RUNNING UPDATE

Just thought I'd post a quick update on my running progress. When I only post once a month it's easy to gloss over the continued mission and struggle to get back to semi-regular running. My goal is to get back to running three times a week... nothing crazy, maybe four or five miles at a time. Just enough to stay in shape and have a baseline of fitness.

One improvement is I don't get super sore every time I run now. I've ran enough to shock my legs back into compliance there. However, I'm still getting weird things after runs. Yesterday I ran three miles and earlier today my right hammy was complaining. Now my right calf is feeling a bit weird. Nothing major, they'll be fine tomorrow, but it would be nice to get past some of this stuff. I kind of remember a bunch of crap like this back when I was first running, so I'm hoping once I'm back in the rhythm my body will not freak out so much.

The IT band thing seems to be improving. After four miles at PRC on Monday it only was feeling a little weird. Not really at all during the run and then afterward just a bit of complaining. The next day on stairs it was a little tender but nothing bad. I didn't feel it at all before or after the three mile run yesterday. So that's good. I seem to be keeping it in check. However, if I were to do anything more than four miles right now I'm not confident it wouldn't act up. Once I can do four miles without a peep from it I can try to go farther, but until then I am going to be cautious.

The other item of note was being able to run 10:20s yesterday for three miles and not have it kill me. It was slightly above "comfortable" pace but I was still able to mostly chat and not feel totally winded. That was pretty encouraging. I'm hoping to get back to a 9:30ish easy conversational pace. Don't want to feel like I'm holding others back. So being able to run three yesterday at a faster clip than I've been running and feeling pretty good during and after was definitely a step forward.

As for the knees... they aren't flaring up. The inflammation seems to be tamped down and the running doesn't seem to move them one way or the other. While they aren't normal knees, I don't feel like they are the main obstacle at the moment... that seems to be this IT band thing. Anyways, I had to reschedule my rheumatology appointment so unfortunately I don't see my doctor again until late August. Fortunately, since the treatment seems to be making progress, I doubt she would have changed anything during the visit.

ONE MONTH LATER - BETTER, BUT NEW ANNOYANCE

People who know me know I don't squat. Notice the right arm braced to control my revolting leg muscles and stop me from
toppling over the edge of the cliff.

Okay, I figure it is time for an update. I am taking a very wait and see approach with this whole deal. I will say I think I am in a better spot than I was a month ago. In fact, I am pretty confident in that!

My knees haven't really acted up in a while. The last "flare" was when I stripped the deck to stain it. My knees have been feeling pretty good since I started the injections. They aren't back to normal, but they are definitely better. I did some hiking around Iceland during my recent trip and they weren't ever really an issue. There were a few times where I could tell the power and flexibility of old wasn't quite there, but they felt improved even compared to the Memorial Day hiking of a month or so prior.

On Monday I even went to Sky High Sports, a trampoline park, and bounced around for two hours. And you know what? My knees felt fucking fantastic. Not an issue at all. I was quite surprised. I know for sure that wouldn't have been the case two months ago. I'm sore from that, being out of shape and all, but two days later and my knees still are fine. So I don't think I'll flare from it. And before that would have been a guaranteed flare. Another note of progress was kicking the soccer ball around. It was just in the parking lot, no hard shots or anything, but I was able to pass and stop the ball and do things with nary a complaint from down below. Even some really brisk passes that would have hurt before felt fine.

So that's very encouraging! Unfortunately, I've seemed to develop an IT band issue in my left knee. I was able to run 4 miles last Monday just fine but when I stopped it flared up. I had a small issue with this before the Iceland trip and it did rear up a little during our longer hike there. Nothing that completely hobbled me, but definitely uncomfortable. It's very frustrating. Just when I felt like I could get going again this appears. So I'm going to try to take it easy and hope that can just resolve itself. I think I might be turning my foot inward when I walk/run... this is new, I didn't do that before. I haven't confirmed for sure, but that might be the root cause, or maybe a symptom of something else messed up. Weak left hip? Who knows! Anyways, I'll need to solve that puzzle before I can really make an effort to get going again.

Oh, one more thing to mention. I started to be really nauseous most of the time. Just a general ill feeling. I was pretty sure it was connected to the methotrexate. It was frustrating, just as I seemed to be feeling much better joint wise this thing popped up. I was used to the feeling once a week when I took the medication, but all the time? Hell no. Well, then it popped into my head, I got REALLY bad about taking the daily folic acid supplement. This is prescribed in concert with the methotrexate because it has been shown to greatly reduce the side effects. I started taking it daily again (instead of maybe once or twice a week when I saw it sitting there) and within a few days I felt back to normal. So a lesson there for sure!

Anyways, that's the update from the last month. Focus this month will be quashing this IT band thing and getting back to being active and non completely out of shape.