Florida Wildlife

I had planned a Florida vacation that included camping and snorkeling and lots of interaction with nature. Unfortunately, Mother Nature intervened and it rained really really hard while I was there. My friend Michelle and I ended up enjoying the local sites around the Florida Keys instead. Most memorable was Fantasy Fest in Key West. We had not heard about it until we showed up in Key West to take the ferry boat to the Dry Tortugas National Park. It is a two week long festival that includes a Mardi Gras style parade, 'costume' contests, lots of liquor, and nudity. Well, not complete nudity. The website for Fantasy Fest says specifically that "Nudity is illegal. Key West city code specifies that body paint does not constitute clothing." So we did see women wearing pasties and men wearing a sock (not on their feet).

The kicker of it all is that we saw these not-completely-nude people walking down the street at noon. And they were definitely not in their 20's or 30's. Many of them looked like they were hippies in the 60's which would make many of them in their 60's or 70's. That's right. We saw 60-year old practically nude men and women walking down Duval Street around lunchtime. Yes, I have pictures. No, I'm not going to post them.

To round out the wildlife sightings, we also saw some alligators, crocodiles, and an iguana in the Everglades; and a dolphin and flying fish in Biscayne National Park. And of course, lots and lots of birds everywhere.

Here are some of my impressions of South Florida:

Little changes make a big difference

I have been doing the sports physical therapist exercises for a week now and I can feel the difference. I also had a gait test and after some corrections to my running form, my 11 mile run yesterday actually felt great!

The rotated pelvis problem that I have isn't noticable in a mirror, but I could definitely see it on the video from my running gait test. For the running gait test, I ran on a treadmill for about 45 minutes (overall) while the physical therapist videotaped me from the back and side. The PT then analyzed every aspect of my movement from hip to toes in video-taped slow motion.

My old running form was more straight legged and lazy, and the rotated hip causes the right leg to be a little longer than the left. As a result, my right hip compensates by tilting up during each step and the rest of my body compensates for the hip by tilting in various directions. My right ankle and foot overpronate (collapse the arch), and my lower back arches to the right more. This all explains why my right foot and ankle and lower back hurt sometimes.

After doing a little search on the web, it seems like a rotated pelvis is more common than I thought. It just isn't diagnosed that often because the symptoms are typically things like back or knee pain-- and when people have back and/or knee pain they tend to think the problem is the back or knee. Also, diagnosing it requires someone willing to spend time to do a full structural exam-- something most MD's don't have the time and/or knowledge to do. It's too bad because from what I've read, a small misalignment in the hips can cause pain pretty much everywhere in the body because everything is off-kilter.

Fixing my messed-up alignment is going to take a couple of months of strengthening and stretching. For the first phase (first month) I was given a set of stretching exercises that takes about 30 minutes to get through, and another set of strengthening exercises with light weights that takes at least 30 minutes to go through. The list is pretty thorough and works everything from my neck and shoulders down to my calves and hamstrings. The exercises aren't strenuous at all, just time consuming.

The one exercise specifically designed to stretch and push my right pelvis back into alignment is a high lunge. Basically, I lunge my right leg against a heavy chair or the wall with my right foot at about mid-thigh height bouncing three times. I am supposed to do this several times a day on my right side only. I have started to feel a little bit of aching in my right hip and I'm assuming this is because I am stretching the hip back into place.

As for my running form, I was told to lift my legs up more in front and in back. It feels like I am doing a combination of high-stepping and butt-kicking, but from the video my form looks much more fluid and efficient this way. I was given gradually increasing time intervals to slowly incorporate the new running form into my runs. I tried it yesterday morning and the new form felt really good compared to my old lazy legged form.

I'm amazed how these small changes could make such a big difference in just one week. I'm so glad that I found the root of my problem now when I'm still relatively young! Now the thought of being a 70 year old marathoner doesn't sound so impossible for me :)

Fast food eating women

I recently saw the following audition notice under the role name "Fast food eating Women":

"I would like a wide range of women who are not in very good shape. I don't want giant obese people, just folks who look like they could stand to lay off the cheeseburgers. Would like looks to range from very normal to charactery/quirky. Also would like women who are good with physical comedy."

I don't want to comment too much on the text because the word selection speaks for itself. This is a Hollywood job ad. They will probably use someone with my body size for this role... even though I run over 20 miles a week, I wear size 6 jeans. I am fat for L.A. but healthy sized by all other measurements. Sad, huh?

Gotta move that pelvis!

Last week I had a structural exam with the physical therapist at Phase IV. This was the first time that I have had a full structural exam and it went a little something like this: take off your shoes and socks and stand over there, now turn around, now bend this this way, now hold this limb in place while I push it, now sit over there and twist this way, now lay over there and bend this limb, etc. etc.

Edwin, the PT, measured my ability to rotate, bend, and extend every joint within my core body, legs and arms. The only joints I think he missed are my jaw and my fingers. He even pulled out a tape measure and a big plastic protractor to measure my extensions and positions on one side relative to the other. The result was a slight bit of weakness adducting one of my legs, unbalance in the flexibility to rotate my neck (injured by a chiropractor a few years ago), not so great posture in my upper back, and that my right hip is rotated forward from my left hip.

The rotated hip was newly diagnosed but not surprising. It's probably caused by a combination of running on the slanted part of a road, and driving in L.A. traffic (use just one leg to brake and accelerate). I expect that some of my hamstring, back, and other pain is caused by the discrepancy in leg length caused by the rotation in one hip over the other. In fact, one of my running partners this morning--who is herself a trained PT-- says that it is a problem that she often has. When it happens to her, she has the same sorts of pains in her hamstrings and legs. Her solution is to go to a chiropractor who releases the tension in the hip by massage so it then aligns properly again. She says that she helps it by getting lots of massages.

Hmmmm.... getting lots of massages.... besides the expense, it doesn't sound like too unpleasant of a treatment plan! I'm going to see Edwin again next week. Let's see if his treatment is as pleasant as the 'lotsa massage' solution.

As for the posture, well, I have horrible posture. It's a bad habit. I read a lot and hunch over in front of the computer or lab bench a lot. I know that I am not alone. I've often wondered if those special posture devices that you see in the back of magazines would help me. My next session is on Monday and I assume that I will be assigned a lot of back and core strengthening exercises to help with the posture. We'll see!

Now where is that phone number for the massage therapist...

Longevity is my goal

I have been having stiffness and cramping in my hamstrings, hips, and ankle for the past few months. It started as stiffness after runs over 18 miles or so, and has now become cramps and pain after more than 9 or so miles. I tried taking a break from running for a week, and then two weeks, but it didn't completely alleviate the pain during or after running. Since I am scheduled to do the Pasadena Marathon in November, and do not want to take a complete break from running before the marathon, I decided to go to a sports exercise physiology clinic for some help.

Even though I am a very average athlete, I chose to go to Phase IV because I had heard a lot of good things about them. Apparently, they service a lot of serious (i.e. Olympic) athletes. On Friday, I went for the initial consultation meeting where they described their program and services, and I described my needs and goals. I am scheduled to have a full body structural assessment by a physical therapist this coming week, and over the next few weeks will have a gait assessment, VO2 max assessment, and follow-up training over the next 4 months.

One question they asked me was 'What goal are you working towards?' They mentioned that some people have goals of completing a specific race, or climbing a specific mountain. At the time, I didn't have any particular goal in mind besides alleviating the pain.

On my Saturday morning group run, I ran with a 71 year-old (Charles) who is on the second round of doing 50 marathons in 50 states. By second round, I mean that he has already completed the initial goal of doing 50-in-50 and is doing another 50-in-50. He has 12 more marathons to go before he has completed 100 marathons in 50 states. He has already done over 120 marathons in his lifetime. I asked him how he kept himself from burning-out and he said that he always runs races slow, and always looks forward to the next race.

After running and talking with Charles, I realized that longevity is my goal.

When I turn 80, I want to still be able to run a marathon, hike in the mountains, travel to foreign countries, or do whatever I want to do. I don't want to just run the next race, I want to be healthy enough to run the next 50 years. I look forward to seeing what the physical therapists can do to keep me towards that goal!