It's a grey rainy Friday and it's Peter's birthday. I have been to the dentist and then me and PB have been a wee walk just to get us out the house. He has just a touch of sciatica, although it's better than it was, and my injuries were feeling better too. Not running better, but better.
I've been walking but not too much and then cycling on Zwift to keep some fitness going. I still have to discipline myself not to try too hard because that's how I did whatever I did to my calf and that's what I'm still trying to get over.
I've been trying a few new things just to see if I can't rehab myself better, although I really think the most important thing is trying to be patient and not overdoing things. I am most at risk when I feel like things are getting better because I feel like just trying a bit harder will maybe do the trick, but it generally just sets me back.
I quite like trancing out on Zwift for an hour or two, cycling in a world with no traffic and no brakes and no headwind. I have a slightly uneasy feeling that it's morally wrong or antisocial or something. I went out in the real world the other day on my bike though and cycling in the traffic is not pretty. I came out a side road at the WGH, with the traffic lights, and a car that was coming along the main road must have gone straight through the red light without even seeing it - it never even slowed down - suddenly we were in the same space and should not have been - happily I got to the far side of the road before it cut through the space I had just been in. I don't know if it ever saw me. It pulled into the next road on the right, so maybe it did and had just gone in there to hide. I was left with an uncomfortable amount of adrenaline, wanting to beat on the car and say "you just nearly fucking killed me you pill", but there was no opportunity.
So cycling in the city sucks, and I can't get excited about flying about the East Lothian roads. Not at the moment anyway. Somehow I can't bring myself to go swimming either. I did quite a good stint in the last couple of years of going and putting in the lengths - but sometimes - especially at Leith Victoria - it's more like swimming in a supermarket queue than anything else - and I really like exercise for being a chance to let my mind roam free....
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Anyway, I was going to tell you about what I've been trying that is new. Well one thing is Steven McQuinn, pain medicine man. Well really he's a massage therapist. I had heard of him from a couple of Carnethies and also Nick Williamson. I had heard that he does some extraordinarily sore things but gets some quite amazing results. I was gimping about the place and thought it was time to try something different, and also I wanted to test how manly and brave I am.
At the time of going to see him, not only was my right calf sore but I had either a sciatic pain or a hip muscle pain that was really excruciating at times. Having to sit for long periods of time - especially driving, was really pretty awful. My left knee was giving me gip too, so walking up and downstairs was a problem.
Steven gives you a bit of talk at the start about what he's setting out to do. If I've understood him aright, it's something along the lines of...as we get injured and compensate we get misaligned and our core stops working properly. We should be working explosively out from our core but if the core isn't working then more distal groups of muscles try to compensate and do a job they're not really built for. Then they get injured and even more distal groups of muscles kick in to try to do the work. Something like that. So he tries to straighten you out and then works on the more distal muscle groups.. Also that we store old tensions and traumas and memories and they can release too. I'm interested in the parallel between this and therapy, because generally it's our compensations that get us into trouble. Something happens and we find a way of surviving and coping with the situation - but then we continue to do whatever it was past the time it still serves us and becomes something we are stuck in - like being too independent, or working too hard, or not working at all, or...you name it. There have been various therapists who have tried to work with peoples' personality structures through their musculature and how they hold themselves - anyway - I digress.
The first time I went nearly everything was exquisitely painful - he shows you how to breathe through it. Some of it I could nearly not stand. Some of it wasn't so bad. The most obvious immediate benefit was that somehow, amongst other things, he had got my left knee working properly again and I could go up and downstairs on it. The stuff on the right hand side had eased a bit but hadn't gone away. He said my fibula wasn't tracking properly and did something to that.
I went back in 2 weeks and he worked me over again. Some of it was easier to take, which I presume means that I was carrying less tension.
He does some muscle testing before and after he's worked on you to see how easily you can push back with your quads and glutes and also tests how much your hamstrings will release, and both times there was a big difference by the end.
So what's next? That was a couple of weeks ago. He says go back in 4-6 weeks and we'll see where I'm at. I think the idea is that once you are working from a core that's properly released, any injuries you have will clear up. So actually a lot of it is doing quite well - the calf thing is the main thing
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