three things thursday
1. Two weeks ago, I had my first Graston treatment on my psoas/iliacus. For about the past week and a half, my sacrum has been falling out of alignment much more often, going from 4-5x a week (still a lot) to at least once and usually twice a day, but sometimes as often as 5 times. And until yesterday, I didn't put these two pieces of information together, but now that I have, here's what I think happened (Back off, man, I'm a scientist). My tight piriformis used to be holding my sacrum down, and when that loosened up, my psoas/hip flexor started holding it in place. Now that my right hip flexor is completely calm - and trust me, I never thought this day would come - there is NOTHING holding it in place. It makes complete sense, but until I put these pieces of information together, it was really smoking my bananas. On Tuesday morning, I felt it move out of alignment while I was doing planks at the gym. Come on, now, PLANKS! Planks are strengthening the muscles that are supposed to be holding it in place!
So I guess we can call this progress, but really it's just a right turn on the road out of injury only to discover I still have a giant mountain to climb. I can feel that there is nothing holding that part of my back in place right now, and trust me, it's seriously weird. I talked to my PT about it yesterday, and he has been fabulous and brought me so far over the past 2 months, but he's completely stumped about how to make my sacrum stop falling out of place all the time. He said that my core is really strong and should be holding it in place, and is mystified as to why it's not. Part of it is due to the fact that I'm hyper-mobile, which means all my ligaments are looser than they should be, and part of it is just that my body seems to be some kind of fucking science project that no one can completely figure out. He did think that maybe my insanely tight adductors might be throwing something off, so I got those Graston'd, and let me just tell you, everything else I've ever done in PT has been a walk in the park compared to that. At this point, I'm just going to keep working on making my core and glutes even stronger and we're both hoping that he has a 3am "EUREKA!" moment in the next few days. I am thinking about traveling back out to see Dr. Maggs for a second opinion, because I completely forgot to ask him about the alignment thing last week and while I totally trust my PT and think he's awesome, sometimes it's just good to get another set of hands on your busted ass.
2. I talked to my coach earlier in the week and he recommended a few days off for my naggy shin, so I've been off until this morning, where I ran 15 minutes off the bike. It's at the point right now where I can't tell if I'm feeling a slight ache or if I'm just feeling the ghost of an ache (or if it's just aching because I keep poking it to see if it's aching), but I've been living in my compression socks and icing pretty regularly, which seems to be helping. It felt completely fine on the run, so I'll probably do another 15 minutes over the weekend and see where I'm at.
3. I've started looking at TT bikes just in time to realize that all the bike makers are going to change everything for the 2012 lineup. Last week Beth and I went out to Bonzai Sports to try a few things, and I was completely shocked to be comfortable on a TT bike. I was expecting to hate it, but once I got used to "Am I steering or am I drunk?" it was actually pretty sweet. After thinking about it, I realized that I spend a lot of time in my drops on my road bike and I'm really comfortable and happy there, and it's roughly the same thing, except with shoulder support. I wouldn't ride something new for Poconos because it's too close (and because from what I hear of the course, I'll want to be on my road bike), but if I'm going to ride a TT next June, I'll need to buy it in time to put about 3-4K miles on it before race day.
Yes, it does say "Then I showed up" on my ass. The front of the shirt says, "You had your chance."
So now I'm just biding my time until 2012's hit the stores and I've dug enough pennies from the couch cushions to be able to afford it. I think the best plan is to not even consider something until after October 2 - that way I'm not tempted to ride it.
Happy Thursday, everyone!
So I guess we can call this progress, but really it's just a right turn on the road out of injury only to discover I still have a giant mountain to climb. I can feel that there is nothing holding that part of my back in place right now, and trust me, it's seriously weird. I talked to my PT about it yesterday, and he has been fabulous and brought me so far over the past 2 months, but he's completely stumped about how to make my sacrum stop falling out of place all the time. He said that my core is really strong and should be holding it in place, and is mystified as to why it's not. Part of it is due to the fact that I'm hyper-mobile, which means all my ligaments are looser than they should be, and part of it is just that my body seems to be some kind of fucking science project that no one can completely figure out. He did think that maybe my insanely tight adductors might be throwing something off, so I got those Graston'd, and let me just tell you, everything else I've ever done in PT has been a walk in the park compared to that. At this point, I'm just going to keep working on making my core and glutes even stronger and we're both hoping that he has a 3am "EUREKA!" moment in the next few days. I am thinking about traveling back out to see Dr. Maggs for a second opinion, because I completely forgot to ask him about the alignment thing last week and while I totally trust my PT and think he's awesome, sometimes it's just good to get another set of hands on your busted ass.
2. I talked to my coach earlier in the week and he recommended a few days off for my naggy shin, so I've been off until this morning, where I ran 15 minutes off the bike. It's at the point right now where I can't tell if I'm feeling a slight ache or if I'm just feeling the ghost of an ache (or if it's just aching because I keep poking it to see if it's aching), but I've been living in my compression socks and icing pretty regularly, which seems to be helping. It felt completely fine on the run, so I'll probably do another 15 minutes over the weekend and see where I'm at.
3. I've started looking at TT bikes just in time to realize that all the bike makers are going to change everything for the 2012 lineup. Last week Beth and I went out to Bonzai Sports to try a few things, and I was completely shocked to be comfortable on a TT bike. I was expecting to hate it, but once I got used to "Am I steering or am I drunk?" it was actually pretty sweet. After thinking about it, I realized that I spend a lot of time in my drops on my road bike and I'm really comfortable and happy there, and it's roughly the same thing, except with shoulder support. I wouldn't ride something new for Poconos because it's too close (and because from what I hear of the course, I'll want to be on my road bike), but if I'm going to ride a TT next June, I'll need to buy it in time to put about 3-4K miles on it before race day.
So now I'm just biding my time until 2012's hit the stores and I've dug enough pennies from the couch cushions to be able to afford it. I think the best plan is to not even consider something until after October 2 - that way I'm not tempted to ride it.
Happy Thursday, everyone!