Catching Up

So it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted. There are a few things to catch up on and no clear place to start. I’ll just dive in:

I've been running.

I've managed to do all of two runs totaling about 7 miles. The injury is not as bas as it was, but it is probably also less than 50% healed. I’m signed up for physical therapy sessions for the entire month of April and I think I’m going to need all of them.

The Colorado Marathon will probably become a half.

That sucks, but short of me being miraculously better, I don’t see how I can do 26.2. I might be able to pull it off from a cardio stand point, but the pain in my leg would just about guarantee a DNF. I’m going to wait about one more week and then officially notify the race organizers of my desire to change.

I am indeed running the SOST

Though I only registered late last week, I am pleased to say that I will be among the field at this year’s Summer Open Sprint Triathlon. I thought about skipping it, but that would mean no race until the 5430 Sprint in June. I may be taking some chances with the weather, but I’m really hoping for another nice day like they had two years ago:

More Outdoor Rides

I was up in Northern Colorado for Easter weekend and managed to get a ride on the Poudre River Trail heading west. I must admit to being fairly impressed. Though I normally don’t like bike trails, this one was free of the normal obstacles and I got a good 30 mile ride in. Riding along, I noticed the landscape seemed kind of desolate. It looked a little bit like the pictures coming back from the Curiosity Rover:

West of Windsor                                  Mars

Really, just take away the grass and the clouds and I think it could work.

Physical Therapy Continues. As I mentioned before, I am continuing physical therapy. That mostly consists of having small needles poked into my muscles while I try not to cry like a little girl. I’m so anxious to have my leg healed that I’d be willing to try just about anything. Not getting to run very much really sucks. Never thought I’d say that, but it’s true.

I am going back to TriRock

I have registered for the TriRock Oly distance in San Diego. That will be on September 22. Their updated run and ride courses look good and the swim is still in San Diego Bay. This will be a good bridge between the Rattle Snake Tri and IM Austin 70.3.

I’m renting a bike in Ibiza

I found a rental shop on the Spanish island of Ibiza that is going to deliver a bike to the place I am staying for a two-day rental. My research on Garmin Connect shows that there are others who have done rides around the island. I am really looking forward to it. The GoPro will be with me so I can capture all of the fun.

Okay. All caught up.

For now it’s just focus on getting over this injury in as little time as possible. Right now, my worst case is completely withdrawing from the Colorado Marathon but I’m hoping the next month will give me a chance to get better and at least crank out the half. We’ll see.

Thanks for reading!

Holy &@#! That Hurts

I've always thought of myself as someone with an above average pain threshold.  In my 43 years I've endured having my sun burned belly dragged across the coral in Barbados and was still swimming around afterward. I accepted a cortisone shot into the arch of my foot with hardly a complaint. Root canal? No problem.

That was until Thursday when I went to my second physical therapy appointment. No dry needling this time.  If only it was something as pleasant as having a needle stuck into one of my muscles. Instead, my therapist Nick used a plastic edge thing to run down the instances of fibrosis. There's a dearth of good information on the web about my specific condition so unfortunately, I don't have a link. Suffice it to say that fibroids in this instance are small pockets of inflexible muscle that cause more stress on the healthier surrounding tissue.

What to do about such a problem? Apparent,y run this edge (a bit like the back of a comb) over the affected area with a lot and I do mean a lot of pressure! I could feel the small little lumps breaking down as he worked on them. I was told that another factor of the condition is a lack of vascularization in the area which, of course, means less blood flow.

Once he had finished there were several red streaks in the treated area and two days later, I am still sore.

Torture  Raking was not the only treatment we had. There were also some balance exercises at which I was uniformly terrible. The first involved standing, knees slightly bent on an inverted BOSU ball while Nick bounce passed a basketball to me. Not directly to me. No, to the side down low anywhere that involved my losing my balance.

I also did a few minutes on a balance board and then some more on a balance disk which basically allowed me to lose my balance in multiple directions.

I go back on Monday and I'll be asking about running. It's been almost a month since I've been and I'm anxious to get started again. 

Early Wednesday morning I'm off to Phoenix for my annual work visit and it would be great to be able to do even a short run while there.

More to come on my next treatment and that trip.

Thanks for reading

Dry Needling, Balance Exercises and Other Fun

This afternoon I had my first physical therapy session. And by first I mean very first. Ever.

After some basic questions about my injury and its history, Nick, my therapist, began by having me walk down a hall and then up some stairs a couple of times. He just watched.

Then we moved to a massage table out in the main therapy room. Unlike your typical doctor's office, this room, in addition to a couple of tables, had exercise balls, BOSU balls, some machines and of all things a Wii Fit!

Alas, I did not get to play any games. Instead, Nick had me perform some tasks such as lifting my weight up on my toes, one leg at a time. This left me feeling a little sore, but not in pain.

Then he had me do some tests where I would resist his efforts to pull my legs and feet in different directions. As near as I could tell, this was all diagnostic.

The diagnostics became more focused on my specific injury. Various poking and prodding seemed to tell him that the soleus muscle in both legs was very tight. Once he had this determined, he was ready to proceed with actual treatment.

The process is called dry needling. The procedure is similar to acupuncture but the focus of the therapy and the way each works is different. Essentially the area of attention is treated by creating tiny hemorrhages which then induce collagen and protein formation. That's not to say that I was stuck with needles until I bled. Externally, there was no blood at all. In fact, hours after the treatment, I don't even show bruises on my leg.

What did happen is that each time, the affected area twitched and I could feel a slight twinge, but not what I would call actual pain. It was weird and a little uncomfortable, but not painful. Once a handful of applications were complete, Nick applied heat to my calves for probably about 15 minutes.

Then I was done. Well, done for today. I'll be back next week for my treatment like this. He thinks I might be able to start running again in another week or two which makes me happy. Even if I can't be ready for the marathon, it will feel good just to be out there.

Between now and next week, I've been given a series of exercises and stretches. As part of the assessment, he noted that my balance is not particularly good and these will help with that as well as loosening the soleus muscle. I only need to do them a couple of times over the next week.

At the moment, my right calf feels sore, like maybe I had been running up steep hills earlier. That should go away in a day or two and then it will be back to my routine as long as everything feels okay.

I'll continue to post here on any updates.

Thanks for reading!

PT

It does pay to get some professional medical advice.

As part of my routine physical, I asked my doctor about the pain in my right calf. Although I though it was an issue with my gastrocnemius, the injured muscle may actually be the soleus:

He said it is more prone to injury and also takes longer to heal. Sounds about right.

While there is no guarantee of any result, at his advice I'm going to start physical therapy next week at a place called Cherry Creek Wellness Center. While they have clinics all over the Front Range, they also have one in Lone Tree just a short drive from work.

I've been treated for all kinds of ailments. Nuclear medicine diagnosis: yep. Steroid shots in my foot: check. MRI: had one of those. Physical therapy: Never.

It will be interesting to see what results but hopefully after four weeks I'll be on my way to healing up. Perhaps, if I am very lucky, I'll even have a shot at still running the marathon. Maybe.

Thanks for reading!