It’s a Walk in the Park

Thursday, Ides of March, 2012:

The sports hernia was still rather painful from yesterday’s run, so I walked with the girls, our usual 3.6-mile route on the paved trails. It hurt to walk, too, but that pain subsided somewhat during the walk and we had a good time, finishing together in 58 minutes.

Wednesday, March 14:

We were short on time today, and taking turns babysitting a sick cat, so I did a shorter run in the park. 3.6 miles in about 37 minutes, with a run/walk ratio of 3 to 1. The sports hernia hurt all the way, but I was so happy to be running anyway.

Surgery next week - I can’t wait.


This photo was taken few days ago in the park. It's almost completely dry now. I hope to run on the grass trails this weekend:

Joyous Run

This was the first run since the marathon, and it felt wonderful. Until now I’d been trying to heal the sports hernia, but now I don’t care about it because the surgical fix is scheduled for next week. In the meantime I can run as much as I like. 5.76 miles on paved trails in the park, in 1:1:02:19, for a pace of 10:49. The temp was 63 degrees, and the trails were dry.

I started with a walk / run ratio of 1 to 1 for the first half of the distance, taking it easy, then switched to 1 to 3 for the second half. Overall pace for the first half was 11:22, and for the second half 10:17.

Whining: The sports hernia hurt a little most of the way, and the right knee spoke up a few times, but the pain was not a limiting factor and not really even a distraction. Who cares - I’ll be in rehab soon enough. It's a masterpiece.

Timing: 32:43, 29:36, total 1:02:19.

Second Surgery Consult

The first surgeon I saw was flatly opposed to surgery for an abdominal wall strain (sports hernia). It’s not really a hernia, nothing is actually broken, so why fix it? Just because it hurts? Suck it up, buddy. Run with pain or don’t run.

Today, Dr. BRP had a different view. He does a lot of sports hernia surgeries, probably more than any other doctor in Minnesota. He was recommended to me by my sports doctor and also by runners who have had this surgery done. According to Dr. BRP:

• It’s not really a hernia, of course, and he doesn’t like the name "sports hernia," but for convenience it’s the name we use.
  
• My case is quite typical, and he would do an open (not laparoscopic) surgery in a slit about 2 1/2 inches long, attaching a plastic mesh both above and below the strained abdominal muscles.
  
• He prefers open surgery because he can view the muscle structure and see what is wrong. Also, laparoscopy is in some ways more complicated. It requires general anesthesia, for example, while open surgery can be done with local anesthesia.
  
• It’s "minor" outpatient surgery, takes about 20 minutes, I walk in and walk out. Stitches dissolve.
  
• The probability of success is 85 to 90%. He considers it a failure when the pain is not resolved.
  
• In hundreds of these procedures, he has not yet had a serious complication. I believe he said that he does 150 sports hernia surgeries per year. I wonder if a serious complication would always get reported back to the surgeon.
  
• My little list of extra risk factors (weak immune system, allergy to penicillin and sulfa drugs, 71 years old, anti-angiogenic medication) did not impress him. He thinks I’m strong and I’ll heal OK. I do too.
  
• Usually, a person recovers for all normal activities in 3 - 4 weeks, and for sports in another 2 -3 weeks. My next marathon is 13 weeks away.
  
• He requires that I go off aspirin for five days prior to the surgery.
  
• Medicare covers it.
  

Dr. BRP is very positive about the surgery that he does so frequently (surprise!), and quite convincing. Despite his confidence, I am daunted by the realization that this is actual surgery and that it exposes me to risks that I don’t have to take. Nevertheless, I’m so tired of running in pain, or not running at all, that I have scheduled the surgery for next week. I keep telling myself that I can chicken out in the next few days if I want to, but I probably won’t.


You can actually see the oatmeal under there:

Walk, Don't Run

Sunday, March 11 2012:

63 degrees today in middle Minnesota, very unusual for March 11. We three went for a lovely walk in the park, 3.6 miles in about 1:04:00 which is a relatively easy pace of 17.8 minutes per mile, or about 3.4 mph. Not very fast, but there was no pain at all. I did my therapy first, seven different resistance exercises and five stretches, before we went for the walk.

Saturday, March 10:

St Croix Valley Runners, with more walkers than runners today. We walkers went about 2.5 miles in about 45 minutes, while the runners did their usual five miles, some of them in considerably less time. I felt the abdominal wall strain (sports hernia) a little, but I doubt that it was re-injured at all.

I’m intent on getting the sports hernia healed one way or another. Monday I have a consult with a highly-recommended surgeon, but may decide instead to continue with therapy, acupuncture, massage, walking, elliptical, bike, weight loss, and whatever else I can do to stay somewhat in shape while trying to heal the injury. We’ll see.


Proper nutrition is very important to a runner:

B & A Trail Marathon, Annapolis, MD

YAY! We three all finished, and I finished almost a half hour ahead of my target. I’m a happy marathoner. Marathon number 63, state number 44 (Annapolis, Maryland). It couldn’t have gone better.

The B&A Marathon:

• Organization was almost perfect, the course was perfect, volunteers were better than perfect, even the weather was perfect (temp 40 to 47, partly cloudy). Nobody shut down anything until it was all over.
  
• The course is a lovely suburban trail, once a railroad bed. We started in the middle and went south 7 miles, then back to the middle and continued north 6 miles, returning to the middle for the finish. If you don’t like out-and-back courses, you wouldn’t like this, but I like to see the other runners and I got to see them all twice!
  
• The trail is almost entirely wooded, except at road crossings, of which there are few.
  
• Every crossing was manned by police or police volunteers.
  
• For some reason I had the impression that the trail was packed gravel, but it was blacktop the whole way. Nice clean blacktop. They had a serious rain the day before, a real soaker, but the trail was fine.
  
• The race was limited to about 1000 runners, and for the first mile or two it was on local streets, so by the time we got to the trail there was no crowding.
  
• Instead of yet another shirt, the race premium was running pants! Very nice ones, too. I will put these to good use right away.
  
• When I finished at five and a half hours, there was still plenty of food left. That doesn’t always happen in other races.
  
• There were plenty of aid stations, well stocked with whatever a marathoner would need. When I fished a gel out of my pocket, someone said “We have more of those if you need them.”
  
• Daffodils were in bloom. Songbirds conducted a symphony. We saw geese overhead, in formation. Frogs chirped in the marshes.
  
• The age-group awards are superb. Wooden plaques suitable for standing or hanging, with gold lettering describing the race, the date, and the exact award.
  
• Results are posted on their web site the afternoon of the race.
  
• They did run out of marathon medals, but will send one in the mail. That might matter more to a first-timer than it does to me.

My race:

• I had not been able to train since the Mississippi Blues marathon in January, because of a “sports hernia” (abdominal wall strain), and I was really a little worried about finishing this marathon. So I shot for six hours, the race time limit, but missed the first two mile markers and at mile three found myself a few minutes ahead of my plan. I felt good, though, so I kept going at that pace and finished in 5:32:45. Unfortunately, however, that was only good for third of three in my age group.
• Nevertheless, it was another marathon completed. Remaining marathons, in the order in which we hope to do them: Alaska, Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Hawaii.
  
• My last three marathons have all finished within two minutes of the same time. I wonder if there’s a message there. It’s not a very good time, really. Interesting: In Mississippi that time got me third of eight in age group 70-74, but today I was third of three.
  
• The temperature was about 40 at the start, and got up to maybe 48 at the finish. That’s lovely! I wore shorts and a short-sleeved tech shirt over a long-sleeved tech shirt for 3/4 of the race, then took off the short sleeved shirt. Perfect for the weather.
  
• Six Clif Shot Mocha gels (w/caffeine), at least 8 salt tablets.

Whining:

• The sports hernia hurt all the way. About a three on a scale of zero to ten, maybe a four toward the end, where a five would be enough to make me slow down. It was never quite a limiting factor.
  
• The right hip flexors hurt too, but that’s happened before and it isn’t really an injury - it gets better within hours after the marathon is over. The left hip flexors hurt a little for a while too, but settled down again.
  
• The right hip flexors are close to the sports hernia, and some of the time it was difficult to distinguish between those two pains.
  
• Nothing else hurt. Not feet, knees, hips, back, nothing.
  
• My pace was not limited by pain, but by muscle strength and conditioning. I went about as fast as I could have. I should be able to finish a marathon an hour faster, but will need pain-free training to do it.
  
• We have a nice 14-week interval between now and the next race, and I’m trying to decide whether to try to heal the sports hernia by natural means (therapy and graduated running) or by surgery, then therapy and graduated running. I have a second-opinion consult in about a week.
  
• I own a heart rate monitor, but don’t like to wear it on a marathon. At mile 17 I timed my pulse and found that the rate was around 120 to 125. That's low, but I was breathing rather easily most of the way.

Splits: 37:22 (3 mi), 12:31, 11:43, 12:49, 28:44 (2 mi & major natural break), 12:23, 12:01, 16:02 (major natural break), 12:04, 12:20, 1:08 (0.1 mi,half marathon time 2:49:07), 11:07 (0.9 mi), 12:50, 12:20,11:37, 13:03, 12:14, 13:06, 12:35, 12:23, 12:22, 12:29, 12:33, 12:43, 2:13 (0.2 mi), total 5:32:45. First half 2:49:07, second half 2:43:38, actually a little faster than the first half, probably by about the time required for two major natural breaks in the first half, with none in the second.

Happy guy doing OK:

Surgery Consult

Dr DSO, who did a minor and totally successful outpatient surgery on me 10 years ago. Go to a surgeon, and she’ll recommend surgery, right? Not if it’s a surgery that she doesn’t perform. The scheduler had assured me that Dr DSO does hernia surgeries, and she does, but not on a “sports” hernia, which is not really a hernia but a muscle pull, technically an "abdominal wall strain."

This requires a laparoscopic procedure, she believes, because it doesn’t make sense to cut through the strained muscles in an effort to strengthen them. She does laparoscopic surgery but not on the abdomen - she doesn’t believe in that treatment for an abdominal wall pull at all, and in fact doesn’t think it has a high success rate. Mine, in particular, is high on the lower abdomen, making such a repair even less appropriate. Huh.

She advised:

• Continue the physical therapy that I’m currently getting.
  
• Warm up properly before any run. I usually do warm up before a short race, though not for a marathon.
  
• Stretch properly after a run. I do my set of stretches frequently, if not after every run, but until recently I haven’t done a stretch that works the lower abdomen at all. She mentioned yoga.
  
• This particular injury is unlikely to turn into a real hernia or any other major problem, regardless how much it hurts. So just SUCK IT UP and run! She didn’t say it exactly that way. Good to know, though.

That is one surgeon’s opinion. The buzz in the runner community is that a surgical repair is simple and permanent, though, so I may see another surgeon and get a second opinion from someone who actually does them, like maybe the surgeon that my sports doctor recommended!

Maplewood Mall again today, the third time in four days. We three walked 4.5 miles in 1:04:30, for a pace of 14:20. No pains! Nothing more than a hint of the abdominal wall strain and the hip-flexor pain. Maybe this upcoming marathon will be OK. We’ll go to the mall again tomorrow if the weather permits. No running until the race, though, just walking. Fast is fine.

What a way to train for a marathon - yikes.

There is oatmeal under there:

More Hope

Again today we walked in Maplewood Mall. The doors open at 8 am, or a little after, but the stores don’t open until 10 am, and during that time we walkers pretty much have the place to ourselves. We walked for an hour at a pace of 4 mph, or 15 minutes/mile, speed confirmed by another frequent-walker who has the place all measured out. 60 minutes = 4 miles.

Last Thursday and again last Saturday I did the same walk and felt a serious pain in the right hip flexors, but today that pain appeared later and was minor. That gives more hope for finishing the upcoming Annapolis Marathon. I did feel the sports hernia just a little, but it wasn’t bad at all. We’ll go to the mall again tomorrow. Wednesday would be better, but the weatherman is cooking up a storm for Wednesday. Also tomorrow, I have a surgical consult regarding the sports hernia.

Snow is coming. Or slush, maybe. Anyway I love it. With a forecast like that I know what my exercise program will be for Wednesday.