The bum hip, dysplasia to be exact, belongs to Lucy, my adorable and exuberant boxer mix. She had surgery for it almost 2 weeks ago and yesterday received clearance to begin rehab. Rehab for a dog means to walk, 2-3 times a day with walk duration increasing each week. We have to go slow enough that she she actually uses the injured leg (left one). So far we’ve gone on two walks and I’m thinking we have a great opportunity to better her skills at walking on a leash.
We also have an opportunity to work on me! I’ve been struggling with a chronic problem with my right Achilles. It hurts – I cut back and do rehab exercises – it quits hurting – I increase my volume or effort – it does ok – until it suddenly starts hurting again. I had actually gone a long time without it hurting and thought that it was finally healed. And then…
A week before Lucy’s surgery, while on an easy trail run at Mammoth, BAM, it started hurting again… So back to cutting back. I haven’t run since the day of Lucy’s surgery (August 13). That run felt great until pain at 5 miles. This is frustrating and disappointing as I still had a couple races I was wanting to do this year. One a big effort in a 4-day trail event (Born to Run) and the other, the California International Marathon (CIM).
Born to Run was cancelled today. CIM will probably be cancelled. So I’ve decided to do the one thing I haven’t done in all this trying to get better. To stop running for more than a couple weeks. It brings tears just to write this!
The plan now is to do the rehab exercises that I’ve been doing. Add more strength work. Ride the bike more (had been doing 1 day a week) and walk with Lucy.
These walks are pretty low impact and will keep me moving and hopefully, when she gets to go ahead to run again, I’ll be ready too!
