Lyn

Knee Update

May 162011

I had my orthopedic appointment this morning. I arrived at the correct desk at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus about 15 minutes before my appointment time. I try to avoid main campus, but they could give me an appointment 4 days sooner if I braved the madness. The woman at the desk asked me for my x-rays. Um, I don’t have any x-rays. She told me that I needed x-rays to see the doctor. They sent me off to get x-rays at another desk. About an hour later, I returned with my x-rays.

I filled out my paperwork and finally saw the doctor about an hour and a half past my original appointment time. I’m so glad that my husband took Nick and Sally to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History while they waited for me. It would have been torture for everyone to have them in the waiting rooms.

The doctor asked me a ton of questions about my knee, injury, past ACL injury etc. He examined my walking and both knees. This involved lots of pulling, pushing and tugging.

The verdict is that I have a Grade II MCL tear. This means that the medial collateral ligament is partially torn. The MCL is one of the 4 main knee ligaments.

This should heal in 4-6 weeks. I need to take it easy, wear a brace and go to physical therapy. I’m not 100% sure what exercise will be allowed. The doctor mentioned walking on level surfaces as acceptable. So, I’m allowed to do the treadmill. I asked him about the elliptical and that is ok also. I didn’t get more specific and wish that I had asked about cycling. Usually cycling is encouraged for knee injuries. I’ll have to get some further instructions from the physical therapist. The earliest appointment for physical therapy is June 1st. I’m going to work on that tomorrow. 2 weeks seems way too long to wait. I plan to call the main scheduling and try to get in sooner even if that means traveling to a further location. My goal is to get therapy at the Cleveland Clinic JCC location, but I’m not sure if that will be possible.

I spent the evening ~~loafing~~ sleeping on the couch. I’m not going to do a food post today. I ate ok today. I still am lacking in the vegetable department. I hope to get some veggies cut up for salads tomorrow. That will help.

Next up: trying out the elliptical or treadmill with my knee brace in the morning. I plan to take it easy. I hope to read a bit and take a shower so I can allow the kids to play in Kid Kare for a while.

A Bizarre Rapid Trip and the Cleveland Marathon

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May 152011

I got up at 4:30am so I could leave my house by 5am and catch the Rapid at Green and Shaker. That is the most eastern spot to catch the Cleveland RTA train. On Sunday, the 5:40am is the earliest train. It gets you to Tower City at 6:03am (a little less than a mile from the start of the race). The continuing train to the Browns Stadium doesn’t run until 9am on Sunday.

I arrived at the Rapid Station without incident. I didn’t see one car during my commute until I approached the station. About 8 other cars pulled in. All but one carried runners. I was dressed to spectate and it was easy to strike up conversation with the runners. 5:40am came and went. Then, it was 5:53am and a couple of the runners got in their car and headed downtown. Right after that a bus pulled up to the station with “GREEN LINE” on it’s sign. We’re taking the bus? We all hurried on. At this point, there were many nervous and running late runners.

Apparently, there was a flipped car on the tracks and the train couldn’t get to the station. We asked the bus driver if he was taking us all the way to the stadium or downtown and he didn’t know. He was flying west since there wasn’t really any traffic. We passed the accident. You can’t really tell in this photo since it was still dark, but there were a few emergency vehicles and a bit further down, a mangled car upside down on the tracks.

The driver ended up taking us to Van Aken. He honked his horn to get the attention of an approaching blue line train and we all hopped on. About 6:25am, we arrived at Tower City. After purchasing my fare card, I headed to the starting line. The race started and finished near Cleveland Browns Stadium. This was especially nice since the stadium was open for restrooms and cover from the elements.

It quickly became clear that I was not going to be able to see my family before the race. I did make it close to the start line in time to hear the national anthem and watch the start of the race. Once the corrals cleared, I met up with the other spectators.

After chatting with Maureen, Erin and Frank, I headed to the finish area and they headed to mile 7. All of our family/friends seemed to be doing the half marathon distance.

At the finish area, I saw Katie and Alicia. I’ll be meeting up with them later in the week at Fit Bloggin’. They were volunteers who spent a few hours passing out medals.

There were also lots of bananas waiting for the runners.

It was cold, foggy, drizzly and not the best spectating weather, but the races were fun to watch. I was able to see the finish of the 10K, wheelchair races, 1/2 marathon and full marathon events.

I was alerted via text message as runners completed 10K and when they finished. All of the runners that I followed completed the race and many had personal records or met their goals. Here are the runners in our group from left to right – Carol, Holly, Mom and Justin.

Next up: orthopedic appointment for my knee in the morning.

Food Log for Sunday

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May 152011

Breakfast

1/2c oatmeal, 1c milk, 1 apple, 1T cashew butter, cinnamon (packed in a thermos to take to the race)

Morning Snack

banana

piece of toast with honey

Lunch

Outback (late lunch)

filet

sweet potato with just cinnamon

chopped salad w/crumbed blue cheese (no pecans or dressing)

Afternoon Snack

few cheddar curds

Dinner

Ohio City whole wheat pasta w/sauce and cheese

Good Luck Runners!

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May 142011

My day started out with a Local Flora class at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We had a brief classroom session and then headed on a field trip to take a look at live plants and trees. We talked and walked around for a couple of hours. It was a great learning experience and we didn’t get wet.

After the class, I headed to the Cleveland Marathon, 1/2 Marathon and 10K race expo. My 2 sisters and mom are running along with a bunch of other people that I know.

I met my family at the expo. My mom and dad and all four siblings don’t get together very often. My youngest sister lives out of town and my brother is moving this week for a coop job. We took the opportunity for a few photos.

Erin traveled into town with my sister. I’ve met her before a few times and I am staying with her when I go to Fit Bloggin’ next week.

My family and friends are all doing the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles). I think that the weather will be less than ideal with rain predicted most of the race. Erin and I are spectating and I’m leaving the house really early to take a train downtown and arrive around 6am. The race starts at 7am. I hope everyone has a GREAT run.

Food Log for Saturday

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May 142011

Breakfast

1/2c oatmeal, 1 pear, 1T fresh cashew butter, 1c milk, cinnamon

Morning Snack

banana w/almond butter&honey

piece of High Five blueberry bread

(more like early lunch)

Lunch

(then late lunch)

5 pumpkin ravioli

Afternoon Snack

few fresh cheddar cheese curds

Dinner

whole wheat Ohio City pasta

Italian sausage

salad w/shrooms, cucumber, honey, greens, wheatberries

Late Snack

piece of High Five w/creamed honey

1c of milk

Injured.

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May 132011

So, I made it to the JCC today for the water aerobics class. It felt good to be in the water. My knee, however, doesn’t feel so great. I’ve been trying to take it easy. I made an appointment with the doctor for Monday. I’m bummed that I am injured since it was totally my fault and I am hoping that it’s a quick fix.

Next up: rest until after the DR appt Monday.

Food Log for Friday

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May 132011

Breakfast

1/2c oatmeal, 3/4c milk, 1 pear, 1T peanut butter, cinnamon

Morning Snack

banana, handful of cashews

Lunch

prosciutto

cheddar

salad

shrooms

Dinner

couscous

filet

broccoli

mushrooms

Late Snack

piece of toast w/creamed honey

1c of milk

Today, I fell off the BOSU!

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May 122011

Today, I showed up at the J for the 4:30pm BOSU class. Usually, Kim teaches the class. Today, we had a substitute – Joel. At first, I was kind of worried because I don’t do new instructors well. I like my routine. But, I decided to stay for the class. I had heard that Joel was hard in a good way and that his classes were more athletic. But, I didn’t know what that meant.

I should have known I was in trouble when he asked how many people usually come to this class. He was trying to figure out if there were enough BOSUs for everyone to have two of them.

Joel ~~showed off~~ warmed up by jumping rope on a BOSU before class. It was amazing!

The class was really good and he had me doing lots of new things. As always, I did what I could and modified as needed.

So, class was going along fine. It was hard and good. About 1/2 hour into the hour class, we started to use both BOSUs. We had them front to back of each other and stood on one and practiced transferring back and forth. It was all good until he wanted us to jump/switch our feet. So, if the left foot was on the front BOSU and the right foot was on the back BOSU, jump so that the left foot was now on the back and the right foot was now on the front.

I jumped and fell. I should have know better. I don’t really jump much on ground and had no business jumping on 2 unsteady BOSUs.

I got back up and gingerly finished the class and didn’t try to jump anymore. I mostly torqued my knee. I wasn’t really sure if it was ok. Unfortunately, it’s my “bad” knee that was never the same after my ACL tear and surgery in 2004. Once I was home and we finished dinner, I stretched, iced, and took some medicine.

I sure hope that I feel good as new in the morning. I have so much going on this week. I’m taking a wild flower class on Saturday, spectating at the Cleveland Marathon and having my brother’s farewell on Sunday, and going to Fit Bloggin’ on Thursday. There’s no time in my schedule for any injuries.

Next up: hoping for water aerobics in the AM.

Food Log for Thursday

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May 122011

Breakfast

1/2c oatmeal, 1 apple, cinnamon, 1c milk, 1T peanut butter

Morning Snack

prosciutto

Lunch

corn tortilla

piece of cheddar cheese

shrooms

Afternoon Snack

handful of cashews

Dinner

couscous

fajita veggies

left over bison

Late Snack

piece of almond/honey toast

Elliptical:750 calories, 1 hour

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May 112011

Yesterday, I set a goal for today. It was 750 calories in one hour on the elliptical. Mission accomplished.

I usually would get bored after 20-30 minutes on any cardio equipment. Since I want to work up to 1000 calories in one hour, I didn’t want to get bored too early today. So, I brought a book. I’m sure my intensity wasn’t as high as it could’ve been, but I completed the hour and hit my calorie burned goal. It feels great! I’m going to ramp up my intensity a bit at a time over the next couple of weeks and then I should be at my 1000 calories in an hour. It might take a little more sweat and a little less reading.

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