes for her in.her.size. This is no small feat as she has no small feet. Size 8.5. NARROW.. While waiting for her to pick shoes, I drank 2 20 oz bottles of water. Then I decided I needed new trail shoes as my other pairs are over 3 years old. I present to you, the Asics Trabuco 14, the newest in the TriKaren collection.

After fleet feet, we went to Costco to buy such necessities as a 7 lb jar of olives, 20 kiwis, and enough tampons to last me until menopause. I continued to drink water while running over old people and small children pushing the cart through Costco.

I got home, unloaded car, put away all groceries, admired my shoes and put my feet up on the ottoman and dozed. I only got up to pee. I made a carb-rich dinner, set out all my clothes, set the coffeepot, confirmed with a friend that I would meet at her house at 0:dark:30, set my alarm and went to sleep.

I had nightmares of running the race. Actually the nightmare was that my hip was in stabbing pain and I was limping through the race -- I was only at mile 4 in my dream and I kept being passed by other people and kept thinking, "oh god I have 9 more miles to go..". I awoke at 3 a.m. with a horrific pain in my hip. It wasn't the stabbing pain of my dream, but it was a definite pain. I got up and walked around and it seemed to go away. I climbed back into bed and at 4:50 my alarm went off. My hip felt almost swollen it was in so much pain. It was at that moment I realized that running a half marathon while still recovering from an injury probably wasn't the best idea. I texted my friend and told her I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I got some ice, put it on my hip and crawled in bed to let the ice do its magic.

I woke up at 8 a.m. The ice pack was flaccid; my hopes of a PR dashed. I got up, ate a little breakfast and realized that my.hip.felt.ok. I suggested to RugRat#1 that we test out her new shoes and take them for a spin around the block. She agreed and we all got dressed and laced up. RugRat #2 decided to accompany us as well. So here we were, one happy family (minus hubs) gimping our way around the block. After one mile, RugRat #1 was finished. So was RugRat #2. I felt great so I decided to try for 4 miles.

I ended up doing 6 miles. My hip never hurt while running. I was glad I skipped Shamrockn' since I could FEEL the decline in my performance after a 10-day hiatus. I was huffing and puffing. But it was cool that my hip. never. hurt.

Today, I never even noticed my hip at work. I did notice a weird, bruised feeling near my sitbones on the right side, but no sharp pain, no hip pain. Just a little ischial tuberosity pain while sitting.

I emailed Dr. B, medicine woman (Sports Med Doc) to see if a broken butt feeling is normal part of the healing process.

For fun, Sunday night I went to a local comedy club and saw Russell Peters. I don't know if it was the $9 margarita or what, but I could not stop laughing during the show. He was trying out new material for his 2012 world tour so some of his jokes seemed out of the norm of making fun of indians and chinese people. But it was a good laugh and I certainly needed it.



later!

Now What?

In 3 days I am supposed to run the Shamrockn' Half Marathon in Sacramento. I have been battling hip problems for nearly 2 weeks and had a run haitus for 10 days. My 3 mile run yesterday went very well. No pain, just a little stiffness this morning.

Now as I sit here, I am feeling a twinge of pain in the hip. Shit.

Should I run Shamrockn anyway? I don't know. I anticipated a nice little PR but now, that idea is out of the question I am sure. Maybe I should just skip the race and enjoy sleeping in instead?? Firm decision-making is not my forte obviously.

Last year, Shamrockn did not go well for me at all. I just didn't feel well and later that day realized I was coming down with the flu. Am I slated for another lackluster performance? Should I just dress up as a crazy leprechaun and enjoy myself and not worry about a PR?

No I wouldn't really wear this.. The wand is too heavy to carry..

.

I suppose I will just decide saturday night or sunday morning how I feel and plan my day accordingly.

Something to look forward to--I will be going to see Russell Peters live in Sacramento Sunday night. Nothing can cheer me up more than watching Russell Peters impersonate indian accents with gusto and verve.


And just for fun, I've include another clip. I am actually in the clip at time stamp :35. I went to this comedy show many years ago and you can see my reaction at his insistence that Indian Women are hairy.


Later!

The more things change...well, you know.

Ok I suck ass lately as a blogger. I haven't been writing, but truly it was for a great reason. I was running my ass into the ground. For the month of January I ran 97 miles. In February I ran 116 miles! Between all the running and work and rugrats things have been super hectic.

I decided to be as boringly consistent as possible in my running and to quit questioning my coach and just do as he says.

Coach: Run 12 miles today.
Me: YESSIR! At what pace?

Coach: Run easy 6 miles today.
Me: OK! I'll go slow.
Everything was going great with my training. Until

dun dun dun!
I tripped and fell while running on some single track a couple of weeks ago. I didn't exactly FALL.. I sort of caught myself in mid-trip (which was slow motion in my mind) and was so happy that I didn't fall right on my face in mud that I gave a little happy dance for joy. I didn't think anything about it until

dun dun dun!
I went for a 14 mile run the next morning. Nothing hurt as I was running. After 3 miles I propped up my foot on a flower pot to tie my shoe and as I leaned forward I felt a tightness/pulling in my Gluteus .. I ignored it tied my shoe and continued to finish my run. No big whoop.

I did all my runs for the rest of the week with no problem whatsoever. I took thursday off entirely since I was over my weekly mileage. I went to bed thursday night looking forward to a nice 8 mile fartlek the next morning.

Friday morning I got out of bed and Dun Dun DUN! MY ASS AND HIP HURT LIKE HELL! Just walking around the house. JUST WALKING! I thought, maybe I slept in a wierd position or maybe ... it was that half trip a few days earlier. But I knew the pain from several years ago. Sharp pain in my hip and butt that had derailed my first 2 attempts at CIM.

Saturday I was feeling a bit worse but took an Motrin and left for my 16 mile run. I decided that if after 6 miles I still hurt, I would cut my run short and come home. Lo and behold, at mile 6, I felt GREAT! So I continued on. By mile 10 I was struggling to keep a 10 min/mile pace. My stomach was upset (from Motrin), My hip/butt hurt, and my knee hurt.

I hobbled home having completed the 16 miles in 2:55. Lame. I emailed the sports medicine doc and quickly had an appointment for wednesday morning.


So the Good News:As I suspected I pulled a couple of glute muscles and that destabilized my hip, causing pain.

MD said things look REALLY GOOD for several reasons:

1. I haven’t seen her for almost 2 years. This bodes well for my prognosis.
2. My hips/leg muscles are EXTREMELY STRONG.
3. I came in very early before severe injury took place. She also said I was smart to not run since Saturday.
4. It is a minor “butt pull”.

LET THE BUTT JOKES BEGIN!

I got a bunch of stretches/exercises and she is telling me to ICE until I turn into SNOW MISER.


I am to take the rest of the week OFF of running and then test it early next week. I have Shamrockn' Half Marathon on March 11th so this injury is really cutting it close.

On the home front, the impossible happened. RugRat #1 asked to move back in with us. She moved out from our home in a big huff 4 years ago. She was 15, a big btch at the time, and we had "RULES" at our house. Rules like she needed to do her homework and that she couldn't have a TV in her room. Husband and I were VERY upset that she elected to move in with her mom (husband's XW). After moving in with her mom, she was put on a 5150 hold, dropped out of high school and did nothing but sit on her mom's couch and play video games for 2 years.

Honestly, I never thought that we would be able to forge a relationship with her. Slowly over time, things changed. She got her equivalency and started community college. She has been looking for a job. Some other things happened with her mom's living situation. All this time, husband and I were calm, collected and stable--BORING she would call us.

Then, two weeks ago she talked to her dad and asked if she could move back in with us --she said she "got it" now that rules and structure are good things and that she needs it.

We told her yes. Holy Hell. I was starting to think that with RugRat #2 being 17 that it would only be a couple of years until we would be empty nesters. Since she moved out we converted RugRat #1's old room into a "workout room" with treadmill, closet full of workout clothes and huge rubbermaid containers of cycling stuff. We had plans for RugRat #2's room too-- a music room that would include my cello, husband's drums, and the guitars. We will be moving all the sports stuff tonight and I suppose that the music room will need to wait too.


Pfff... I am looking forward to it, as is her sister who has missed her terribly the last few years. I think it will be good for all of us to be a complete family again. Warts and all.

But, I really liked having all my sports stuff together in one place too. :)

And not to disappoint you all-- I didn't let a minor butt pull thwart my attempt and doing another marathon, so I went ahead and signed up for both San Francisco Marathon (July 29th) and California International Marathon (December 2nd). I KNOW that a vowed to never to SFM ever again, but I was pursuaded by my friends who smartly appealed to my cheapskateness thriftiness.