The name of the game today is patience(I HATE patience).......

Here we go again...

<answer>Thank you for calling Dr. NoFuckingWayYouAreGettingACallBack's office. How may I help you.
Me: Yes, I'd like to ask the same questions I asked two days ago
Her: Sure. Please tell me your questions that we didn't write down so that we can neglect to do so again today.
Me: When can I expect a return call
Her: I have sent your questions off. I You'll have to wait for a call from (See aforementioned doctor's name) you know who.

But, but but.... I gotta know when(and some other basic managing wounds questions)???????

They look lonely, don't they? I hope to give them something to do soon....

The good news is the pain is quite manageable. It stings but it's not crippling. The bad news is this dressing severely limits my knee flexing, I'm moving around very peg legged which makes it difficult to walk. It comes off next Tuesday. I may need a little time to work on the knee itself to get flexibility back before I run on it. I'm not sure how much a week+ of not really bending it will do to it. Going to have to play it by ear. I doubt it will be a major setback.

No call from the surgeons office today. I was hoping to find out what the object they removed was.

Chestburster?

Asteroid?

Battle droid?

Hopefully they will call tomorrow. Aren't you curious what it is?

What's done is done. It was a fairly easy procedure (for me). A million questions from a cranky nurse. A brief visit by an absolutely stunning anesthesiologist who is also a runner (but the fact that she told me she's pregnant is a good indication that it ain't happening for me, LOL), a short nap and whammo.

A couple minor snags. When they put the IV in my hand the blood vessel burst.  There was a bit of blood and they put a piece of gauze on it and said I'd be fine <shrug>. Another IV jammed into my arm and we were good to go. After they moved me into the operating room an assistant was strapping me down to the table (WTF?). I nicely asked her to try and not drop the buckle on my balls again. The whole OR, myself included, had a big laugh out of that.

Oxygen mask was interesting. I never saw the anesthesiologist come in. They say the anesthesia has an amnesic effect. Apparently so because we were chatting as they were prepping me and all of a sudden they were showing me my bandaged leg and wheeling me into recovery. I've no clue what happened in between.

I still don't know what was in my knee. I thought it was a smaller than a BB sized piece of gravel. It was a LOT larger and funky shaped. They showed it to me in a test tube. It's headed to the lab to figure out what the hell it was.

So far, I have virtually no pain. I'm not sure if it's going to stay this easy or the local hasn't worn off (I had a local and IV). Surgeon told me 1-2 weeks and he will let me run. We will talk next week. The 6 weeks off was incorrect he said. I'll be buttoned up way quicker.

So what does it look like? I won't find out until I get to unwrap the gift in 7 days. Who knows.....

..... An the recovery begins

And thus ends a phase in my journey. We have hit a resting point......

With nearly 18 miles in last week, I got my final run in tonight. It was miserably hot and a bit humid out. Not a fun night to run but I wasn't about to let my last one go by. With the weather as it is, the hills in Cherokee looked particularly daunting (felt that way too). It was very much a battle to just make it up them but I had real drive tonight. In the end I managed to best my previous pace of 10:02 in this park and finally got sub 10. for the conditions, I'm quite pleased with my performance. Many of our group gave up and walked portions tonight. I was not one of them!

Tomorrow morning I undergo knee surgery to remove a lump with a foreign object in it (A piece of gravel we believe) that's pressing on a nerve. This is an old problem that needs to be resolved. It's been hurting more and more after each run. It's unclear how long it will be before I can run again. Originally the surgeon told me 1-2 weeks but he submitted my work leave as 6 weeks. I'm hoping that's a lofty quote and he was just covering his butt.

I exchanged email with Jason Fitzgerald of Strengthrunning.com and asked his advice. He suggested that while this is minor surgery I start rather light with a 7 mile week. I'll break that up into 2 nights at run club and run easy. If I feel good I'll dial it up 3 miles per week until I'm back up to my previous mileage (~18mi/week). This whole process could take a bit of time and some atrophy is certainly possible. We will deal with those challenges s they arise.  I still expect to be more than ready to run the Great Pumpkin 10k on October 3rd after which, we push forward with our mini marathon training.

I will be walking and lifting as soon as I am given a thumbs up by the surgeon. 

Run Club - Mon: 90 degrees and HOT!! 3.25 miles, 9:57 pace, 176 spm. Finally got sub 10 minute mile on the hills from hell run!

Tonight's run was in the Altra Instinct 2.0's Zero Drop.  Between them and the Kinvara's 4mm drop I've really grown to like the more minimalistic style. The low or no drop but still have the cushioning. Not using inserts in these shoes.

Chakram Routine

One legged balance: :30 each leg

Twisting Lunge: 6x each leg

Single-leg Deadlift: 5x each leg

One legged Alphabet spell: A-M each leg

Bodyweight Squats: 1x30

Weekly Mileage: 3.25 mi

Miles to Mordor: 1488.14

Dumbbell Bench Press: 5x5 (55lb dumbbells)

Inverted Rows: 1x10, 1x6, 1x5

Push ups: 3x10

Tri-ceps cable push down: 3x10 @40lbs

Dumbbell Y Raises: 1x10 @15lb

Dumbbell T Raises: 1x10 @15lb

Dumbbell W Raises: 1x10 @15lb

Standard Core Routine: 2 sets

Bicycle: 10 x each leg

Plank: :30

Marching Bridge: :60

Side Plank: :30 each side. 

Bird Dogs: 10

...and another pic of the journey from lardass to badass

Time for the interesting race anecdote....

I had just passed a water stop and was heading towards the trash. I went left of the can. A woman was on the right and was slowing to drop her cup. As we both passed the trash, she tossed her cup and all the water flew right into the front of my shorts. Turn to look and it was a woman I knew from run club. Man did we have a great laugh about that! Made my night, HAHA

My junk was already soaking wet from the heat and humidity so all it really did was cool me off for a couple minutes. I probably owe her thanks for a second or two off my time!

Funny race stores rule!