Week 20

Ran for half an hour NON-STOP last Saturday at 10 min/mile and the knee felt good afterwards!

Watch out world, for I am back! (At least for running) This means I can put in at least a quality 9 miles a week. I told the physical therapist yesterday that I am looking to do 20 miles a week and she said "whoa." Heh.

Put in a good workout at the PT office though yesterday. Straight leg and side leg lifts at 11lbs felt good, can probably jump to 12 lbs soon. Switched the leg press up to 5 plates (from 4), using one leg, and that almost killed me. Barely finished it, it was funny walking afterwards for a minute or two. I expect to have sore quads this evening. Hamstring curls up to 3.5 plates from 3.

Did some jumps that felt a bit funny in the knee. Definitely need to keep doing those and get the knee used to jumping. This is important, as I will be getting back to dancing.

Week 19

I haven't updated for a while, but only because things are progressing fine.

I am still attending PT twice a week, though that will be scaled down to 1 visit a week in two weeks. I've been doing whatever PT exercises I can at my work gym by myself on Fridays, and that will switch to Wednesdays and Fridays once the PT visits go to 1 a week.

This week at the PT, we started on some light straight-up jumps and side-to-side jumps. This is to get my body used to the jumping and impact sensation. Running is doing a bunch of that already anyway though.

My running is not progressing quite as fast and took a bit of a setback over New Year's. I went up to 8 minutes running, 2 minutes walking, but perhaps it was a bit too fast, or a bit too early. I also decided to try to lose weight over Christmas and New Year's, which was a bad idea.

So, I ate too little (had a net calorie loss) and ran anyway, didn't quite get enough sleep, and so my body did not recover well. This malnourishment surely contributed to my knee feeling beat up on Sunday Jan 3rd, where I had to cut my run to just 0.7 miles, because my knee hurt. So I skipped my run on Tuesday and went back to running on Thursday.

This time I am keeping it to a 10 min/mile pace, strict, until I can consistently do 30-minute 10 min/mile runs without pain the next day.

Today will be another 8/2 run.

I also decided to try to switch from logging my running at runningahead.com to the Daily Mile instead. I like the social aspect of it. It's not quite as sophisticated as RunningAhead, but I don't need to be quite so anal in logging my runs anyway. Also, the DailyMile has Garmin import coming soon, so by the time I'm out running on the street, I'll be able to upload my Garmin 305's GPS data to the site. Here is my profile: http://www.dailymile.com/people/astral303

I also looked at my recovery schedule and I technically have only 1.5 months left until I am fully recovered. Yay!

Week 16: Day 1

Christmas week: skipped PT on Friday, did nothing at all, but continued running.

On Wednesday, the PT introduced a squatting exercise, which seemed to put some pressure on that right knee... no pain, but definitely yet another thing that I need to get used to.

Running-wise, I did 7/3 on Tuesday and the knee felt good Wednesday morning, so I upped it to 8 minutes run and 2 minutes walk on Thursday. The knee felt a bit sore Friday, so Saturday I continued with 8/2 (treadmill, 10 min/mile pace, 0.5 incline). I could feel the knee while running Saturday and it was kinda sore on Sunday. So I am staying with 8/2 until my knee feels good the day after.

But yeah, Saturday marked 12.4 miles of running distance since my ACL tear (and heck, since a long time...).

Attached is the picture of my daily run distances since I got back into it, all 12.4 miles of it

:)

I've stopped consistently stretching on my non-PT days (only on running days), I keep forgetting or am too busy. I keep forgetting to ice the knee as well. I need to get back into these habits, at least keep my stretching going every day. Still, given that I do stretch 5 days a week (3 PT days + 2 running days, more like 6 now), it can't be that bad.

Week 15: Day 1

So yeah, Sunday finished up the first week of back to running! I managed to log 5.5 miles this week, or 7 miles including last Sunday. The Sunday run was three 7-minute intervals with 3-min walk breaks, at a 10 min/mile pace (treadmill and all).

Today, the knee felt a bit sore in the morning and there was some clicking, so the physical therapist advised me to hold it at 7-minute running intervals until the knee doesn't feel sore the day after.

My cardio is definitely not what it used to be, but I know that the only way is up!

During last week, I took on doing a balance and reach on a foam pad, which is considerably more difficult. Today, Monday, we switched to doing one-legged leg press, starting at 3 plates. 3.5 plates felt a little too hard on the knee and the release was kinda jerky. I think next time the 3.5 should feel OK.

At the hamstring curl machine, went up to 2.5 plates of weight and that felt just slightly difficult to finish. I could probably do 3 plates and barely finish, though we may stick with 2.5 plates one more time.

My quad control/leg control keeps getting better for doing the step-down exercise.

The Christmas week is coming up. I'm going to have to find a way to get a little PT in on Friday, the day of Christmas. Not sure if that will happen, but it would be nice if I get something done.

Week 14: Day 1

Two days ago, Friday, I visited the PT with the new script from the surgeon. The PT offered their own version of the "return to jog" program, which consists of going for 5 min walk, 5 min run half-hour sessions. Then progressively turning down the walking by 1 min and adding 1 min to running until there is no more walking for half an hour. This would put me at the same 9 miles a week milestone, so I decided to follow the PT's suggested protocol.

Sunday was a great day: did my first run. I followed the 5-min walk/run protocol and logged 1.5 miles, about half mile per a 5 minute run session. Total 2.3 miles distance. This was on a treadmill.

The first few strides felt weird! Also a few times my right knee buckled a little bit, but I held up just fine... those few times, it was a bit of an uncertainty after the strike: "can I hold it?" yes I can!

The 2nd and 3rd 5-min run sessions were more confident than the first one. I think the first one was "OMG am I really doing this?," followed by 5 minutes of thinking about it while walking and the rest were "yeah, we doin' this!"

So hells yeah. Tomorrow another 5-min walk and 5-min run! Then Thursday 4-min walk and 6-min run.

After the run, this evening I felt some soreness: inside thigh on the left leg, quads on the right leg, both calves and the right shin.

At today's PT, I stayed at 10 lbs ankle weights, but upped the leg press to 7.5 plates. The PT showed me a new exercise, where I do hamstring curls off a physioball, while raised in a bridge position. I also did 4-lb ankleweights on standing hamstring curls.

Week 13, Day 4: Orthopedic Surgeon Followup

Wednesday's PT was fine, stayed at the same weights for all exercises. The PT measured my strength and range of motion. I have full extension and 142 degrees of flexion. The hamstring strength is 4/5, not quite fully there.

Visited the Dr for a 3-month followup today! Told him about the tales of hamstring straining woes, to which he replied that incidents are bound to happen during such a long recovery period.

The ACL is intact and strong! The Dr tested the knee and did the pivot test. Everything checked out, so, hurray, my aftermarket ACL is still in business! Overall, he said my knee is looking great and I am right on schedule.

He said that the last bits of swelling will take some time to come down and he'd like to see that fluid gone. He said the incisions are as dark as they are going to get and are going to start fading in 3 months. He gave me a new script for exercises, saying that I need to start doing more weight training. I don't have the script handy, but it included lunges.

Also, I am now cleared for running! The objective is to start out slow. Start by walking for an hour. If that's OK, then an easy 1 mile, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 miles, 3 times a week, every other day. So that puts me back to at least 9 miles a week, which is quite a good baseline to get back to! Next week will be the walk-an-hour week. Not sure I'm going to work running an easy 1 mile every other day into the Christmas week, but I'll try my best.

He also said that slight discomfort in the knee is OK, major pain is not. He said the knee won't feel "normal" until about a year out (and that's OK).

I asked him about my step down exercises being somewhat jerky and not having that smooth muscle control. He replied that I'll work through all of this with the physical therapy training.

Week 13, Day 1

2nd week of true hamstring strength building continues. The PT visit today increased the ankle weights from 9 lbs to 10 lbs. I also switched the bridging from my calves resting on the physioball to my feet resting on top of it. This way, my knees are bent a lot more and this makes bridging more difficult.

Finally, we also switched to a step-on and step-off kind of an exercise, which involves lowering my left foot off the front of the step, while bending the right knee. This is difficult to do smoothly and my muscles feel kinda "spasmy"/not smooth doing it. Same applies to stepping back off the step on the ground, where lowering my body weight off the step still causes me to crash on the last two inches of movement (and the movement is not that smooth either).

The Dr followup is Thursday, Dec 10th.

Next week was supposed to be the week that I resume running (the week after the dr followup). However, my hamstring strength has been delayed by two weeks due to injury and so I think that will delay my return to running as well.

Week 12: Going stronger

Hamstring strength resumed this week. 3 successful visits to the PT. The hamstring curl while standing up progressed from no weight, to a 2-lb weight, to a 3-lb weight. Bridging with my calves resting on the physioball.

Stayed at a 9-lb ankle weight for the leg raises, but moved up to a 7-plate leg press weight. At the last visit, moved back to the balance-and-reach exercises. Missed stretches Sunday, but managed to do them on all the other days.

Managed to get out to the gym for half an hour cardio Saturday and Sunday. Walked around a lot as well during the weekend, so the knee felt a bit sore from all the action.

Week 11: Hamstring still sad

Of course, pulling my hamstring at the end of week 10 spelled no hamstring strength for week 11. I visited PT on Monday and Wednesday, skipping all hamstring strength.

Unfortunately, I skipped my PT on Friday due to lack of good circumstances. I was visiting family for Thanksgiving and there was no good opportunity to do the strength exercises.

I've also been skipping out on stretches on the off days, so no stretches since Thursday. Boo.

Anyway, the hamstring seems to be recovering and I'm hoping to start the ham strength tomorrow night at the PT.

Week 10: Sad hamstring week

PT visit Monday had the usual strength increases for the quads. For ankle weights, I went up more than 1lb to 8lbs + shoes (from 7lbs no shoes).

So this was the weekend of hamstring strength, but because I sprained it three f'ing times last weekend, it was not meant to be.

Monday, we attempted hamstring exercise by standing up and flexing my knee by raising the heel up towards my butt. This hurt a little through the range of motion, but I did 3 sets of 15 anyway. Then we attempted bridging, which didn't hurt.

Wednesday at the PT the hamstring still hurt some, but I decided to do the exercises anyway. Thursday, I could feel my hamstring being tender all day long and Friday it was achy as well.

So at the PT Friday, I skipped hamstring altogether. My PT massaged my hamstring and ultrasounded it. She also gave me arnica gel to rub into my hamstring bruise.

Oh yeah, Monday, there was a big, nasty nasty bruise above my knee, near the hamstring violation site.

Friday, we decided to let the hamstring rest and try to be careful over the weekend.

So of course, what happens is that I ended up really pulling the hamstring AGAIN Saturday night, after stepping into a piece of poop on an uneven walkway. It really hurt.

This pisses me off because it means more hamstring strength training delays. I am guessing another week until it recovers.

And I have to try to be REALLY CAREFUL now, walk really deliberately and not wear those shoes that slip so easily in on wet pavement.

A sad hamstring week, here's to a Sunday of rest.

Week 9, days 4-7

Did some very intense elliptical Thursday, then all my scheduled PT strength exercises on Friday.

I have full flexion! Or at least 99% there. Wicked awesome!

Over the weekend, I skipped stretches both days. Boo on me. However, what's worse, is that I pulled my hamstring a total of 3 times, Saturday and Sunday. Damn. The last incident was just Sunday night, just as it began feeling better.

I hope that all this hamstring abuse won't delay my hamstring strength gains, though I think it probably will.

Having the hamstring be pulled was part of the excuse for skipping stretches on both days. I still could've done the calf stretches, but instead I wrote the whole thing off.

Well, let's see what the physical therapist says tomorrow.

Week 9: Day 3

Yesterday, did a pretty intense elliptical workout and the knee felt pretty much fine. Forgot to stretch though!

Today's PT was good. Same routine as Monday, except one-legged heel raises off the floor now. The right calf is definitely weaker, but no discomfort on the knee. On stepping down from the step, I am now trying not to "crash down" so much, but come down with more control. Still not descending entirely controlled though.

Week 9: day 1

Knee felt great over the weekend, but I skipped the stretches one day (too
busy). Alas skipped ice both days.

Today, Monday, went to the PT. Up to 7lbs on ankle weights and 5 plates on the leg press. Wobbly foam pad for the balancing and that was not that difficult. Managed a 30 second non-stop balance on the right leg at the end. Everything felt good.

My back to running date is early Dec. Seeing how I'm starting hamstring strength after 9 weeks, leaving only 3 weeks until running date. However the followup with my doc is a week off as well, so I may actually get 4 weeks of HM strength before running.

Week 8, days 4 and 5

Yesterday, rocked the elliptical at the gym for 15 minutes at a lighter-to-medium intensity and felt good. Topped it off with a 15-minute bike ride of higher intensity (180+ bpm heart rates again) and that felt fine. Did my stretches.

I was a bit surprised that the knee felt fine all the way through my 2nd elliptical outing. This means that I must've "conditioned it" or "broke it in" with the 10-min elliptical Wednesday. So basically, you gotta work it to get any results.

However, at the end of last night, did a bunch of standing around and walking. When I woke up this morning, my tibia felt more painful than the painless level that it has been at before. Still, it's a fairly slight increase in pain, so I'm not worried.

I've been doing more stairs, mostly the ones at home (avoiding stairs at work still). Coming down stairs is more difficult, as one might expect. It's not very smooth, I kinda "drop" onto the step, and so I need to work on it. Coming up the stairs feels fine/OK.

Today, I did some evening PT in my work gym. I ramped up my elliptical for 20 minutes at a lower intensity (heart rate 130-150bpm). A pair of 6lbs ankle weights made for one heavy gym bag. Did stepups, heel raises, balancing and stretches. Knee felt fine!

Week 8: day 3

Good PT visit today.

When I go to the PT, I either have my actual PT (with an MSPT degree) or her assistant work with me. They are both great and tend to agree on the same things. Today, my actual PT worked with me, for the first time since last doctor's visit. I mentioned that I was staying away from the elliptical until we begin hamstring strength. But she said that it's OK and I can start the elliptical at this point. I can keep doing it, as long as there's no pain, adding 5 minutes at a time.

So I did the elliptical for 10 minutes. At minute 2 or so, the knee felt a little bit painful, but it stayed at that same level through the whole thing, so I'm hoping that it will get "used" to this. I really want to be able to rock the elliptical full power soon.

I asked about stairs and she said that I should be navigating stairs normally, unless there's pain. Of course, I should limit the amount of stairs if I have a choice, so I'll still be choosing the elevator at work. However, at home, I should stop doing the one-legged stairs and do a normal ascent and descent.

When I got home, I attempted a normal ascent and it was alright (ascending feels weird, the right leg doesn't feel "full power" upon ascent). However, I was too afraid to attempt a descent.

The PT said that I should try to do things normally, such as stairs, because the longer I don't do things normally, the worse it will be to go back to normal.

She noticed I limped just a bit walking into the appointment, noting that I wasn't flexing my right knee enough on the right leg step off (I almost was keeping it locked straight). I walked around again, attempting to do it right and my walking was better. So I need to remember to keep that walking limp-free.

I stayed at 6lbs for ankle weights. The left leg is just barely able to finish those with the quads fatiguing, and the right leg had an easier time with the weights, with no quad fatigue felt. It's a bit strange, because my right leg is definitely not as beefy/muscular looking as the left leg, so I would have expected the quads to be strained less on the left leg.

Incision looks a bit red still but not any worse than Monday. So hopefully it's not an infection.

My flexion is kicking ass, I am down to three fingers butt-to-heel. (Or maybe even 2.5).

Week 8, day 2

Seems like the incision is less red overnight. Skipping the massaging, hoping the redness will go down. During the day, it felt like the jeans were rubbing against the incision, possibly irritating it. Almost felt like I should go back to wearing shorts.

Hopped on the bike for 20 minutes and did upper body workout, but didn't do the stretches last night. Forgot to do them after the workout in the gym and the hamstring didn't feel quite right when trying to stretch it last night, so I just went to bed as is.

Week 8, day 1

The sleeping has been good last week or so. I only sometimes wake up around 5-6 (instead of 4am) with a slight knee ache. Much improved experience overall!

PT visit today was good. I went to 5 plates on the leg press, but backed off to 4 in the beginning of the 2nd set, because I began getting some pain above the knee, at the bottom of the femur. It was slight and only on pushoff, but after I shifted to 4 plates, it went away. So I am staying at 4 plates for a bit.

Did 6lbs with ankle weights with both legs. My left hip may be sore tomorrow.. the left leg definitely forgot what it's like to lift these on a regular basis. Still managed all my 3x15 sets.

Did step-ups off a slightly taller step and they felt fine. The balancing with the eyes open is very good now on the right leg.

The PT noticed some increased redness around the hamstring incision site. Hoping it's not an infection. I am going to stop massaging it with the petroleum jelly cream for a few days to see if that changes anything. I also wiped down Aircast knee cuff, just in case some crap developed on it.

At home, coming down the stairs, I stumbled and pulled my right hamstring. Ow! Kinda sorta icing it now and hoping it'll heal itself overnight. I guess this is not a particularly terrible time to pull the hamstring (almost at the 8-week mark), but still not a good thing.

Week 7, days 6 and 7

The weekend was good. I did my stretches, but skipped the cardio, since I don't have a stationary bike I can use over the weekends (my roommate's bike is a reclining bike, not upright, and it is a hassle to use). I need to get a gym membership to do stuff on the weekends.

The knee felt good over the weekend. Still some aches and a throb of pain here and there, but pretty calm overall. Ibuprofen takes care of it all. The swelling seems to have gone down more right around the patella, with the most visible swelling just below the knee, above the hamstring graft site.

I went to two parties on Fri and Sat, mostly standing around and not a lot of sitting. I managed OK and the knee didn't act up too much. I have now developed a more pronounced click on certain knee movements and motions. Not so much during the walk, but more during a knee flex after some walking.

The muscle soreness from my first upperbody workout on Tuesday has finally faded over the weekend.

Week 7, days 4 and 5

Thursday was low-key. The knee felt good all day. I hit the gym and did 25 mins of cardio, including 5 minutes of high-intensity stuff that got my heart rate to 194bpm. It's been a while! The knee did feel a bit more painful after the intense cardio, so I think I ought to tone it down a bit.

Thursday did stretches before leaving work, after the bike.

Friday, hit the gym before leaving work. 25 min moderate intensity cardio (150-160bpm hr) on the stationary bike. Did all my strength exercises, including 5-lb SLRs on both legs. The left leg is not used to doing 5lb SLRs, so it's good I'm starting now, as it will take a bit to catch up with the right leg. Did balancing and step-us. Also calf raises. Pretty much everything I do at the PT except for the leg press. Stretched and went home.

Week 7, day 3

The knee is feeling good. I slept until 8am with no pain--amazing!

My roommate asked me if I wanted to go kart racing in mid-November. I checked with the surgeon and he replied "I do NOT think Kart racing is a good idea. Too high a chance of injury." Love the ability to get questions answered quickly by email from my surgeon.

Forgot about ibuprofen until 3pm this morning. Normally, after an 8am ibuprofen intake, the knee would remind me about itself by noontime. So yeah, these are all good signs.

PT tonight. Went well. Stayed at 5lb ankle weight, 4 plates on leg press. Step ups off a taller step now. Balancing was perfect for 3 sets of 30 seconds. After all that when I lied down for towel-assisted hamstring stretces, my right leg was shaking. Maybe the leg press and the straight leg raises did the
job?

The plan for off days is stretches and cardio. Friday is all weights, except the leg press, which I can't do at my work gym. Will also start SLRs and balancing on my left foot.