Prognosis: “perfection”. So excited, I just can’t hide it.

Thanks, Dave Whiteside, and Ian:

I waited three months to the day, plus one additional day just to make sure, before I did anything that resembled running. That first one was really a shuffle-walk interspersed with little faster bits and I used my downhill ski poles too. It was a dirt path, 10K, when I finished I laughed out loud, 2:04:00 on a route I previously ran 37:00-45:00 depending on the purpose of the run. Hilarious.

The doctor said, “It will take two years to fully heal everything up from surgery.” So this is why I am excited. Two years have passed, plus a few days, to make sure.

My surgeon placed the joint out .5 of an inch westward for better wear as he knows I am very active and was 50 (not 70+) when I had it done. He absolutely says no to running, but I am pretty sure he knows that I am running.

Now I still have limpy days. Quite often actually. But they are becoming less and less. Sometimes not at all. I just remind myself that the “pain” associated with the post-exercise stimulus is soft tissue. If you can feel it, it is not the prosthetic – can’t feel that sucker. If it broke, you would sense mechanical stuff going on. So as you likely know, you need to massage, roll, stretch, heat, rest soft tissues.

The trade-off for having my sexy hip sticking out an extra .5 of an inch to the west is that my adductors need a lot of massage and heat and my IT can get a little tight and the scar-band snaps over the hip bone with certain movements, like an elastic band over some smooth surfaced corner. Sproing!

I get downright aggressive with the soft tissue, really beat the snot out of it with a rolling pin and use my weight to roll with the foam roller and rolling pin and hockey ball and lacrosse ball and this other rolling ball-like unit.

It’s worth it. I can now bang out a 20K in under two hours with no repercussions. Not fast, but improving.

I can run into the 4s per Km off and on in runs that are, say under 10K. But also, haven’t mentioned this to anyone here, but I told my wife that the surgeon said that sex improves the hip movement tremendously, so I have to have sex as often as humanly possible. So there is that lie.

But actually, if you are still reading, I had 10 years off of consistent running. Five associated with the hip and three years around two Haglund’s Deformity surgeries, also known as Retrocalcaneal Bursitis.

That is why it is taking a long time for my fitness to return. For someone down a year or two, they would have been further along than I am.

But, I get to have sex all the time, so there is that lie.

Cheers,

C

Hey Pete,

Sorry to hear about the limping. Before giving my thoughts on that, I would like to clarify the time and distance – not that it really matters that much – my best of the lakes loop of 9.74 is 37:50 – it is a dirt surface and often soft due to mud and is typically about a minute slower than one’s road race. So my best road race is 37:12 from Vancouver Sun Run at age 42 or 41 maybe. I ran a bunch of 37:30s…..I ran a 36:54 time trial with a coach, which is about where I left off – a minute slower than the lakes loop – which made sense.

I just ran that lakes loop under 50 for the first time since surgery. 49:56. Bit of a jump in performance by about 1.5 minutes. Surprised.

Limping:

You mentioned ITB. I have had some ITB and abductor response to running that is getting less and less as time goes by, but I still get it. Saw the surgeon the other day and he said that he put the prosthetic out about half of an inch for long more durable wear. So the soft tissue issue is very VERY likely due to that – everything needs to be a little longer, not unlike a young woman, who’s hips grow a little and they end up with ACL/IT issues for awhile and quite sports.

If you can feel it, it is soft tissue. If it is soft tissue, skip the surgeon…..you probably been stressing the tendons and perhaps muscles in a funny way. Also, the surgeon said it takes at least two years to fully recover from the surgery. You are at 18 months???

Just some thoughts….

Also, how is your protein protocol and post-stimulus recovery?

I kneed the heck out of my ITB and abductor areas often. Rolling pin, baseball, lacrosse ball, knuckles, rolling pin – you name it. And when you do soft tissue damage 25 grams of whole food protein with all the amino acids is best directly after vigorous physical exercise and just before bed.

Red meat, eggs and cheese if you eat animal products.