Thursday, April 28, 2011

Achillies not Plantar

So the good news is that the heel pain is from Achilles Tendinitis, not the dreaded plantar fasciitis.

Good news because the recovery from AT can be much quicker than PF.

New shoes, ice, avoid hill work for a week or so, the Strassberg sock (thanks IronSnoopy!) and a few visits with my favorite torture artist, er, I mean chiropractor, Dr. Brendon O'Brien and I should be fine.

Dr. O is a cyclist, runner, skier who specialized in ART -- Active Release Technique. My Coach turned me on to Dr. O last year when I pulled a hamstring right before Ironman. Dr. O worked on my hammy a couple times before the race and that is what got me through the bike and on to the run course.

With ART, the Chiropractor will have you shorten the tissue, apply contact tension to the affected area, then lengthen the tissue or slide it to adjacent tissue.

So with the hamstring, this means I bend my knee, Dr. O apples big time pressure contact with the hamstring, I slowly unbend my knee and he continues to apply that pressure all the way up the hamstring to my glute. Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

May not sound like much, but it can be incredibly painful (in a good way) while it is going on (and on and on and on).

With the AT, the same ART concepts apply, but this time he was working on my heel, ankle and calf.

YEEEEEOOOOOOCCCCCCH. But again, in a good way!

So -- if you are having overuse injuries, I recommend finding someone that practices ART. Will bet you back up and running (ha ha) in no time flat.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

If it isn't one thing....

It seems to be another.

Ever since right before last year's IMoo, I seem to be plagued with small, but nagging, injuries.

I pulled a hamstring about a week and a half before IMoo last year. Although I rehabbed pretty quickly, it definitely did impact my biking during the race.

Then, shortly after the race, I pulled a muscle in the other leg. That took some time to heal.

Then I developed this weird thing where my arms fall asleep from my elbows down when I'm sleeping. Apparently, it is a nerve that gets pinched. I have bouts where it is really bad and then other nights where it isn't so bad at all.

Now, I have heel pain. Big time heel pain. I'm refusing to believe that I may have actually have plantar fasciitis. I am hoping that I just need new shoes.

I have been icing and using Advil and running my foot over golf balls, tennis balls and soup cans. Still having pain.

I've heard horror stories of this lasting for months and months and months.

I only have 20 weeks of training (!) week before Ironman Wisconsin... so I don't really have weeks and weeks to heal.

Fortunately, it doesn't bug me when I swim and hasn't hurt when I bike.... so, I'm going to give my foot a bit of a rest this week, I'll find some new shoes and I'll hope for the best.

Any one have any other recommendations?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Well, well, well. Look who's back.

Yes, I'm actually blogging today. It has been a L O N G time since I've had the luxury of time to just lazily type more than a Facebook update.

Work has been crazy busy for both me and Hubby. We are both working long hours; traveling a lot and having a very hard time detaching from work and work issues. (The pressure is much higher on Hubby. His big project has been ramping up since December and won't deploy for one more month. He has been working 10 - 12 hours every day -- including weekends for 4 1/2 months. Toooooo much).

We are both very dedicated to our jobs and our projects, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we have pride in what we do, we feel accountable for driving results and are willing to put in the time and effort to get things done (even when the task isn't really ours to do...). The bad thing is that, in these days and times, we just don't know what the next day will bring.

Even with better news about the economy, our company is working on plans to "reduce redundancies and increase efficiencies", which, in plain English means lay-offs. We just don't know when, where or who. So, every day, we get up, we suit up and we go to work and we get stuff done. And we wait.

Should one of us (or both of us) get laid off, we'll figure it out....and it hasn't happened yet... and may not happen at all. We are just going to keep moving forward, one project at a time.

So besides work, there I'm training.....at least I'm trying as best as my schedule and motivation can allow me. I have to say that I have had less mojo over the last few months. Part of it is work and part of it is that winter has just dragged on and on and on. (Tough to be highly motivated to get on the trainer for yet another 3 - 4 hour spin session...).

I know for sure I am definitely stronger physically than I was at this time last year (strength training and yoga have helped a ton) but I'm not entirely sure how this will translate in to race times.

My paces "feel slower" swimming and running, although my endurance is better. I seem to hold a better pace on the bike for longer periods, but what does this mean over the long haul of a race course?
My first outdoor tri is in 8 weeks, which means I have about seven weeks of good, solid training in front of me to get ready and then one week of easing off to taper.

So -- a lot of unknown right now....which means I spend a lot of time just trying to move forward....literally and figuratively.