three things thursday

1. The cranky weird sore spot I got on my shin a few weeks ago seems to have gone away.  I sticked the bejesus out of it for a few days, which was almost worse than the time I had my adductors Graston'd, and did the usual routine of alternating ice with constant panic about a stress fracture.  When I got back from my holiday travels, I went and saw my PT.  I've been having some tightness in my hamstring for a few weeks - really minor, but twinge-y on longer runs.  She diagnosed me with a tiny bit of tendonitis at the attachment, which is already almost gone with ice, advil, etc. - but also said that my sore spot on my shin was probably a byproduct of my lower leg working hard to compensate.  Strange, how the body is all connected.  So even though "ignore it and it will go away" would have probably worked in this case, I'd still rather spend the $15 to make sure that all my bones aren't collapsing.


Sore spot aside, I obviously still haven't learned that walking around in my Kinvaras make my shins ache from a lack of support.  I lifted in them on Monday afternoon and then was on my feet for most of the rest of the day, and was completely shocked to wake up Tuesday morning with extremely sore/tight lower legs.  Sigh.  It will make me sad if I have to completely remove a pair of hot pink shoes from my closet, but clearly recurring shin pain that lasts 2-3 days isn't teaching me anything.  A couple of days in supportive shoes and compression socks always fixes me right up, but I have enough problems with ghost injuries without adding another from sheer stupidity.


ALL of these things aside, I'm actually doing quite well in the injury department.  My hip flexors are behaving, my butt is behaving, my cranky shoulder nerve thing let me swim almost 25 miles last month, and my legs in general seem to have adjusted pretty well to all the shoe changes I was playing around with all summer and fall.  I'm not sure that I can remember a time in my life where I've been this active for this long without a debilitating injury, but I'm certainly going to embrace it and hope that I can keep this streak alive.  


2. I still have a pretty weird love affair going on with the pool.  I used to completely hate it and dread swimming, but the past few months...I don't know.  I'm not a swimmer, and I still get roasted by all the super fast people I swim with, but I just really like it.  It's peaceful.  Especially now that I can do flip-turns without cracking my skull on the floor.


3. Run...swim...I guess the third thing Thursday must be the bike?  I hate the trainer with an all-consuming passion.  My speed/cadence sensor thing isn't calibrated right and I can't fix it, and I KNOW that there's just no way I spin my brains out for 90 minutes and have only gone 14 miles.  Plus I still have a really hard time getting my HR up while inside, although I am sweating buckets as soon as I go over 100.  I don't have any of these problems outside, so I'm trying to focus on the fact that I'm doing the work and ignore some of the numbers.  Soon enough it will be spring, and I can get my sunrise ride back on, and then it'll be hot and time to climb hills and I'll be complaining about that, instead.  These are the days of our lives.


Happy Thursday, everyone!  What are you complaining about today?