GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 134)

SO, my problem doesn't appear to be anything TOO serious.   A combination of patellar tendon and REALLY tight psoais which is causing the problem with the patella.     Do you remember that I mentioned I saw an article in the Globe a few weeks back and thought it sounded like that was my problem?

After my last osteo appt 4 weeks ago everything felt great and had I stuck with my normal cycling and running probably would have remained OK.   But cycling 645km in 7 consecutive days put a bit of a strain on the psoais and I really didn't do ANY stretching during the trip.    On top of that, on the 2nd day I pretty much road aero for 100 kms, but it felt fine while I was doing it. 

She said I had a lot 'going on' and the worst part was actually my neck and lower left skull, from all that cycling and holding head in that position.   She is such a great practitioner - explains everything so clearly and demonstrates as well.   Showed me where the psoais starts - was surprised it is so high in the abdomen and how it comes down and attaches to the greater tronchater?? (sp?).   

She also showed me 3 levels of stretches for the psoais which I have never seen before.   The typical ones we are shown have never really worked for me and she said that is quite common, because most of the usual stretches can't isolate the muscle. 

Supposed to do them two times each side, twice a day and stay off the bike and don't run for 7-10 days.   I'm going to aim for 7.   She said I should bounce back pretty quickly because of fitness level and muscle tone and that I was pretty balanced.

Same as last treatment, it was like a miracle.   As soon as I got off the table my knee felt great and has been like that all afternoon.  

She said to avoid strengthening right now because the tendons and ligaments are too tight (I think that is what she said) and that once things loosen up, the cycling and running will automatically strengthen the knee again.   But I think I will try the strengthening exercise you described to me.   Can't hurt, that's for sure.  

In years past, I would have freaked at the idea of having to stop training for a week or so, but I'm OK with it.    Will take the opportunity to get in some extra swimming and keep up with the yoga.    However, I am seriously beginning to doubt I will have enough time to be ready to run a tri by June 6th.   

ANNE -

Found it! And maybe more incredibly, the doohickey I was referrring to actually IS the vastus medialis. Ta-da!

The book is called "Peak Condition", with the subtitle "Winning strategies to prevent, treat, and rehabilitate sports injuries" The authors are James G. garrick and Peter Radetsky, and the publisher is Perennial Library. My copy is about 12 years old, and the price on it is $8.95. (At 344 pages, if it is still in print, it will cost a bit more than $8.95!)

I'll give you some, verbatim:
"Your insurance policy against this happening is a tiny section of the quadriceps muscle called the vastus medialis. It's located just above and to the inside of the kneecap - you can feel it - and its job is to counteract this tendency of the kneecap to drift to the outside by tugging at it from the opposite direction and holding it in place. Unfortunately, the vastus medialis is the first muscle to get weak when you don't use your thigh properly, and the last muscle to get strong when you're coming back from an injury. Which means that the first thing that happens when you limp, or favor the knee, is that this stabilizer goes and your kneecap is left to its own devices - not the happiest circumstance for it.
"Usually about the only thing to do is tightening exercises. It's simple: straighten out your leg in front of you. You can sit on the floor, or sit in a chair and rest your leg on a coffee table, or even sit on the edge of your chair and extend your leg, with your heel on the floor, so that the knee is perfectly straight. Just make sure it's relaxed. Then place your fingers about an inch above the top of your kneecap and an inch to an inch and a half toward the inside of your leg (toward the midline of your body) and tighten you thigh. If you're doing it right, you should feel the small muscle below your fingers get tight - REALLY tight. If that's the case, you've found your vastus medialis, and you're in business. Tighten up and hold it for six to eight seconds, relax for a couple of seconds, tighten and hold for six to eight seconds, relax for a couple. Do three of four of these sets ten to fifteen times a day."

Straight from the horse's mouth! I was mostly close, but was off on the distance it is from the kneecap (I am terrible at estimating distnces, even small ones! ), and also on the number of reps. So, try what he says and see if it helps!

ANNE and ALL --

This is from "Running Injuries - Treatment and Prevention", by Jeff Galloway and David Hannaford:

"You Can Take 5 Days Off from Running with No Significant Loss in Conditioning"


So for all of us nursing something or other, have no fear about going back to square one! (At least, no fear for five days! )

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-25 8:23 PM

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-25 8:24 PM

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-25 8:24 PM

M -

How's the knee today; still improving? And is this the residual from your tumble?

I'm sorry you missed a potential race! Wahhhhh!! What is the next possible-conceivable event out that way for you? I have one in a few weeks in MD that I might have to miss, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to find a replacement either the week before or the after. Well, I'll just have to keep scratchin' around; something will turn up!

Keep using those antibacterial healing creams!

RECOMMENDED DAILY CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE FOR ATHLETES

This is from Matt Fitzgerald's "Racing Weight (Velo Press, 2009). Whadaya think?

Weekly Training Hours..........................Carbohydrate Intake (g/kg of body weight) (1kg = 2.2lbs)
<4 ------------------------------------------------- 5-6
5-6 ------------------------------------------------- 6-7
7-10 ------------------------------------------------ 7-8
11-14 ----------------------------------------------- 8-9
15-19 ----------------------------------------------- 9-10
20-24 ----------------------------------------------- 10-11
>25 ------------------------------------------------ 11-12

So, for me last week it would 78 X 8-and-a-tad, or about 640g carbs daily. Intriguing! Also, this chart isn't weight-based at all, which seems a bit odd....maybe? Is my carb intake going to be the same as that of the 117-pound, 30-year old woman from my last year's group, who is currently doing about the same training volume as I am? I guess so!

ANNE -

The psoas, the psoas.......
I hate when my psoas goes wacky, largely because I really dislike the stretches for it. Not only are they uncomfortable, but I just have trouble making them work for me. Fortunately, benign neglect usually works okay for me, and within a few days it's kina sorta better. i can't remember ever being sidelined for any length of time with it (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!), but it sure is uncomfortable when it acts up.

I've had A.R.T. done it, and that is REALLY uncomfortable! She digs in there soemthing fierce, and it can almost bring me to tears. (I try to realize that the pain will feel so good when it stops, but that only helps to a point!)

And you were close to the spelling for trochanter - I think. (Now I have to check!)

So the total was 645km in 7 days?!? Lord love a duck!

TRACEY -

I'm usually pretty good at eating those unrefined grains (ba-GEL! ba-GEL!), but tend to get real lazy with the fruits. I love fruit, but I just seem to forget about it. This should be pretty easy, just go to a carb chart and pick and choose to my heart's content.

I read an interesting poem last night titled "Heart". Maybe I ought to transcribe it here, seeing as how all of us are working towards the betterment of our heart - among other things! How about a poem-of-the-week? We can become the most literate of the mentor group!

Good days to be a Boston fan! Celts are moving on, the Sox have won 5 of their last 6, and the Bruins caught a good break with the (hated) Montreal Canadians beating Washington, which means the bruins play the next round against the Flyers and not the Penguins. AND that also means that the next round sees them with home-ice advantage. Hot-diggity!

Anne:

How's the neuroma been? Or do you now just have the knee problem?

By the way, welcome back!

Tracey

TRACEY again -

When there are first-timer or novice waves, they are usually the last one to go. The reasons for this are two-fold: it removes the first-timers from the greater parts of any maelstrom, and it allows them to get an idea of the best lines to take to the buoys. If you email the RD, he/she can tell you if hey are planning on one. I think of those two races for me that weekend, one of them has mentioned a first-timers wave. I'll send mojo for you that it's "Escape"!

Yes, that is interesting that the chart is based just on training hours. I usually see carb intake recommendations based on your total daily calorie intake (a percentage of your total calories).

Steve:

I do think actually that Escape has a first-timers wave (they call it a "newbie" wave I think). And come to think of it, the other race that Max Performance is putting on in September in Buzzards Bay has a newbie wave too. I put myself in that category when I registered for the races. I can't remember now whether Timerman has a first-timers/novice wave. Maybe by the time Buzzards Bay rolls around, I'll feel like I don't need to be there anymore, but I figured I have many more race seasons ahead of me so why not race as a novice my first year, you know?

Great time for Boston sports indeed!

All we need to round this out now is for the Pats to have a great season...

I had another pretty good swim yesterday, but unfortunately the Y decided to replace the time on their big digital display on the wall with messages about their upcoming scholarship campaign! Ugh! So I had to use the giant clock with the hands that they put at the end of one of the lanes... until one of the maintenance guys moved it out of my line of vision. So... at least the pressure was off to meet or beat my time from earlier this week! I guess I need to start wearing my sports watch.

I followed that with a 45 minute bike in cold, showery and windy conditions. Out was fine, but back was a struggle! I covered 9.75 miles. And the new route I chose wasn't great. There were a number of traffic lights, plus some intersections that connect to highway on-ramps, so I was a little nervous about the traffic.

When I got back to the locker room at the gym I was greeted by someone having tried to break into my locker. My lock was all hacked up, so it was obvious someone took a crowbar or something to it. And the lock didn't work anymore... I tried the combination 3 times before I had to just keep yanking at it to open it up. Then I couldn't open the latch on the locker because that was also jammed shut from whatever the would-be thief did to it. Fortunately when I had the manager get it open for me, all my stuff was there. I always have my wallet in the pocket of my gym bag, and with credit card number theft nowadays it would have been a matter of hours before they could have maxed out my cards... Anyway, I guess it's an unpleasant reminder of what people are capable of. :/

Tracey

Shaun:

Funny you should mention about the positioning of the racers. I always assumed to be "pro" you had do always be on the drops since that's where you have least wind resistance (or so I thought). But a couple weeks ago I was talking to a guy my husband knows who runs a bike shop and who used to race semi-professionally, and he said he always keeps his hands up at the brake hoods.

Lisa:

How did your son's team do??

Thanks Mandy, this sounds great! I'm going to try it today with cashew butter.

Forecast for St. George, UT as of 20:37 CDT on 4/28/10 for Saturday, 5/1/10:

This forecast is based on analysis from GFS, ECMWF, and SREF models.

There are no changes to the previous forecast. Everything still looks clear. There is a possibility that a light shower could form due to the nearby terrain in the early evening hours, but even this is likely to be to the north. These slight changes in the rain will be closely monitored in the next few days.

L RICHARDSON




GOOD LUCK Steve

Good luck to all you racing on Sat!!
Superior Mojo being sent your way.
Mark

TRACEY -

I'm sure that Timberman also has a novice/newbie/first-timers wave. As for doing them all season long -- sure! Why not! There are some people who never feel fully comfortable with the swim, and they sign up for those waves whenever they have the chance, regardless of how many years they have been racing!

I have now done about 78 triathlons, and only once -- last May, at Bassman (NJ) -- have I been "swum over". This is mentioned frequently as a caution when swimming in a race, but obviously for me it is a very rare occurrence. There is a lot of incidental contact that can happen, but 90% of the time the two contactees just veer immediately away from each other. ("Excuse me!" "No, excuse ME!" "I'm So sorry!" "I should've looked where I was going!" "My DEEPEST apologies!" ---- you can almost hear that being burbled and grobbled through the water.) And even in races that don't offer novice waves, it is easy to position oneself where contact will be minimal, and maybe even non-existant. In a wave of, say, 75 people, 50 of them will be within five feet of the start line. Another 15 will be a few feet further back, and that leaves the rest of the area for the remaining 10 or so. So even if one is 12 feet behind the start line, how long does it take to swim 12 feet - five or six seconds? Nothing at all, really. The other good place to line up is off to the sides; not too many people start there, either.

One good reason for getting into open water before Escape, if you can, is to work on sighting. And come to think of it, another good reason is to find out to what degree you are a "drifter". I am a drifter, meaning that I tend to drift to the left a fair bit. Even though i am an excellent sighter, I still tend to drift if I try to go too long between sightings (sometimes, though; I'm not all that consistent). For me, then, it is slightly helpful if I get over towards the right when I start, so that if I am drfifting to the left, i will keep having people off which I can deflect! ("Excuse me!" "I'm so sorry!"...... )

So if we can get in a swim before Escape, that might be helpful!

TRACEY again -

Interesting that you mention the attack on your lock, because two days ago at the gym I got back to my locker and realized that even though I had slipped my lock through the hole in the door, I hadn't pushed the handle all the way down -- so there was nothing holding the door shut. I went to Code Red Panic Mode immediately and grabbed for where my wallet and keys should be -- and they were there. WHEW!!!

It amazes me, though, how often over the years I have opened a lockless locker and found someone's stuff hanging there. Either there are vast numbers of people who are more trusting than we are, or simply cannot afford to buy a lock. Even if they take their valuables with them in a bag to the pool deck or onto the gymn floor or wherever they are doing their thing, they still run the risk of having someone steal their clothes. Strange.

Anyhow, I'm sorry you had that happen to you. That sort of stuff is always very discouraging. (Must've been a Yankees fan....)






Edited by stevebradley 2010-04-29 7:55 AM

Tracey-

I did the novice wave for my first tri, glad I did.  But, after that I did age group for two reasons. 1) I am impatient to get into the water 2) I am impatient to get into the water

One thing to remember about the novice wave - you go into the water last, so you are going to be in the group of people last out of the water - the fun part is passing different color caps.  Don't panic when you come out and don't see many bikes - at the Pirate, my first tri, I did the novice wave and came out of the water and thought, "Holy crap! Where is everyone!"  At first I felt this sense of panic that I was the last one out of the water.  Well, ofcourse I was, I was the last one in! Get on your bike girl! GO GO GO.

Your time starts when your wave leaves, so folks are in some cases many minutes ahead physically when really in time, you are ahead of them.  Weird right?  SO I came in 4 seconds of my friend Wes at the Maine State Tri (still rubbing it in, mostly because it bothers him ), but he crossed the finish line 30 seconds before me - his swim wave was first (he killed me), I passed him on T1, beat him on the bike (he had a mountain bike, poor guy <evil grin>, he passed me on the run (I was gunning for him!) and when we saw the results, we cracked up. 

Well, I did.  His male ego was a little bruised.  Fragile things that they are.  In the end, my transition times were faster than his.  He just bought a tri bike, I am dead meat now.

Mandy

And TRACEY-

Siting - I drift right. I try to sight every 3 breaths. 

I train exclusively in open water (when it warms up!), so I get better at it as the summer goes on, but you definitely should try it in open water, even in the pool - put a bright towel or something at the end of your lane.  I kind of take a breath, look forward for a second (forehead out of water, water up to my goggles, breathing out as I would if I was swimming normal), see where I am, back to swimming.  I think I look for literally 1 second.  In come cases I do a few Tarzan strokes to site if I am really discombobulated.  Try not to, it isn't the most efficient use of energy, but hey it gets my head back together.

In a race I sometimes follow the bubbles and try to catch a ride from some one (draft) but site anyway, because once my ride took a wrong turn and I followed.  Not too far, but a bit of a J turn until I heard hollering "HEY YOU ARE GOING OFF COURSE". 

If you have a chance to OW swim with Steve, you lucky girl, definitely take him up on it! 

Cheers,
Mandy


Edited by manfarr1974 2010-04-29 8:42 AM