Good News!

So I've just walked in the door from a visit to Foundry Sports Medicine and Fitness  where I had an appointment to get to the bottom of whats going on in my right leg.  I'm happy to say the appointment went very well.  I've completely shut down all training since the Goofy Challenge in an effort to let my body recover and let my right hamstring/glute heal up as its been quite sore and tight lately.  As well as that there was the plantar fasciatis in my right foot and calf tightness going on and I wanted to know what was the root cause of all of this and what to do about it.  So heres how it went.

I first met with the doctor and he took me through a variety of resistance tests against pressure from his hands while manipulating both of my legs in various positions.  Through this he determined that there is definitely a difference in strength and flexibility between my left and right legs.  We did a lot of different tests while laying down, sitting, and standing to determine this.  From there I went and had my hips Xray'd to make sure that wasn't an issue.  Happily there are NO issues in my hips which is great to hear.  So with all that done the doc thinks my issue is simply a strength imbalance thats caused inflamation and tightness from overtraining.  So what to do now?

Well the AWESOME news is that cycling and swimming is A OK!  In fact he thinks it will help!  So no more running for a little bit (although I may sneak the Jacksonville marathon in cause I'm cheeky like that and he didn't say I couldn't despite the fact I didn't ask!).  He also recommends I spend a session or two with the physical therapists to have them do some assisted stretches with me and teach me some new stretching techniques.  He highly recommended I do yoga for several weeks and when the hamstring feels mostly normal I'm to start a general strength training routine.  But in the meantime I need to work on flexibility.  So what does this mean?  It means I can start training again!  YAY!!!!   And instead of running I'll do yoga.  So I need to put some thought into my schedule but it will be a balance between swim/yoga/bike for the next several weeks before then adding in strength training and slowly trickling the run back in once things feel back to normal.

I am quite relieved as I was really worried I'd porked up my right leg royally.  So it was great to see a doctor and get a professional opinion and take the guesswork out of what was going on with my body, and what was a good plan of action trainingwise going forwards.  So now that I know its ok to start cycling again I feel much better about actually doing that.  So hoooray for that!  And he said taking two weeks off after the goofy challenge was a great idea and smart of me.  Yes this does mean the girl is going to give me a big fat I told you so as she pretty much has already said all of the above.  She just doesn't have an xray machine in the house.

So whats in store for today?  a chaotic day of work and various errands followed by a spin on the bike tonight back in Newport.  I was consdering doing the Providence Bicycle spin session tonight but its currently many degrees below freezing out and I just don't feel like carrying my bike and trainer around in that weather!  With the wind chills its ridiculously cold out today.  This morning's "feels like" temp was -5 degrees or something silly.  YUCK!  Fortunately it will warm up again to more bearable 30s tomorrow.

So for now I'm just going to bury my head in work and chores of the day and be very very pleased I didn't do any real damange to my legs.  I can't wait to start training again!