First Run in Oblivion

Last Thursday was my 4th visit to the PT.  After some stretching, serious scraping that left lots of bruising & some new exercises she told me that I could start a walk/run progression.  YAY!   Here is how the progression goes:

Workout 1:  4 minute walk, 1 min run - repeat 6 times
Workout 2:  3 minute walk, 2 min run - repeat 6 times
Workout 3:  2 minute walk, 3 min run - repeat 6 times 
Workout 4:  1 minute walk, 4 min run - repeat 6 times
Then try a 10 minute run

Start off doing every 2-3 days.  If any pain is felt stop & repeat the same workout next time. 

My plan was to get up Friday morning & do workout 1 on the treadmill in our basement.  I got up at 6:15am, put on my run gear & headed for the basement.   As I walked down the steps I noticed there was a big puddle of water on the floor.  Our home was built in 1948, the basement is unfinished & is not a stranger to water.  It usually isn't too bad & only when we get several days of heavy rains.  I should have been more suspicious especially when I got all the way into the basement & noticed how warm & humid it was.  I managed to justify the water & heat.  We had over an inch of rain in 24 hours & I figured the heat had to do with it being cold out & the furnace being on.  I just wanted to run.  I checked to make sure the power cable was dry before turning the treadmill on.  It looked good so I hopped on & started my 30 minute workout. 

I set the treadmill to 3.8 mph for the 4 minute walk & 6.0 mph for the 1 minute jog.  It felt a little weird to be running again after 7 weeks off.  My hip flexor & periformis felt OK.  Again, not 100% pain free but more like 70% pain free.  No shooting pains just enough to know it was still there.  I actually felt more discomfort in my left leg from not running for so long.  After the 2nd interval I was hot.  In 10 minutes I had worked up a good sweat which seemed odd since I had only run 2 minutes & walked the rest.  Didn't really seem sweat worthy.  About that time I noticed the corner where the water usually comes in was bone dry.  Huh, that's weird.  But I kept going.  I only had about 15 minutes to go & it didn't seem worth stopping my first run in 7 weeks to investigate. 

I was about 20 minutes into my workout when Steve came downstairs.  He immediately asked 'what's with the water & why is it so hot down here?'  I just shrugged & said it rained yesterday.  He  immediately knew something was wrong.  He went back to look at the hot water heater.  He found one of the pipes had a crack & was spraying water all over the wall.  I think he yelled at me to tell me the hot water heater was leaking.  Again I shrugged &  kept running.  It really didn't seem worth it to stop now.  I only had 5 minutes left!  Plus he had already turned off the water to the house and there really wasn't anything I could do. 

I think Steve was in disbelief at how oblivious I was to the fact the water heater was spraying hot water in the next room over while I happily ran in a sauna.  He was pretty mad that the pipe broke but I think he enjoyed telling the story to his work buddies of how his crazy wife was running while all hell was breaking loose in the next room over.  Ah, c'est la vie.

I forgot to take pictures on Friday but here are a couple from this morning.  The water is mostly gone. 

Taken from the dark creepy side of basement where water heater & furnace reside

The good news is today (2 days after the run) I am feeling great.  Currently neither my hip flexor or periformis hurts.  I plan to repeat workout 1 tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, without the added drama of the house falling apart!

I would like to give a big shout out to Christie at Changing from Fat to Fit who is competing in her first half marathon today as well as Swim Bike Mom for competing in her first Half Ironman today!  I am anxiously waiting to read your race reports, I am so proud of you both!!!!  You are an inspiration to many!  Keep up the great work!

Thanks for reading!