The Green Girl's New Year's Resolution

The Green Girl's New Year's Resolution is stay injury-free.

After struggling with posterior tibial tendonitis for almost two years now, I am determined to run pain free.

At this point, I am not focused on mileage or speed - the most important thing is for me to be healthy.

To symbolize my commitment to this, I am coloring in one of my daruma eyes.

The Daruma concept is based on an ancient Buddhist monk who, after nine years sitting meditating in a cave, lost the use of his arms and legs.

A symbol of good luck and protection in Japan, a Daruma is a type of traditional Japanese okiagari-kobōshi papier-mâché doll. Okiagari-kobōshi dolls have a weighted bottom that enables the doll to recover to an upright position after being tipped over. This represents persistence of spirit and recovery from misfortune.

Daruma dolls are traditionally given to someone starting a new venture, celebrating a birthday, or at the beginning of a New Year.

At the start of an endeavor, one eye is painted and a wish is made for good luck. The other eye is painted when the goal is reached.

The Green Girl's Makeshift Resistance Band Exercise

36" Bungee Cord

After the Green Girl's last appointment with Dr. Sebastian Gonzales from P3 Sports Care, she tried to figure out a way to do the knee exercises without having to go out and purchase a resistance band.

I experimented with some elastic things in my apartment but they didn't offer enough resistance to do the exercise properly.

Using the bungee cord as a resistance band

I finally realized a bungee cord would do the trick. I'm a highly utilitarian Green Girl so I keep items like bungee cords in the truck of my car.

I hooked the ends of a 36" bungee cord and looped it around my bookshelf. Then I slid my left thigh through.

The Green Girl's knee going in

I positioned myself with the left side of my body closest to the bookshelf so that the bungee elastic band would actually pull in the same direction my knee likes to go.

I stood with my left leg straight and my right leg slightly bent with my right foot behind me. I slowly started doing one-legged squats with only my left leg.

The first few iterations, my knee was going in and I could not see my left foot.

The Green Girl's knee starting to straighten itself out

I slowly repeated the exercise.

Instead of moving further inwards, my knee did eventually started to resist and after a few squats, it was noticeably straighter.

It was almost like magic. It's amazing what a little resistance can do for a Green Girl.

Dr. Gonzales recommended I do this exercise once a day to help reprogram my leg to bend properly.

The Running Gods Smiled Down Upon The Green Girl

The Running Gods smiled down upon the Green Girl today.

I BodyGlided up my feet and slipped the ankle wrap around my right foot. Then, I put on my patellar strap on the right knee. All this awkward walking to minimize ankle pain has caused my knee to start hurting again. I mean, who doesn't love overcompensation injuries?

I was running really late this morning after getting caught up in heavy traffic so the group had already taken off by the time I got there.

My ankle was still feeling a little bit tender so I did a brisk walk for the first 10 minutes to warm up my body. Then, I moved into a slow jog. My arch throbbed each time the ball of my foot hit the ground. I figured I'd give it a few minutes to stretch it out since I'd been babying it all week. It stopped hurting after about 3-5 minutes so I increased my speed. It felt so good to run again.

At this point, I caught up with another runner, Ruby, who had also arrived late. I feel in stride with her and we started chatting.

The warmer weather was a pleasant surprise today. The skies were clear and the ocean view was spectacular.

There are so many reasons why I love being part of a running group. Meeting new people is definitely one of them. We swapped race stories and shared what had made us start running in the first place.

I was scheduled to do a 3 hour run today but I decided to cut it short because I didn't want to take any chances. I ended up doing 6.51 miles in just under 2 hours.

I've missed the majority of my Surf City USA Half Marathon training schedule. I'm not nearly as prepared as I'd hoped to be but I'm okay with this. I know I've got a good cardiovascular base from cross-training and I'm not aiming for a personal record at this point.

The Green Girl's Very First Trail Run

Before our usual training run yesterday, Coach Gary Smith held an hour long Chirunning lesson. I've attended multiple Chirunning sessions but I enjoy participating in the classes because I always learn something new.

After the Chirunning lesson, we broke up into the full and half marathon groups to start the run. Since I was diagnosed with runner's knee, I haven't been keeping up with my Surf City USA Half Marathon training schedule. I've been being really careful with my knee and after going a full week without any significant pain, I decided I was ready to push myself. Instead of joining the half marathoners, I went with the full marathon group. I had attached my patellar strap to my hydration belt in case my knee started to hurt while I was out on the run.

We all set our watches to beep after 55 minutes to indicate the time to turn around and head back. We were given small, handwritten maps to help guide us on our run. I folded the map up, stuck it in my pocket, started Mr. Green Garmin and headed out. My plan was to really take it easy but try to run the entire time.

Coach Steve Mackel passed by and suggested I increase my lean. I was grateful for his advice and concentrated on doing that. I could feel myself getting faster.

Since I'm a really slow runner, I started out with the group but soon I was running all by myself. I pulled the map out of my pocket and tried to figure out where I was supposed to be going but I got really confused. The note in the middle of the map, 'If you get lost it's okay ☺,' made me laugh. I was definitely lost.

I kept running until I reached a dead end. About a block after my turnaround, I saw some runners returning from a side street so I headed over there as quickly as I could. As I neared the end of that street, I realized there was an unpaved path ahead. I took a deep breath, stepped onto the dirt, and continued running. The path headed towards the ocean and then curved to the right. At this point, a cliff overlooking the ocean bordered the left side of the path. The view was breathtaking but the ground was uneven so I slowed down to a jog and concentrated on my footing.

I wasn't able to run the entire time because some of the inclines were too steep for me and I was terrified of slipping on loose rocks.

On the way back, the sun was shining through the clouds in a way that appeared almost divine. It was absolutely beautiful.

Coach Gary ran by and asked me if I was going to take a picture and blog about it and I assured him I would.

According to Mr. Green Garmin, I did 6.92 miles in 01:47:12. At the steepest part of the hill, I was going down at about a speed of one mile per hour!

Green Girl Running Update

I want to congratulate Kitzzy on her very first half marathon. I am so proud of you, girl! Whoo hoo!

My right knee is doing really well. I've been carefully keeping my feet really straight when I'm running and wearing a patellar strap on the weekend when I do my longer runs. And by longer, I mean slightly over a 5k. I guess I've been overcompensating for my bad knee and my left calf has been getting extremely tight. I don't want to push through the pain so I walk when it hurts.

Today, I was able to do about 50 minutes without any discomfort. When my left calf started hurting, I immediately stopped and walked the rest of the way back.

I'm really behind on my training schedule and I haven't done any interval or tempo training. The Surf City USA Half Marathon is on February 1, 2009. I have less than 2 months left to train but I don't want to push myself too hard and cause more injuries.

One thing Mr. Green Garmin has taught me is that I start out really, really slow. When I begin a run, I'm averaging a 15-16 minute mile. As I warm up, I increase my speed. When I'm in the "zone" I am usually just under a 12 minute mile. When I get tired, I tend to do a 13 - 14 minute mile. Before all I could do was divide time by distance so I never realized how much my speed varied.

Sole Runners Winter Training Starts Tomorrow

My running group, the Sole Runners, will start the Winter Full/Half Marathon Training Program tomorrow morning. I'm really looking forward to this. My Saturday mornings seemed so empty without the group runs.

Since my knee pain started, I've been faithfully applying heat and cold and resting it as much as possible. I also went ahead and purchased a patellar strap yesterday after my coach recommended I give it a try. He also suggested I look into Active Release Techniques (ART). ART is a method of soft tissue massage that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves.

I am hopeful that I'll be able to complete an easy run tomorrow.

The Green Girl Has Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (Runner's Knee)

My doctor has diagnosed me with patellofemoral pain syndrome which is more commonly known as "runner's knee." Now that almost a week has passed, my wandering knee pain has settled right above my knee.

Patellofemoral pain can be caused by a number of factors including overuse and overload of the patellofemoral joint, biomechanical problems and muscular dysfunction. Quadriceps strengthening is the most commonly prescribed treatment but I believe my quadriceps are pretty strong from doing hundreds of squats each week. In my case, I believe overpronation and tight calves and hamstrings are the culprits. My doctor also said my piriformis muscles are insanely tight.

He said if I wanted, I could use a patella strap just below my knee to help ease the pain when I'm running. I did a little online research and it appears the Pro-Tech Athletics brand Knee Pro-Tec Patellar Tendon Strap is the most popular.

I'm hesitant to go out and buy a patellar strap because this doctor is not a sports medicine specialist (I cannot afford to see an orthopedic surgeon right now because I don't have any health insurance). When I was seeing an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in sports medicine before, he said he preferred for his patients to correct their knee problems without the help of a brace whenever possible. He felt relying on the brace could do more damage than good if the person became too dependent on the brace.

For now, I'm going to do as much stretching and strength training as possible. I found a set of rehabiliation exercises and I ran across this blog describing some physical therapy procedures for runner's knee.

While not directly related to my current patellofemoral pain syndrome, I ran across the cutest stretches for runners web page ever. Look at how happy Mr. Stickman is!