The waiting game

I've been fortunate to avoid injury most of my triathlon and ultra career. Even with the hint of soreness, I'd bust out the foam roller or TP massage ball. Most of the time, stretching and rolling would suffice.

About a month ago I felt the usual DOMS post workout and it never got better. Foam rolling, massage, heat, and NSAIDS didn't seem to help. I took a week off of running and tried to start up slowly, but my glutes would seize up in the first 100m. I last ran a week ago and eeked out three 800m repeats before stopping before finishing the last two. I spent the rest of the night bent over cylinder of foam or with a tennis ball wedged under my right butt cheek. I would bend myself into bed, easing in my ailing right leg into a not-so-painful position and hope to stay like that the rest of the night.

You'd think I'd do more than take a break from running.. yknow, like take a break from squats and deadlifts.. but I did not. I continued with my Strong Lifts program, continued to deadlift, continued to do deep squats at more weight than I've ever been able to lift. It felt great to excel at something (lifting) when I couldn't excel at something else (running).

Taking time off is all find and dandy, but stopping everything completely would be a hard pill to swallow.

After being in pain for a little over a month, I finally got in to see my doctor today for 'sciatica' issues. After explaining my symptoms in length, she asked me to lift my legs one at a time, then wrote a prescription for an x-ray, for physical therapy, the name of a orthopedist, and for a muscle relaxer. I got the x-ray done and now I'm waiting for the results. Needless to say, when she calls with the results, I have a number of questions to ask no matter what the results are.

I also had a biopsy done on a small mole on the back of my thigh. Everyone is predisposed to a certain number of freckles and moles, and this particular one threw up some red flags when I first had it checked out back in August.

I'm sure it's nothing and I'm not worrying about it or thinking of the 'C' word. But having to wait a week, or even as long as the Monday after Thanksgiving, is plenty of time to play the 'what if' game. And so I'll wait for the results and do what I can to keep my mind on other things.

I wish I could lift, but I'm going to do my best to avoid any lower body lifting no matter what the diagnosis is. Swallow that pill and wait to find out what's wrong.