Had a good week. Does anyone else struggle with unstructured time? I love weekends but also get quite antsy. I am not good with unstructured time. I usually make a list of things I can do, which helps somewhat, but would love other ideas.

s: 4x = 9200 yds
b: 1x = 7 mi (on the recumbent, testing healing back, was fine)
r: 7x = 58.6 mi

My brother arrives Friday morning to spend the weekend with me :-)
goals for this coming week: day off from running, bike at least 18 mi, be super productive M-F so I can enjoy all of the weekend (which I will probably do anyway, but it would be good if I could be super productive...)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Happy Thanksgiving to the other Canadian peeps. We had our German friends over yesterday for ham/scalloped potatoes. It was delicious. Today we are doing a smokie/potato salad/chips lunch with my family.

My cold has come on full force, so mostly I want to sit on the couch and whine.

I'm still debating going for a run today, but I'm undecided.

I used to get antsy if I didn't have stuff to do, but now I have a dog & 3 year old and I'm more than happy to have lazy downtime. Although I need to play on my iPad less and read more books.

unfortunately, not a good week. I got in all scheduled rides/runs, with one exception.
I skipped my swim because we had concert tickets, which was fun and something we rarely do.

So, on my long run (a down week with 12mi scheduled), I crapped out with 3 miles to go. It was an out and back, so I was stuck walking hoping the husband would come rescue me. We were out at a local rec area. I didn't have my phone with me, it was in the car. By the time the husband figured out to come looking for me, I was pretty much only a few hundred yards from the car.
Sigh.
I have gluteal pain on both sides. It was just too severe to run through. I had gone to see my massage torture man (actually healer man) on Wed. and he worked on the hamstrings and glutes. This guy I've known now for years and specializes in athletes and athlete injury recovery. I went on a ride later that day and the legs felt crappy for about the first 15 minutes but then they were OK.
Tempo run on Thurs. am was fine. The glutes were sore at that point but no worse than they've been. They've been bothering me only after speed work and tempo, Hammer Balm muscle cream with some stretching has been making things feel OK / kept them from getting worse.
Saturday was awful. I tried to keep running but just couldn't take it. I had slowed, I was cranky, and quite miserable.
The bum hurt for the rest of the day, badly affected my sleep (woke up several times, had trouble falling back to sleep due to the pain), and hurt all day Sunday. I rode on Sunday, since so far swimming and riding actually make things feel better. I had trouble on the uphills on the ride.
Again, had trouble sleeping last night due to a restless pain-ish feeling.
I cannot take ibuprofen or naproxen due to allergy. I'm still using the muscle cream.
Today I was asking "Dr Google" and maybe it's piriformis syndrome? The pain is lateral to the ischical tuberosity though.
Over the weekend I was texting my PT friends and my one friend suggested me seeing a sports ortho... blah because I'd have to go see my PCP and get a referral, so I likely can't see my PCP until Wed., (my off day) and then who knows when I'd get into the other doc., and likely just end up in PT anyway.

Regardless, it would seem that my fall running race goals are out the window. It's really hard not to drown my sorrows in chocolate and other foodstuffs.
It hurts just sitting at my desk. Not super horribly, but it's pretty noticeable.

Sounds like something is super inflamed. Ice or heat?
I hope it feels better quickly. At least bilateral issues are generally better than having just one side sore (in my experience, pain on one side = bad and pain on both sides = super super soreness or inflammation).
I really admire your bagging your long run - I think it takes more confidence and toughness to quit when you know it's a good idea than to just push through.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

3 days of physical therapy.

6 week follow-up with the surgeon - OK to go to the pool and increase activity as knee flexion allows. He isn't as concerned at the lack of flexion as the PT is. Next appt. with him is Dec. 31st.

Walked 1.1 miles yesterday - a record!!!

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I had something similar, kind of in the TFL region - piriformis usually responds well to stretching and massage and pelvis realignment (had that too lol) - it came on suddenly and made running excruciating but riding was fine. I did stopped running for ~2.5 mo, did physio to realign and strengthen my weak core, started foam rolling the TFL regularly, and that seemed to do the trick. I haven't had that come back, mostly because the damn skating is an absolute core-buster of a workout. What actually brought the pain on in the first place was the weak core and a bunch of post-Comrades mountain biking with lots of climbing on too low a saddle. My psoas on the right side got overworked from the bad-position climbing and became too tight and that helped twist the pelvis out.

Because yours is on BOTH sides, it could be the TFL itself. If you have a foam roller, try rolling the heck out of it and btw that HURTS like heck. Also check to see if you lower abs/psoas are tight and if so, manually get in there and loosen them up, and stretch that out really well. I just doubt it's your glutes or hammies. :-(

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Last week:
- start new job, tweak commute/skeds/etc. - so far so good, slowly ramping up and getting used to the tools etc but everyone is super friendly and wants to help... DONE :-)
- skate 5x - DONE and holy cow was that tiring.
- run 4x - FAIL only ran 3 times and I can barely count the 3rd as my legs were just cooked from the skating and riding.
- ride 2x [to new job & back, so 100k total) and *maybe* a third (a CX race on Sat with a n00b class...hmmmm :-)) - DONE but only the rides to and from work which was still 100k... but enjoyable overall
- bunch more house stuff, long weekend coming up so lots of cooking, family in town, etc. - DONE including tearing down my winter bike so it will be ready for when the weather turns (we've had a spectacular fall so far knock on wood)

This week:
- skate 5x
- ride 2x
- run 3x (trying to be realistic here)
- swim 1x (yes - K and I are are determined to swim Sundays before dinner - last time in the pool, she taught herself flipturns, and actually was starting to roll & breathe half decently)

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Hugs to you -- I'm in the same boat (see my other thread). I think it's MORE discouraging when you're doing well and then BAMMO! Knocked on your ass. Here's hoping your setback is just a bit of inflammation that will get better with some rest.

I am seeing a pattern that a lot of us women are suffering because we don't do enough core work. Maybe we kick off the new year with a core challenge?

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http://mediocremultisport.blogspot.com

Thanks. The only thing we could possibly figure might have contributed is this - in Sept. I started riding my CX bike on this dirt road group ride that hammers the last 10mi. We switched my cross bike to CX-1 gearing. So the end result is that I don't have a big enough gear to keep up on this ride when they start hammering. A few times I've tried to spin like crazy to keep up (think 150rpms or more) which only works for so long.

I do usually pretty well keeping up with my core work, and it's never too painful to use the foam roller on my TFL. Hamstrings were tight for a few months, so I was keeping up with stretching.
The bum / glute area has only been hurting for the past 3-4 weeks.

Last week's goals:
Run x 2: win with 3
Swim x 1: win with 2
Core/strength x 4: win


I might have actually got a bit of extra core work in..




500m portage from the parking lot down to Joeperry Lake, then on to our private-enough island (8 campsites on the island, but we didn't hear or see anyone else from ours).


Caught the fall colours right at their peak














We did paddle around the lake on Sunday for a couple of hours, then headed back to our "porch" to enjoy the sunset.






The ultimate Campsgiving.


Monday morning we got all packed up and paddled back to the dock.






We extracted, then drove into the main (drive-in camping) portion of the park and launched on Mazinaw Lake to paddle along the base of the 300ft tall cliffs along the shore.










So it's been another 3 days since the last time I ran, and I have a 50k on Saturday. Don't even care, because that was a completely perfect weekend. Weather was amazing (though there was a lot of wind and it was chilly on Saturday night), and we actually had turkey every day in some form: turkey bacon, smoked turkey sausages, turkey summer sausage. We'll be going out with my Mum (the only family either of us has locally) tomorrow evening for our celebration dinner.


This week's goals:
- run x 3
- swim x 1
- core/strength x 1 (done)
- stretch/foam roll x 2

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ill advised racing inc.

From a fun perspective, last week was awesome! I got to attend a port-and-beer festival, support my other half and the German Band, have a nice night away, and do some leaf-peeping in central Maine. From an achievement perspective... Bleugh, not so great!

Goals from last week:
- Keep following the run trainer - Fail
- Swim with all-new tracking - Fail
- Not leave all my homework until the night it's due and be up until midnight - Fail


I completed my Tuesday "long run" (which was a whopping two and a half miles!). I missed my Thursday run because I had to cover for my late-shift employee, and my Friday cross-train (when I was going to swim) and my Sunday run because my stepson was home from college for the long weekend. It's amazing the excuses you can find when you don't want to do something, isn't it?!


The general apathy towards doing stuff extended to my homework - I was up at midnight Thursday to meet the first deadline for both classes, again on Sunday to meet the second deadline for one, and I grovelled for extra time on the other. Gotta get that in order, girl. Consequently I am exhausted, because I'm sleeping neither enough nor properly. It's a downward spiral that needs to be broken. Maybe this is my week, although with rehearsals tonight and tomorrow and a concert on Thursday, I'm not so sure.


On the positive side: I did get in a 40-minute trainer ride on Monday whilst doing my homework, which I suppose offsets the Friday I missed. That was about as much time as I could stand on the saddle - my new Adamo has been mounted so I am hopeful that will help. My run pace has improved slightly, so even though I don't feel like I'm improving, apparently I am - or at least was until I stopped running. I stopped bothering to weigh myself after I burnt about nine million calories and gained three pounds, but I can button my jeans up again so I'm feeling very cheerful about that (because ignorance is bliss, right?!).

Because I don't have enough on my plate right now, I also got volunteered to play the bass clarinet with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra for their November concert. Which is a actually whole bunch of fun, and normally is not a problem, but they're playing the Beach Piano Concerto in C# Minor, which swings wildly between icky key signatures and is generally a pain in the butt to play. Plus I have to go to Manchester, NH to pick up a bass clarinet, and that means I'm committed to some solid practice time as well as the 200-mile round trip to Augusta for at least two rehearsals. Oh well... By the time I have chance to think about what I'm doing, it will be Christmas :o)

Wow, sorry about that. Next time I'll bring the cheese to go with that whine. Hope all you womens are having a great week!

I'd be up for that!!

Gorgeous pics as always MK. Alberta is beautiful, but we just don't have lakes like you do. :(

Keep your chin up UK2ME - things are bound to swing around eventually.

Thanks! Yeah, I know it was tough for me living in Edmonton for a year and a half back in '00-'01 - I grew up sailing on Lake Ontario and paddling on Georgian Bay, and was starting to lose my mind not being able to get to a body of water I couldn't see the other side of, or even a chain of lakes you could reasonably link up through portages. I've been surprised by living in KW - this is Grand River country, and I never knew a river could make me happy, but after 12 years it feels like home. We have a couple of tiny local lakes for an afternoon or evening paddle (not to mention open water swims), too. I do, however, have to get up to the Bay, or into the Muskoka or Kawartha Lakes regions at least once a year or I get all crankypants.

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ill advised racing inc.

thanks. I was really really running well, too. Lately.

Saw a dr at my dr office. got referral to a dr suggested by a dear friend. Called that dr office to set up an appointment. got kind of a hassle. grrrr
Of course a bunch of questions because I was a new patient. they asked what my injury was, I said no one has told me. then they said because of my insurance, I need an insurance referral and not just a dr referral. OK. So I call back to my dr office and explain this on the phone. at first sounding like they weren't sure what I was talking about but then as I kept going they said ok, and they say they are going to take care of it. Let's hope they do!