I would walk five hundred miles

I hope the Proclaimers song is now in your head. :)

Today is the 7 week mark.

Over the last 5 days, I've walked 7 miles.  That doesn't really sound like much, does it?  But it's something.  My longest walk has been 2.2 miles and I could have done more but I've been playing it conservative, trying to get a little walking in each day before I go for longer mileage.  

Physical therapy continues to be tough but I got less muscle soreness/DOMS this week than last week (don't get me wrong, I'm still SORE but relatively speaking, it's less.)  Today I walked for 1.6 miles, then I lifted upper body stuff and then I did 30 minutes in the pool doing squats and lunges and what not.  The pool has better than trying to do my land strength work on the day after PT when things are still pretty angry.

This last week or so the psoas/iliacus had been really acting up.  Like deep, sharp pains in my abdomen, near the "wing" of the hip (the iliac crest, specifically).  The physical therpaist noticed that I am way too tight through the front of my hip.  A few assessments later... and we're at the "you're using your hip flexors too much and your glutes are not firing" diagnosis.  My poor hip flexors were just getting too much of a workout!
I also notice that when my hip flexors are tight my groin/joint hurts more - like the tight muscles are squashing my poor hip joint or something, so along with the psoas pain came some increased groin pain.   This week was probably the most uncomfortable I've been in a while, but in the grand scheme of things I have to remember I am still in the early stages and the pain wasn't that bad.  Though being in any sort of pain during rehab just screws with your head.

So anyway, the therapist wants me to get up and first thing in the morning run through my set of "glute" exercises to "wake up" the muscles.   Right.  Because I am SUPER organized in the morning and totally NOT rushing out the door grabbing things as I go.  Uh huh, we'll see how this goes!

As far as the exercises at PT, here is the sheet I am currently working off of for my homework:

From the top left going clockwise:
Split squats
Side lunges
Step downs - stand on a step, drop the leg not on the step behind you, stand back up (this one really gets the glutes good)
Bird dips or Statue of Liberty
Squats (I'm doing them on the Bosu)
Hip drops - stand on a step, drop the leg not on the step (keeping the hips level, so the other leg bends a bit), stand

Things not on the sheet but still on my list for homework:
Core work - planks, side planks
Monster band lateral walks
Walking, biking, elliptical - I have been doing mostly walking because the weather has been so nice!  But I am cleared to use the indoor bike and elliptical as I can tolerate.

The next milestone will be... two months.  That seems huge!  Closer to the end than the beginning.  Hooray!