Iontophoresis

I am currently learning about iontophoresis because I'm using it right now. My doc has me doing this some medication that I forget the name of but I'm pretty sure it is a NSAID on my left shoulder/biceps tendon. We'll see how it goes but I have to go by 3x/week to get this patch put on. It's pretty cool, though.

Other than that, I'm did bike rides on Tuesday and Thursday. I also ran twice this week for 1 mile at a time. My PT, Dr. Phil, wants me to cut back on the running since I said that my PF was acting up a bit when I was ramping up my running. That's fine with me because I want this fixed for good. I guess I'll do the 3x1mi for a few weeks and then start ramping up. I'm also doing some shoulder stuff as well. No swimming and no yoga currently. It sucks because I'm feeling a bit fat and lazy. However, yesterday I was feeling slim and I weighed in at 189 this morning so I am making progress that way.

NB 1062 mileage: 22.5 miles

Where was I?

Where was I? It's tough to update this when I'm not working out much. My morning weigh in was 190 which isn't bad considering I'm doing volume training only 3 days a week and I've been going out a decent amount lately. I rode on Thursday and Saturday this past week and ran 2 days. I'm up to 3.3 miles last week and then 3.7 this week. I'm also doing some PT exercises in the gym. Between the running, weights, and riding, my legs always feel dead and heavy. That'll change though. My foot is feeling much, much better. The problem is that I have some aching pain now that I'm running again. I don't know what's up with that. My shoulder is a lot better as well. And that's about all that I have to say for now. Oh, I did a 1 mile run around my neighborhood this morning but I'm going to count that towards last week's total.

NB 1062 mileage: 19.5 miles

Shoulder update: bicipital tendonitis

After having two MRIs, the first one without contrast and the second one with contrast, it is confirmed that I do not have a SLAP tear in my shoulder. I have a bad case of bicipital tendonitis. This is very good because surgery is required in only 5-10% of cases. I'm taking a conservative approach with it and treating it with PT and NSAIDs. I see Dr. Phil on Monday to start the PT stuff again and we'll go from there. I'm excited that surgery isn't required and I plan on being back in the water in January, hopefully.

Also, running is still going well.

NB 1062 mileage: 14.5 miles

I'm running again

I'm running again. Not far, only 1 miles 3 times a week, but I'm running again. I'm using my new orthotics and my feet feel much, much better. I get very little heel pain anymore, but I still do get it from time to time. We'll see how it goes but I'm actually pretty excited about this.

As for biking, I've been ramping it up a bit lately. I rode 3 times over the Labor Day Weekend so that was good. I got really burned on Wednesday during a lunchtime ride. I also saw a snake, too. Big one. Then, I got 2 rides in this weekend with a 3 hour on Saturday and then 1:45 easy today.

My shoulder is still a mess. I saw another doctor last week to get a 2nd opinion. He also doesn't think I have a SLAP tear, but I have really bad bicep tendonitis. This is better because it doesn't require surgery and 6 months of recovery. I'm imposing a self declared 3 month break from swimming. The last 4 times that I've swam since the Celestone shot, I've had my shoulder aching. It's time to give it a rest for awhile.

New Balance 1062 mileage: 10 miles

No surgery, yet

Well, I haven't updated this in awhile. I don't have to have shoulder surgery, yet. I saw a doc and he gave me a shot of Celestone into my shoulder. It felt great for about 30 minutes and then hurt like hell for the rest of the day. I'm glad that I asked what possible side effects were because I would've been freaking out otherwise. It seemed to be great after about 24 hours, but still didn't feel quite 100%. I went swimming about 6 days later. I got 600m in before it started hurting and then I had to call it quits about 1000m in. I went back into the water 3 days later and got 1800m so that was an improvement. I saw one of my team of physical therapists, Phil, and he gave me some exercises to do for my shoulder. He also gave me a 2nd ortho surgeon to see to get a 2nd opinion. I see them next week and we'll go from them. This shoulder has been bothering me for over 4 years now and if I can get it fixed with surgery, put me under the knife tomorrow.

I finally got my replacement orthodics after losing the last pair. I can start running again and I'm happy about that. Also, my PF seems to have gotten a lot better in the last month. I used to be able to stand on my feet for only an hour before it would hurt so bad that it would be sore for 2 days. Now, I have to be on my feet one and a half days before it starts to hurt and it doesn't hurt that bad when it does. Also, I've done a lot to strengthen my posterior tibialis muscle and that has done a lot to make sure that my foot strikes the ground better. It shows and I'm happy about that. I'm going to start running again. I've been off of it for over 8 months so I'm excited about being back into it.

Shoulder surgery

I got the results back from my MRI. It confirmed that I have a small SLAP tear. I'm trying to get in to the orthopedic surgeon next week for an eval with surgery hopefully the week after. I want to get this done!

Also, I'm having a blast watching the Olympics but it really cuts into my training, though. All I did yesterday was sit on the couch and watch TV. I actually got up and rode about 2 hours today so that was good and I'm feeling great now.

Hmmm, shoulder update

As I said earlier, I saw Dr. Phil today about my shoulder issues. Long story short is that he suspects that I have a SLAP tear and a posterior inferior impingement. To go forward with this, I need to confirm this with an MRI on Wednesday. Then, I see him on Friday and go forward from there. In some ways, I don't want surgery but in other ways, it'll be nice to know what is wrong with my shoulder and get it fixed. The last 8 months have been very frustrating because I want to swim hard and consistently but I haven't been able to. Right now I'm not to do anything that irritates it which basically means no yoga, no core workouts, no swimming, and no pushups.

Thursday was a weights day and a skipped bike workout. I was tired from work since I was on my feet all day long. Nothing today and then I have some biking to do this weekend. Friday's weigh in was 188 so that's good. I was down 2 lbs but that was entirely from this past week. I'm getting back on track though. Well, until I go under the knife.

Midweek Update

Not much to add, here. Yeah, I know that I've been boring lately but there really isn't much going on since I'm not racing this year. Monday was a core workout where my shoulder was killing me by the end of it. Tuesday was a lunchtime bike ride. It was actually pretty pleasant that day. I decided to ride at lunch when it was only 90 degrees versus doing the Tuesday Nighter when it would have been 100 degrees. Wednesday was a decent swim. I felt pretty good and my shoulder wasn't giving me too much grief. Speaking of, I'm going to see Dr. Phil on Friday about my shoulder so hopefully I won't be bitching about it so much soon.

I Crashed

I did the Tuesday Nighter on Tuesday night. And I crashed. I got dropped pretty quickly but I lasted more than 2 minutes than I did the week before. I got passed by a guy and I was feeling decent so I was going to pass him back. I was going to go around a right hand turn since I like taking RHT aggressively. As I was making the turn, I spied a huge truck coming up the opposite lane. I hit my brakes and I must have hit them too hard because I hit the pavement. I think I hit my back brakes and put too much pressure on my right handlebars. This twisted my front end to the right and I end ed up falling over the the left. That was lucky because I just got my bike back 3 days earlier from a fucked up derailleur. I remember being almost completely on the top of my head and looking up at the sky with my feet in the air. I got up and was mostly OK. My left hamstring hurt like hell and my left ankle was bleeding. And to add insult to injury, I got a flat as well.

I pulled off to the side, changed my tire and went on gingerly. I swam on Wednesday night and was only able to do 100yds. I hurt my groin in the wreck and every stroke I took caused all of my muscles to flex and it hurt like hell. That was after weights at lunch. Thursday was yoga, Friday was off, and Saturday was a 2400m swim.

Today was a pretty big day. I did a 1:50 ride from my house. It was windy but the weather was actually almost pleasant. Also, I felt like crap for the first 30 minutes but after that, I almost felt athletic again. I should be feeling great in about 2 weeks of consistent training. In the afternoon, I did yoga and felt great at yoga as well.

Oh, Friday's weigh in was 188.

2 hour ride

I got a 2 hour ride in yesterday. I meant to go only 1.5 hours but I had a route in mind that took me 2 hours. This was after a 2600m swim in the morning where my shoulder wasn't acting up that much. Saturday was a lazy day because my 1 hour nap lasted from 2:00pm until 6:30pm. The new Batman movie kicks ass though. Friday was weights with a 1.25 hour bike ride on Thursday where I discovered that Southwest Parkway has been covered in the hellacious road surface known as chip seal. That sucks.

Weigh in this morning was 189.5 but I made some of my cookies last night so I doubt that that'll stick tomorrow morning. Sophia is back from the shop and is ready to ride with 3 bottle cages as well. I'm going to be trying to do more volume for the land cardio instead of pussing out with a 1:15 bike ride on Tuesdays.

I'm rambling now so I'll just end it here.

Swimming with one arm

I swam on Saturday morning and my shoulder was acting up. This is frustrating because the pain in my shoulder keeps moving around. I'm really going to start getting some PT done on it to get it better. I figured something out on Saturday though. I figured out a way to get to swim without hurting my shoulder too much. If I'm doing an interval at 90%, my right arm is going at 90% but my left arm is going only at 40-50%. My left arm just goes through the motions without adding much forward motion to it. I make up for it by kicking more which makes my coaches happy. After that was a 1.25 hour bike ride with Texas Iron.

Sunday was the Couples Tri. Long story short is that I showed up to do parking, but I ended up coordinating the entire run course and was one of the last people to leave. It was fun, though, and I've never done anything like that before. I think I did well.

Monday was a 190 weigh in with a core workout after work and then a 2500m swim after that. I think that doing a core/weights workout immediately before a swim workout with a bum shoulder is a very, very bad idea and I'm not going to do it for awhile.

Tuesday was a Tuesday nighter ride where I felt horrible and I was dropped by the B pack in under 2 minutes and I'm not even joking at all. It felt good to get on the bike though. I need to get Fiona tuned up though because she's very noisy when I ride her but Sophia needs to go into the shop which is going to happen today.

Today was a weight session at lunch and then the Couples Tri volunteer party tonight. Should be fun.

My left foot is feeling better. It has been sore the last few days because I was on my feet a lot on Sunday which made it sore. I really thought it was getting better but it felt better because I haven't tested it out much. I see a PT next week and I should have my replacement orthotics by then as well.

I'm partially back on the wagon

The last few days included a weight room session on Wednesday, a 2500m swim on Wednesday night, and a 1:15 bike ride on Thursday night. However, my weight was 189.5 this morning. Ugh. Go down, damnit! I think I'm pretty well back on a routine again because I'm trying to work everything else around workouts. I've learned in the past that I can't just jump into doing doubles every day because that is one sure way to get me sick and burned out really quickly. I'm trying to ease back into it. I have noticed that my appetite is up a lot this week as well.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not here already but my brand new orthotics that I received about a month ago were lost within 2 weeks. I left that next to a pool in my shoes when I was in Atlanta and they weren't there the next day. Sucks because I haven't run during this entire time. I should be getting new ones next week hopefully but we'll see about that. Also my AC went out yesterday and the temp in the house when I want to bed was 86 degrees. Not fun at all. I actually wanted to go to work this morning because it has nice AC there.

Tuesday Update

After being off of work for a week without access to a gym and working out maybe 3 times in 9 days, I'm back into it. I went to the gym yesterday followed by a core workout where I really pushed myself a bit. I was amazed that I was able to do the top half/bottom half pushups where I did 10 bottom halves fine. I wasn't able to do more than 1-2 bottom halves about a month ago. I was really concentrated on my lower back strength because that is figuratively and literally a weak spot on me. I weighed in at 190.5 in the morning but 189 today. No working out for me today because my bike ride was rained out.

Better luck next month

Like May, I had a crappy month of training and I ended up putting on about 4 lbs for the month. I finished at 189 and I need to get back into things. I went for a core workout on Monday, a bike ride on Tuesday, swimming tonight, and plan on another bike ride tomorrow. I've just had stuff come up. I need to get back into a routine and stick with it. I'm feeling very slothenly at the moment.

I ran 1 mile and I'm sore

I ran 1 mile yesterday at my PT visit and I'm sore today. I guess that is what taking 6 months off of running will do to you. My quads are feeling it the most but my ankles and shins are a bit sore as well. It felt good to run though. I'm still having heel pain but with my orthodics and some neuromuscular and mechanics work, my PT thinks I can start to run while letting my heel heal at the same time. I was on my feet a lot the last 2 days and my heel wasn't hurting as much because of me thinking about modifying my mechanics. I think I'm on the right path!

I weighed in at 184 on Friday and then 185.5 on Monday. Sucks, but I'm still 14 pounds down on where I was in January. I rode for about 2 hours nice and easy which was fine. This weekend, I want to go a bit harder though. I also put in about 2200m in the pool on Sunday. My shoulder was fine. I didn't loose that much speed, but I did lose a lot of endurance. It felt really good though and I'll get the endurance back soon enough. I'm going to shoot for about 2 swims per week and keep lifting weights for my shoulder.

Bad May

I had a pretty bad month exercise wise. My left shoulder started acting up again which prevented me from swimming for most of the month. However, the gym at work opened back up and I've been doing exercises to strengthen it. I just didn't work out that much the entire month and my lack of weight loss showed it. I was pretty much flat the entire month fluctuating between 185 and 187. I'm trying to buckle down, eat less crap, and exercise more. I actually ate pretty well this month but it was the exercising that I've been negligent at lately. I've been working on the house on the weekends and during the week it has just been hot after work. Riding isn't bad but it still isn't comfortable. Oh, my bike is screwed up at the moment as well. It is in my car right now and it is going to the shop after work today. Something is wrong with the headset and it doesn't like to turn very well. Not good. I'll get it fixed and be riding next weekend though or use Fiona instead.

Summer is here

Well, summer arrived this week in Austin. That means that it'll be at least 90 degrees every day until early October. I skipped my ride on Tuesday because I didn't have any sunscreen but the high temp of 99 for the day wasn't encouraging. I did the J&A core workout on Monday and Wednesday and it wasn't that bad being in the heat. My cardio for the las few weeks has been lagging but I've been really good about working on strength. I've been to 3 of the last 4 core workouts and I'm getting in the gym 2-3 times a week. My core strength has improved dramatically recently and the core workouts aren't that challenging anymore. I still have a few things to work out though. I got about 1000 yards in last night at the pool. I was just testing out my shoulder. My lats were wanting to go fast, but my shoulder wasn't. I'm going to take about 2 weeks off of swimming and really work on the shoulder stuff before I get back in the pool. It's really frustrating because I was making some great progress in the water and now I have to fight to get some of it back.

Long Time No Update

Well, it's been 2 weeks since I lasted updated. There hasn't been much going on during that time. My foot is still hurting from the PF but it is slowly getting better. My shoulder is hurting again but since the gym at work is open again I'm strengthening it and it is getting better as well. I haven't been on the bike that much lately because I've had other things going on such as finishing up class last semester (I got an A in anatomy) and working on getting a new job as well. Seriously, not much else is new. I've been a bit lazy the last 2 weeks but I'm getting back into it now. Oh, I'm also down to 185 as of this morning and that's good considering the lack of exercise the last 2 weeks.

How are you doing?

I ate too much food

I think that's a good sign that I ate too much food. My incredibly awesome administrative assistant came back from being off of work for about 2 months due to some neck issues. She ended up having her C4-C6 fused because the disks degenerated as well as having some bone spurs growing into her spinal cord. Anyways, she's much better and some of the other women around work made her all kinds of goodies as a welcoming back breakfast. She had leftovers by her cube and I ate way too much. In reality, I didn't each that much, but I was absolutely stuffed and I still am! I ate at 9am this morning and I don't want any more food for awhile. That's a big change for me because I can be stuffed and about 2 hours later, I'll get hungry again.

The gym at work opened up again today. Not all of the equipment is there though so the stuff that I need to do my PT exercises wasn't available. I think I did pretty good and making up for it though. What surprised me was how weak my erector spinae have become. I started out with 10lbs of 20 reps and my back was on fire after that and I was struggling to make the last 5 or 6 of them. I used to do 3x25 with 25lbs no problem! Holy shit, I need to be doing more core stuff! This was definitely a wake up call.

It's not because I'm lazy. . .

It's not because I'm lazy, because I don't think I am, but I've been suffering from a lack of motivation or discipline or whatever you want to call it lately. I haven't worked out since Tuesday when I did the Tuesday Nighter. Wednesday was off, Thursday was a missed bike ride because I just didn't feel like it, Friday was missed yoga due to happy hour, Saturday was because I wanted to play with my new phone and Sunday was because I needed to do things around the house. It isn't like I'm overtrained or anything like that, but I just can't seem to get the motivation to work up a sweat anymore. I need to get back on the horse and hopefully something will kick me in the ass soon to get me going.