Don't Run, Can't Race, Won't Repeat

Time for an injury update.

The back pain has narrowed down to where I can trace it. There was a sore hip flexor (gluteus medius), but there's pain along two different nerves under the muscles: sciatic and I think L4; people seem to think that I claim to know everything, but I don't know my nerves - and I assisted my brother who taught neurology to medical students (which included a former girlfriend he called "the short, fat one" and who I have only referred to in past posts as "evil," but this is going further afield than usual, even for me). The last couple of times I tried to run, there was a sharp incapacitating pain that resolved after about 20 strides, so there's something structural amiss. [Did someone say "piriformis?"]

I've been doing 30 minutes of stretching and strengthening exercises in lieu of running. I can't walk, bike, swim, row or anything else, so the aerobic base will go to zero if I don't mend in 6-8 weeks. My achilles tendons and especially my hamstrings are ridiculously tight, so if I can correct that, perhaps I can stave off injury better next year.

I've tried a few short strolls, can't call them walks, and there's pain on the outside of my left heel, where there isn't any muscle, tendon or ligament, so it's probably a stress fracture. At this point, I don't even bother getting x-rays; how many times can you hear, "yep, it's broken, you should give up running" before you either agree or stop getting advice?

Lastly, I have had my first encounter with asthma. I've had allergy problems for years, but I wake up in the middle of the night, wheezing and panting and coughing. I take a decongestant and sit up for a while (reclining makes the coughing much worse) and eventually get back to sleep. Four days in a row, now. When I was growing up, my brother Tom had asthma and we shared a bedroom; I remember being annoyed with his waking me up - now I'm starting to understand what he went through, just wanting to be able to breathe, forget about hopes and dreams and anything else, that next breath is all you want.


Other than that, all is well...