First run OUTDOORS!

Ready to run!

My last decent run (about 10 miles) was back in mid-August. After that,  the hip pain had a final flare-up and the running had to stop.  Post-THR with 12 weeks of recovery behind me,  I was cleared to run. My doc asked that I stick to soft surfaces as much as possible.

After that, I ran the treadmill 2 or 3 times per week for 3 weeks (as well as doing bike and elliptical)....and eventually it seem fairly good: I was itchy to get outside again...I decided I was strong enough.

My PT once a week has been super useful, with lots of special exercises to bring back the weak leg.

Saturday -> to my favorite Baylands!

It was a perfect blue sky day! Temps around 55F..also great. 

My pace was slowwww 11:xx m/m and my HR was way high for my pace. But man, it sure felt good.

I got a little teary eyed, having missed running, and running outdoors in my favorite places so, so much! 

I do not take it for granted.

I set a goal of 4 miles. This was about right ...by the end I was getting pretty tired.

Even with some elliptical and stationary biking my legs are weaker and my cardio is way down from days of yore. But it will come back!

I run with the Garmin running dynamics pod, and it shows me what I already know: my right leg is weaker than my left:


Ideally if both legs are working equally, this should be a line right on the 50/50 scale mark and be all green...instead the red an orange dots show I have more ground contact (about 52% ) on the right leg. This is not surprising as it's weaker.

It's also varying all over the place. My right leg is still relearning all the new muscle firing patterns to suit the new pivot location. It will be interesting to track how this evolves...more on this to come. 

When I got back to the car I was feeling pretty tired in my right leg..but very happy. I have a long way to go to get back to as close as possible to where I was before. Runners that have been through this say: about 1 year....that's  about 9-10 months.  

You can bet I will be avidly doing my PT exercises! If you are a runner they're good idea even if you don't have a hip replacement

I AM BACK!