by Glenn Dennis | Jan 18, 2015 | Running
As you may have noted, I am an older runner. I turned 62 on June the 8th in 2011. When I speak of injuries, I am relating my issues as I have aged. When I was racing in my late 20’s through my early 40’s, I was fortunate not to have any injuries. In my early 50’s I began to have some trouble with plantar fasciitis. A few days off and some ice usually took care of it. I also began to have some hamstring issues. When you get older, unpleasant things can begin to happen. In my mid 50’s I can remember just jogging up a rather steep hill during an easy ten mile run, and I suddenly pulled my left hamstring. That knocked me out for a week. I probably started back too soon because I then pulled my right hamstring. That was a mess. I missed a lot of time recovering. Later I started having achilles tendon problems. In an unrelated accident, I broke a toe back in late November, 2010. That kept me away from running for a while. I began running two miles every other day in early January, 2011. I had put on about twenty extra pounds, so I wasn’t feeling all that great. I felt like an elephant. I built my mileage up very slowly until I reached 50 miles a week in June. I was not doing any speed work. My weight was coming down. I started doing speed work (30 x 30’s) in mid June, and that did my left foot in. Plantar fasciitis struck my left foot with a...
by Glenn Dennis | Jan 26, 2014 | Running
It’s a new year. How cold is it here in Raleigh? It has been a while since my last post. My blood work and CT scans all came back negative. So I continued with the walking. I was on the blood thinner Xarelto for nine months due to the DVT in my calf. When my doctor took me off the Xarelto, I thought I would try to do some mild jogging, which I did. The trochanteric bursitis in my right hip would not tolerate it. It hurt a lot! I kept walking and trying to increase my pace. The walking did not bother the hip too much. Over the months I got down to a 10:40 pace. At that point I tried jogging a little during the walks. At times the hip was OK and at times it hurt like the devil. After doing a lot of reading on the subject and speaking with other sufferers, I refused to try an injection. Today I am able to jog 20 miles a week at about a 9:00 to 9:30 pace. The bursitis seems to be getting better very, very slowly. I don’t want to push it. My weight has a lot to do with the slow pace. I weigh in now at 176 lbs. That’s a far cry from my racing weight of 148. One of these days I hope to get back to racing. I cannot seem to lose weight unless I can run 40 – 50 miles a week. If I can reach that distance goal, maybe I can get the weight off. If I can lose the...
by Glenn Dennis | Feb 13, 2013 | Running
Zeus the Cat doesn’t care about my scans! My cat Zeus taking a little nap. He’s cool! Zeus will be three years old on June, 8, which is my birthday as well. I make him a card and get him a birthday cake every year. He never eats the cake. I take care of that. I had dye contrast CT scans of the pelvic region and X-rays of the hip done on Monday. I haven’t heard any results yet. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I hope it’s a good thing. I’m pushing the walking a little. Today I managed a 13:12 per mile pace. Surprisingly the hip did not hurt much at all yesterday and today. I am hoping the walking will build up muscle around the bursa to take some of the stress off. Maybe that’s working. I’m not counting my chickens yet. I will post the results of the blood work and the scans as soon as they become available. My hematologist may wait until my February 14 appointment to discuss the...
by Glenn Dennis | Jan 28, 2013 | Running
This photo was taken of me running the 1986 Boston Marathon. Obviously, it was not a serious race for me. After I was diagnosed with trochanteric bursitis, I followed the recommended exercise recommendations to the letter. After months of doing those exercises, the hip still hurts. It’s still a major issue. So much for those. I decided to give biking a try. I built up my time slowly, and before long I was riding an hour or more a day at a fairly good pace for an old guy. On a hard day I was averaging 20 mph. The biking did not hurt my hip. On December 28, 2012 I was diagnosed with a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in my left calf. My doctor immediately put me on the new blood thinner Xarelto. My hematologist is classifying the clot as provoked, so I am having lots of blood work done as well at a CAT scan and X-rays. They are attempting to figure out what caused this to happen. Due to the blood thinner, I decided to give up biking. If I took a serious fall and suffered a head injury, I could bleed to death. Xarelto has no counter agent to start the clotting process. A few weeks ago I started walking four to five miles a day. I had to do something. The hip still hurt, but I could tolerate it. After a week of power walking I tried to add a little very slow jogging. I would walk 200 paces and then slow jog 200 paces. That didn’t do the hip any good. It started hurting...
by Glenn Dennis | Apr 15, 2012 | Running
I have a major issue with my hip. At left are my two cats, Zeus (in the box), and Miss Betty, his mother. Zeus was born on my birthday, June 8, almost two years ago. These are Chaussies, a cross between an American Short Hair and an Asian Jungle Cat. Zeus is a wild man. A few days ago he attacked a section of sheet-rock and tore the off the paper. Now I have some repair work to do. I went to the orthopedist last week and was diagnosed as having trochanteric bursitis, an inflammation of the trochanteric bursa. Thank goodness it was not arthritis. The doctor prescribed a bunch of different exercises. I spoke with a runner at a race yesterday that once had this problem. He did recover, but it was slow. So I will have to give it time. I had the doctor x-ray my feet while I was there to check for bone spurs. The films didn’t reveal any, so I got fitted for a set of custom orthotics. He said I had very high arches. These might help the plantar fasciitis that seems to be lingering around in the left foot. I now have to keep up with the exercises and wait. Maybe I will be able to get back to running one of these...
by Glenn Dennis | Mar 27, 2012 | Running
Another operation to deal with. This photo was taken crossing the finish line at the 2005 Cooper River Bridge Run. I won the 55-59 year age group that year. I guess you could say the good, old days. I went ahead with the surgery to repair my left side inguinal hernia a few weeks ago. The laparoscopy option left me with much less pain, but it was still no picnic. I was able to do a slow two and a half mile jog four days after the surgery. That was not possible ten years ago when I had the open surgery – a long, four inch incision – for the right side hernia. Now I have a new nemesis to deal with. My right hip is giving me problems. I felt a slight pain when I was biking, but it was so slight I didn’t think about it. After I did the slow jog, it began hurting more. Two days later I went for another jog, and the pain got worse, so bad that I could hardly walk the next morning. I let a few days pass and tried another jog. This time the pain was intense. So now I’m headed to the orthopedist. I read about all the things that can cause hip pain, most of them not good. Now I’m wondering if I will ever be able to get back to running. I was going to go ahead with the custom orthodics, but I’m going to put that on hold until I get a determination on the hip. Getting older is definitely not fun. I am going...
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