The View from the Floor

That's my view from my new "stretching post". And I'll be doing a lot of it now. 2-5 times/day, multiple reps, 20-30 seconds each to get those hammies loosened up. I had my physical therapy appt. at Mayo this morning and I now have a stretching, strengthening, icing program to follow to get this hamstring back into shape. For strengthening, I can use either the leg curl machine at the Y, or ankle weights (of the adjustable sort) at home. I can only find 2.5 pounders here in town, which isn't enough as I was able to do more than that this morning at Mayo. And I don't feel like spending $40-$70 online, plus shipping, to buy some so I guess I'll just do it at the Y 3x/week. I have to ice the sore area a couple times a day either with an ice pack for about 20 minutes or do an ice massage, which is bare ice which has been frozen in a cup and the cup peeled back, for 5-7 minutes. Sorry ... no visuals for the icing portion of the program. :-) When I get back to running the therapist suggested some compression shorts, especially when it's cold, so I picked up a pair of those today too. (It kinda looks like I have vitiligo in this pic ... but I can assure you that I don't!) I guess I do see some signs of progress. It used to hurt turning at the end of the lane in the pool, but it doesn't any more. And it used to hurt using my right foot to hold the heel of my left shoe to take it off but it doesn't any more. Baby steps, but steps nevertheless.

Today's workouts, other than stretching, were an hour swim at the Rec Center (the Y pool opens again on Sunday) and 1.5 hours on the Stairmaster. Tomorrow I'll lift at the Y, do the Stairmaster at home and then go for a bike ride.

I can't remember if I posted the identity of the two female riders who greeted me on County 8 on Monday morning ... Jen Bradt and Veronica Bond. Jen's a faithful bleader so she identified herself right away. :-)

I forgot to mention how many River Runners are going to Outer Banks (OBX) in November. At least 44. That was the last official count I'd seen, but someone mentioned 50 on Wednesday night. In any case ... it's a lot!

I made Baked Potato Soup for supper tonight. It was a good night for soup ... cool, rainy. It hit the spot.

It was 9:00 before I ate, so I just had a dessert bowl full and a salad and a piece of bread. The recipe is on my recipe blog.

Well, it's just about 11:00 and I suppose I better get some shut-eye. I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I haven't closed with a quote in a while, so I'll do that now. Quote for the day: "It doesn't take a lot of muscle to give the heart a lift."

Good night.