Surgery is scheduled with Dr. Su in NYC for April 9. I guess I will be the first to attempt competetive sprinting after HR. Likely I expect it will be at least a year after that before I can begin sprint training.

I am an avid runner. Having resurfacing in 18 days from Dr. Su. I’ve done 6 marathons, a dozen half marathons and hundreds of shorter races.

In addition, unlike normal runners, I also do sprinting at master’s track meets (100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, etc) and have been nationally ranked.

Dr Su says I should be able to sprint again (after full recovery of course), but we’ll see. Just losing one second off my 100 meter dash time means I will not be able to sprint competeitvely again. But if I can run for fun and excercise that will be good. Competetive sprinting would be gravy (although I dont think it has ever been done after resurfacing as best I can tell, so perhaps I can help shed some good news on the topic)

I plan on working very hard on rehab and PT (but not too hard to ensure proper healing). At 6 months, Dr. Su says I can run again, but I will take it verrrry slowly and listen to my body. I imagine it will be 12 months before I do a hard track workout or plyometrics. Running is my life. My mom told me I could run before I could walk. I am very very active in our running club (was President for 3 years, am currently VP and Track Coach).

As I said, I don’t need to be anything special after surgery, I just want to be able to run again and stay fit. Trying to be realistic and not get my hopes dashed. I’ve had a good life.

Most of the post-op running issues I have read about here are soft tissue stuff – scar tissue, etc. I use Active Release Technique from by guru and plan on having him work on me a lot as I come back to form. Dr. Su says to keep walking under 5 miles for the first month. I am 2 weeks post-op and walked 1.5 miles today on one crutch. April 25, 2012 Desk job. Returned part-time (20 hours) this week, next week fulltime. Thankfully, I can telecommute from home. Sitting > 30 mins is uncomfortable, and oddly, although the job is not physical, it is wiping me out! After logging out at 3 PM yesterday, I slept for 45 minutes! April 29, 2012 Tomorrow will be 3 weeks from surgery. Speaking of threes, it was just three short years ago that I was among the top 50-year-old sprinters in the country. I was invited down to run at the Penn Relays on a 50+ 4 x 100 meter dash relay team. May 10, 2012 I can’t believe it has already been one month (as of yesterday when I had my checkup with Dr. Su). I have no pain, just a little soreness and stiffness after sitting or lying for long periods. Dr. Su examined me and said my range of motion was “really good, actually”. He gave me a bunch of new stretches to do and also a prescrption for outpatient PT, which I will set up today. I can add resistance to the bike now. He also cleared me to drive. I think my wife is more pleased than anyone about that.

He also cleared me to mow the lawn! I’ve never been more excited to mow my lawn (not to mention saving the $30 a week I’d been paying the high school kid to do it). June 14, 2012 I am 2 months out and having aggressive PT massage and ART (digging in). They avoid the scar but nail everything around it. I plan to hit the ground running (literally) at 6 months and can’t imagine doing that with all the scar tissue that would inevitably build up without PT and ART.

July 11, 2012 I had my 3 month checkup today. Dr. Su went through his checklist and said I had 100%. He tested my ROM and said it was terrific. I told him about my accidental running and he thought it was great.

I can ride my bike outside, lift up to 50 lbs, hike up mountains (all of which I intend to do ASAP). Because I had extra time to kill, I walked all the back to Penn Station (with my heavy backpack of stuff) from his office on the upper east side of NY. I stopped in Central Park for a snack.

July 27, 2012 Here is some detailed info for me at 3 1/2 months. It’ll be good for posterity.

Last weekend, I hiked up Wachusett Mountain with a friend. It was a 3-hour hike. I’ve run up that mountain 3 times (a challenging trail/road race), skied it many times, but first time I’ve hiked it in about 25 years.

Things are going famously. As noted above, I saw Dr. Su 2 weeks, and he said my Range of Motion (ROM) was all the way back to normal and my strength was great too. Dr. Su. is very aggressive with stretching and ROM. He has no 90 degree rule and on the day after the operation he had me bending over in a chair trying to touch the floor. I did my stretches religiously, and at the one month mark he gave me more advanced stretches. The hardest was for the periformis. But by 6 weeks I could put on my own socks and shoes without a problem.

ROM: I have religiously done my stretches 2-3 times a day. In addition to the periformis, my PT’s (who kicked me out after 6 weeks because I had blown through everything they could give me) gave me some good hip flexor stretches, and other stretches. No doubt all this aggressive stretching has given me the ROM back., but I still do them every day as the periformis is still tight. I have also had Active Release Technique (ART) done twice to break up all the scar tissue there.

Hip strength: My PTs gave me some great exercises to do. At one point I was doing them every day, but it was making me very sore, so I cut back to every other day. In addition to the hip strengthening PT given exercises, they also focused on my core. So, I do crunches and planks, and a few others core exercises that they gave me. Around 2 months I started back in doing my situps, pushups and pullups every day. Dr. Su said I can lift 50 lbs, so I have started doing some easy 50 lb dead lifts as I have free weights in the basement.

Endurance: I try and walk 3 miles every day (the dog loves me). I was using my bike on a bike trainer for 30 minutes every day, thankfully Dr. Su finally allowed me to ride the bike outside, so I now ride the bike down to the lake and do 30 minutes of aquajogging every other day. He also said breaststroke (frogkick) is great for recovery so I’ve been doing that too.

I am eagerly awaiting the 6 month mark when I can start running again. I will start slowly and take it easy for months 6-12, running only every other day with some easy track workouts. I plan to start doing plyometrics at the one year mark and I do hope to be competitive again in Masters sprinting next summer, but we’ll see. I told Dr. Su I wanted to get my picture on his wall sprinting (he currently has a skier). 🙂

I do need to lose 10-15 lbs as well; that is certainly my goal over the next 3-9 months.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to do your prescribed exercises, and stretches and you will get there. Hip resurfacing is awesome. July 31, 2012 The program listed below was provided to me by Dr. Su’s office physical therapist (who is a runner himself). There is a lot to like about this program. Two things stand out:

1. It is a very gradual progression back to running. I’m sure most experienced runners want to blast out a 3 or 4 mile run on their first day of running after they have been cleared to do so. This program follows the theme of this entire website, which is “patience”. The increase is gradual, which in my opinion, gives you the best chance of successfully returning to running.

2. It is flexible – the frequency of and number of sets is variable each week, so you can ‘push it’ or back off to suit your own comfort level.

Week Activity Duration/Sets Frequency

1 Run 3 min/Walk 2 min 4-5 sets 1-3x/week

2 Run 3 min/Walk 1 min 5 sets 2-3x/week

3 Run 4 min/Walk 2 min 4-5 sets 2-3x/week

4 Run 4 min/Walk 1 min 5 sets 3x/week

5 Run 5 min/Walk 2 min 4-5 sets 3x/week

6 Run 5 min/Walk 2 min 4 sets 3x/week

7 Run 6 min/Walk 2 min 3-4 sets 2-3x/week

8 Run 6 min/Walk 1 min 4 sets 2-3x/week

9 Run 8 min/Walk 2 min 3 sets 3x/week

10 Run 10 min/Walk 3 min 2-3 sets 2-3x/week

11 Run 12 min/Walk 2 min 2 sets 3x/week

12 Run 15 min/Walk 3 min 2-3 sets 3x/week

13 Run 15 min/Walk 2 min 2-3 sets 3x/week

14 Run 20 min without walk 1 set 2-3x/week

15 Run 25 min without walk 1 set 2-3x/week

16 Run 30 min/Walk 5 min 1-2 sets 2-3x/week