I’ve decided that I wanted a new blog more in-tune with my real name. It is also going to be more about fitness in general as opposed to primarily running. That may change if I can run again one of these days without pain, though 
Anyway, the new blog is located at michaelbrien.wordpress.com . It should look familiar since I exported everything from this blog and imported it all into the new one! I hope to see the couple of you that still read this on the other side 
My fourth ride
There is nothing like some statistics to let you know exactly where one stands and keep yourself competitive (against yourself!) Now that my Garmin is working again (first time I ever heard of a USB cable going bad), I am motivated!
Here is my morning ride. I had plotted out the ride prior to today and figured I needed something a bit longer than my last ride, but not so far as my “long” ride from last weekend. You notice the scary-looking elevation chart at the top… take note that that’s only 160′ of climb/descent.
I’m still working at keeping my cadence up, so really haven’t been too concerned with speed. In fact, the gears I’ve been in have been average and I haven’t hit the third front sprocket at all. My heart rate gets going faster than I thought it would. My legs still don’t really hurt at all. Maybe ’slightly’ dead, but they are still getting acclimated to what I am making them do.
As you see, I did 7.2 (actually 7.16) miles in 37:24. I feel myself getting stronger. I think if I were to go out and repeat my 8.4 mile ride from last weekend that I would chop at least 5 minutes off my time.
I’ve toyed with the idea of going out tomorrow as well, but I think I’ll give my legs the day off and save them for a longer ride on Sunday.
I hope everyone has a nice, long weekend!
Woke up at 5 today to go on a bike ride. Quickly realized it wasn’t going to happen. Oh sure, it could have happened. However, the legs are a bit sore and stiff and I feel like another day off is a good idea. After almost 5 months of inactivity, I should have known I couldn’t just start riding 3 days a week right away. I should mention that it’s an overall feeling of my leg and is NOT in the area of my running injury. I am beginning to believe that I’ll be able to bike without irritating that area, so I’ll be able to get my cardio in and resume weight loss
I certainly never thought my legs would feel like this from biking! I mean, it’s so much easier than running, and I didn’t have the same feeling after a long run. I’ll chalk it up to having more stamina than conditioning. It’ll all work out at some point!
I had planned on biking yesterday, which would have given me one day rest from my previous outing. I woke up yesterday at 5:00, got out of bed, and just didn’t feel like exercising! Ugh. I don’t feel bad about it though, as I had a long day at work yesterday and being tired from a morning workout wouldn’t have helped anything.
So, I got up this morning at 5:00 again. I was a bit hungry, but decided not to eat anything before I went out. I ended up riding 6.8 miles in just under 39 minutes. I was mostly concerned with keeping a decent cadence going than really speeding along. I think I’m doing a decent job considering my complete lack of exercise for almost 5 months. My leg feels good today. It felt slightly ‘off’ yesterday, but much better today.
Got home, ate my usual oatmeal breakfast, then off to work. It started immediately as another busy day, and I had a headache by 8:30. A couple aspirin and things improved. Around 10:00, I had a snack. Around noon I was very hungry and feeling a bit light-headed. At this point I realized that breakfast and the bike ride basically canceled each other out, so I was getting through the morning on a 100 calorie snack. I had a sensible lunch and managed to avoid pizza, which is often my “I’m starving” food. I had another snack around 3:30, then managed to hold off on dinner until 7:30 or so. Love Trader Joe’s turkey/rice stuffed peppers!!! Eating both in the package comes out to 420 calories or so, which seems quite fine to me for a meal.
So, lesson learned. Now that I’m exercising again, I should perhaps eat a bit more on days I exercise. My goal the last month or so has been to severely watch what I eat, and now I have to adjust a bit. It’ll all work out
I took my bike into the shop last weekend and got it back on Tuesday. Price for tune-up, new shifters, and front/rear light: $180. Trip to REI that night because I realized I didn’t have any patch kits or a good bike pump: $50. Another trip to the bike store Thursday because I realized I needed some way to carry things (bike seat bag): $25. As you can see, it adds up in a hurry!
Wed morning I went for my first bike ride in like, forever. It felt pretty good, though I started out a bit too fast. I only went 3 miles, a running route I’ve run a lot. My goal was to become familiar with the bike again and just remember what riding a bike felt like. It didn’t feel like my running injury was aggravated, so I was encouraged.
This morning I decided to push it a bit further since 15 minutes of exercise (Wed) isn’t going to cut it. First thing I noticed was that my bike seat hurt.. well, not the seat, but the act of sitting on it I need to build up some callouses or something! I had one goal this ride, which was to keep my pedal cadence high instead of just heading straight to the high gears and going as fast as I could. I succeeded to the half-way point, then the combination of slight uphill, being tired, and a bit of soreness (from the seat) took it’s toll. I refused to go lower than 10th gear and felt like I was crawling.
Finally made it back, then hopped on mapmyrun.com to plot my distance since my Garmin is acting up again and won’t sync. It appears I went 8.4 miles in 47:40. I’ll take it. I feel a very slight tingling where my injury is, but I’m thinking it’s more of a “Hey, you actually used this part of me again” feeling than a “Hey, you really irritated me” feeling. I’ll definitely take tomorrow off as I don’t want to push it.
I’m still in the process of determining how to proceed with physical fitness. Running is still off the table, though the Dr did say I could start working walking into my schedule. I have an itch to buy a new road bike, but I’d rather not do that right away since I can’t guarantee that riding a bike won’t irritate the injured area. So, I’m definitely going to revive my current mountain bike. It’s a Giant Iguana, probably 8 years old. You’d think it’d be all beat to heck and ready to be scrapped by now being that old!! However…
I’ve only ridden it two, three times TOPS, since I bought it!!
So it’s my belief that it’s got quite a few years of life left in it While I’d like a road bike for sure, a mountain bike is just going to have to cut it until I decide if this will just be a fad or if I want to stick with it. I’m re-thinking my idea to bring it into the bike shop for service and may try and do it myself. Handlebar tape isn’t hard to apply from what I remember. I think I need new plastic casings to go around the brake handles, and the chain is probably dirty. However, the brakes themselves should still be ok from when I last had the bike serviced a couple years ago.
I’m itching to do something, that’s for sure. The more competitive the better!
I had my third physical therapy appointment today. It will be my last, at least for a while. My original referral was only good for three visits, and those have been used. Now I’ll have to go through the entire referral process all over again, so it would be at least a month before I could get another referral.
So, how would I sum up my physical therapy thus far? Simple.
A waste of time.
I have the same aggravated spots I had before. One of the stretches I’m supposed to be doing hurts, as in real pain, not just slight annoyance. I do have a nice list of exercises now for my hip/glutes and some core exercises. I’m supposed to continue doing those and start incorporating walking into my schedule.
I suppose I’ll keep trying this for a while. My mountain bike is going to the bike shop soon to get a tuneup and some new tape, etc. Probably needs new tires as well since it’s been sitting for a few years. I’ll see if I can ride without any/much pain. At least that’s something.
Time sure flies when you aren’t paying attention! I had no idea it had been so long since I updated this. Anyway..
I had my 2nd PT appointment last Tuesday. The Dr basically gave me 10 activities to do. 5 of them were strength exercises, and 5 were stretches. All of them are for my hips/glutes. I had to start at 5 reps of 10 and the goal is to work up to 10 reps of 10. Yesterday I did 8 reps of 10, so I’m almost there. That’s where the good news ends, however.
The activities are incredibly boring. I try to watch television as I do them but even that isn’t much fun. The stretches show that I’m not the most flexible person in the world. One of the stretches I do hurts.. probably more than it should. In fact, there are a couple spots that seem to be acting up, almost the same as when I was running! This is despite the fact that I’ve been taking anti-inflammatory meds for almost 2 weeks now.
I have another PT appointment on Wednesday. It will be my last for a while as my referral from my primary care physician was only good for 3 PT visits. Knowing the speed of my insurance company, it will be another month or so before another referral goes through.
In the meantime, I’m seriously considering taking up biking for a while. I need some type of exercise. I have a hunch it’s going to be a considerable amount of time before I’m running again, at least if I want it to be pain-free. 
I had another Dr appointment yesterday, my second this week. This time was with the actual physical therapist, however. It was more of a diagnosis than an actual therapy session. What did I learn?
Not really anything. The Dr basically did more in-depth tests of what I had done on Wednesday. He didn’t seem quite as convinced this was an IT Band issue, however. In fact, he seemed a bit surprised that my leg still feels strained if I run or power walk after having almost 4 months of non-activity.
Now I have another appointment on Tuesday. He told me he’s going to work me, so we’ll see what comes out of that.
This day is feared by many since it is tax day. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a different reason. Today is the day I finally got an appointment with an orthopedic Dr!
I got to the clinic, checked in, and almost immediately was brought to the staging room. The assistant asked me the usual questions, and within 5 minutes the Dr was in talking to me. He asked more questions, had me lay down and then proceeded to have me (try to) move my leg in certain directions while he was holding it. He would ask each time if it hurt, and if so, where.
About 10 minutes after my appointment started, it was finished. The Dr said I have a classic case of IT Band problems, as well as minor bursitis. He referred me to a physical therapist and gave me a prescription for some anti-inflammatory meds. I feared my therapy appointment would be several weeks out, but I called and was able to get an appointment for this Friday!!!
Now I know the problem. I’ve got the therapy appointment set up (well, first one). And the Dr told me I can probably ease back into running after about 10 days of taking these meds. He wouldn’t clear me to run though, until after I saw the therapist to see what they say.
Now I’m anxiously awaiting Friday morning to see how things go. There’s actually a chance I may be able to run a bit by next weekend!!! 
