Mar
9
I’m a “Kinetic Mess”
March 9, 2008 |
I started PT and according to my therapist I’m a “kinetic mess.” I thought I was just going to speed up the recovery from my hamstring tendinitis. Wrong! Apparently, nobody just “gets” hamstring tendinitis. After a thorough investigation, we discovered that my left leg is a full 3/8 inch shorter than my right. After all these years, my body has compensated by turning my shorter left leg into a useless stump of a peg leg. Besides being shorter, it has less muscle mass, much less range of motion, and I don’t use it for anything. I don’t push off or propel myself with it, it’s just there as something to land on. I started paying more attention to my peg leg and quickly realized that not only do I not use it, but it was very awkward to use it! The plan is to first get rid of the pain and get the leg to feel more like my own, and second to strengthen it and make it equal to the right leg. I also now have a heel lift to help make up the difference. I was a little worried about forcing my mechanics to change via the heel lift, but so far all is good. The knee’s have never felt better, and the hamstring pain is almost gone, but my left leg still fatigues very easily. I am also hoping that I may become a faster runner in the end because I will have twice as many legs to propel me.
Yesterday I went out for a long run of 6 miles. It had rained most of the night and everything was still wet and lots of puddles in the road. Supermutt has issues with cars driving through puddles. Just the sound of a car driving through a puddle makes him go berserk, barking, pulling, and generally acting like an idiot. So, because of the wet roads, the 6 mile long run (the first 3 miles all uphill), and the still tender hamstrings, I left Supermutt at home. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so guilty. It didn’t help that Supermutt knew exactly what I was going out the door to do, and he made it perfectly clear that he wanted in on it. But I left him home. I fully expected the house to be in shambles, maybe even on fire when I got home, but nothing of the sort. Supermutt was snoozing quietly. This made me feel even worse. Despite the fact that I had a great run, I don’t know if I can ever leave home again.
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A Restless Supermutt
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Hey
Great Blog. Loving it. I need some tips on embedding pics on my blog - Run & Stun - on Buckeye. My ID on Buckeye is Bainy. Perhaps drop me a message and you could give me a hand. It’s not obvious what your ID is via the workouts.
Anyway, I think you have struck a good thought with Running with Dogs. I run with my mutt and its great!
Speak soon.
Cheers Bainy