Friday, November 17, 2006

Building a better Lisa



After holding out as long as I could against running indoors, this is the week I made the shift back to the gym. (Which, by the way, I like to pronouce ghyme.)

It's not even that cold outside, but I've been ordered to lay off the running for a while and do the elliptical instead. Which... come on...that thing?...is for sissies.

But it's all part of Lisa's Winter Recuperation Plan. After stumbling awkwardly but heroically across the finish line of the Toronto half last month, my perennially painful trio of hip/knee/ankle was screaming so loud that I limped around for 3 days. Little did I know that there is a very excellent sports medicine clinic at U of T. For all the horror stories I've heard about physical therapy, so far, it's not that bad.

Drew, my physical therapist, is a cute youth-group-leader-type who smells nice and wears kahki shorts and pokes and prods my legs and hips and asks me whether muscles that I've never heard of feel "tight" or "tender." I usually don't know what to answer. What the heck does tenderness even mean?

Wait, that didn't come out right. Anyways, Drew concludes that my left leg is slightly longer than my right leg, and that's why everything got fucky when I started revving up the mileage this summer. Drew has a plan to get me back running like a regular person, despite my gimpyness. Drew pretty much rules.

I'm also doing pilates while I can't run, and i have high hopes of getting so toned and core-strengthened that I'll be whole new runner when I get back.

So yeah...coming soon, Lisa 2.0.

4 comments:

Ericka said...

i have this mtv pilates video that rocks once you get past the cheese factor of kristen mcgee saying, "allllriiight, let's work our abs!"

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

Are there any pilates tapes that aren't cheesy? I mean, I think that is a requirement to make one.

ButterPeanut said...

it's totally a requirement. I like to do pilates in my unitard with matching legwarmers and headband.

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

I bet you knit those legwarmers with the matching headband :-)