FAI Surgery 6 Month Recovery Update: Running Wild!

“It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” ~Zig Ziglar

Recovering from FAI surgery sucks.

It hurts, crutching blows, healing takes time, and all the squats and clamshells and hip flexor stretching gets exhausting…. and then six months go by and if you are lucky, you think less and less about your hip and more and more about all the exciting stuff you can do now and tell people that is was no big deal, easy almost since some evolutionary strategy makes you forget how much it sucked.

The other day I filled out my 6-month hip questionnaire for my surgeon. Pain = zero. Can bathe myself, check! Can get out of my car, check! Can run a mile without pain, check! Zero limitations, CHECK! For the record, I could always bathe myself, but getting out of the car at times was tricky.

Filling out the questionnaire made me think about and be thankful for all the amazing things I have been able to do this last few months.

By 6-monts post-FAI surgery recovery I have…

*Ran 3-4 times a week topping out at 30 miles/week with longest run being 12 miles
*Backpacked ~40 miles through the Southern Utah Desert
*Went on awesome trail running trips through Colorado, City of Rocks, and Smith Rock State Park
*Successfully returned to cross-country and alpine skiing
*Ran up 8 peaks with 44 more to go!
*Signed up for a fall 50K, shhhhhh DON’T TELL ANYONE!!!

If I had to complain about something I would say that my hip flexors are still tight, but my massage therapist cleverly pointed out, “Most people’s hip flexors are tight!”

The chronic SI joints problems I have had since my first surgery have pretty much disappeared, which is AMAZING!!!

Gorgeous Cliff Dwellings, Southern Utah Backpacking Trip

It has been a long haul…

*FAI Surgery #1 – December 9, 2011: Left hip femoroplasty, acetabuloplasty, labral repair, and iliopsoas tendon release.
*Capsular Repair – January 17, 2013: Left hip capsular repair (tightening of iliofemoral ligament) along with some cartilage debridement and scar tissue removal.
*FAI Surgery #2 – November 14, 2013 – Right hip femoroplasty and capsular repair (tightening of iliofemoral ligament).