Pain is the order of the day

Since I’m sure many of you out there care little for the running/fitness/life updates I’ll start with the craft.  Be prepared though…this post will be a hodgepodge!  When Erica was here after labor day, we did a few little projects.  An “in the hoop” tissue holder (my first project of this type…muy fun!)  and a couple of business card holders for her and a friend done completely with the serger.  I think I may be addicted to the business card holders…they’re a great way to use fabric scraps and super quick, and easy.  Of course, I  had to do a tissue holder for myself and an making a business card holder to hold my embroidery business cards is a must.  I also worked on my Christmas stocking prototype while she was here.  I plan to offer them as a custom order in the store for the holiday season.

Now for the running/diet/shred update.  This week I ran 19.5 miles, did the 30 Day Shred DVD 4 times and kept my calories between 1200-1500 every day.  Unfortunately when I did my Sunday weigh in, my hard work really didn’t show.  I GAINED 2 pounds.  It stinks, but I’m not worried.  I know I did everything right and I’m pretty sure it was just some water weight from the weekend.  I can never keep it to weighing once a week so I snuck a peek today and my weight was back down to the same as after week one.  I’m leaving for Arizona on Saturday so it might be little difficult to keep the calories in my target range for that week, but I still plan to track them and keep it at least under maintenance level.  I certainly don’t wan to lose ground now when I feel like I’m on a roll!

Isn’t this the cutest running shirt?  I got it from the No Meat Athlete whom (yeesh…I always have to look that up…do you?) I follow on twitter.  The running carrot totally amuses me.  Speaking of running, I may have mentioned before that I have been suffering with knee and hip pain for about the last two years.  When I could no longer control it effectively with ibuprofen, I finally decided to go see my orthopedist at Cincinnati Sports Medicine (the one who did my shoulder in June ’05).  I saw her again yesterday to discuss the results of my bone scan and right knee MRI.  The bone scan showed increased activity in both knees (ie inflammation).  From the MRI, I have many spots of thinning and damaged cartilage ranging from mild to severe and a mild patellar spur.  She’s thinking osteoarthritis, but I just made an appointment with a rheumatologist.  Osteoarthritis is not very common in people under 40 and the treatments can be different depending on which flavor of arthritis one has.  I just want to make sure I do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t get any worse if I can help it.  Overall, my pain was pretty minor since she gave me a steroid pack at my last appointment and switched me from mobic to diclofenac.  The pain yesterday though was terrible.  I got a cortisone injection in each knee.  Not only was it very painful going in but later in day I’m pretty sure I had “cortisone flare“.  My knees were super painful and swollen.  I laid on the couch all night and iced religiously even in the middle of the night.  They’re better today but still sore so I skipped my run.  I’m not looking forward to the possibility of a Synvisc injection in a couple of weeks if my insurance approves.

So what does all of this mean for my marathon training?  I’m not really sure yet.  For now I intend to continue my schedule as soon as the injection soreness is gone and see how I do.  Physical therapy is focused on strengthening the quadriceps and other muscles around the knee to support it better.  In theory, with the pain under control I can get stronger in those key areas and take some of the pressure off the joints.  Any weight I can get off will be helpful too since every pound lost takes 4-5 pounds of pressure off the knees.  If I can get back down to the “low-normal” weight range this would mean 80-100 pounds of pressure off my joints for each step.  That would have to help some!