Training Log Archive: marie

Dark & rainy morning. Parked on Chapel St probably around 6.15, grabbed my stuff and the water bottle falls out. It rolls under the car. Sigh! I walk around to look if it rolled out on the other side. A lady walks up and says she can see it under the front of the car. She reaches for it with her umbrella. So nice of her! :-)

I skipped the leg circles with the left leg today (in the air, laying on your back) since that one has bothered me.
Rosalie is working her last day at Yale Oct 15 and will teach her last class here Oct 14, so four more classes!

Going back to see Karen the PT this afternoon.

PT visit:

My hipbone alignment was off again. She fixed it with having me do scissors and push my knees together/apart while she was applying resistance.
She noticed a lot of spasm going on and we did a bunch of muscle relaxing positions.
When she pushed on the left side of the sacrum it was hurting. She had me laying on my belly, she held the left side and pushed on the right side of the sacrum, to twist it back(?) and after that it wasn't hurting as much.
She also used some ultra sound.

She believes the pain is coming from the SI-joint rather than from a disc.

Dark out leaving for the gym..

Back to pilates after 2 weeks. The ladies had missed me and were wondering where I had been :-)
Using a thicker mat felt good. There are still some exercises that feel slightly uncomfortable.

Found out that Rosalie (the teacher), while I was gone, interviewed for and accepted a position at University of Miami, bought a house down there and is starting Oct 15!! Wow!
There will be another pilates-teacher taking over so there should be no gap - but we will surely miss Rosalie!

Went for a cruise around Westville. Mike wanted to get his blood flowing. And I got to try out my brand new bike shorts.

to & from the gym

Event: WCOC Paugussett
 

Morning walk with Mike

Biking downtown Old Saybrook to pick up a few things

27 degrees C in the end of September! Another beach day in Watch Hill, RI.
We spent a lot of time in the water. And moving around or trying to stand still when the waves hit you is quite hard work. Sometimes the undertow was very strong and the waves got up to 12 feet high in the big sets.
Got many nice rides! But also had a few tumbles, running against the wave, hesitating and having it breaking right on me - one where I hit my head in the bottom, scary.
Two guys were using stand up paddle boards, it looks so cool, must be a real test of balance.

Went to see George's physical therapist Karen - she's great! =)
She first asked about some background information and then she studied my body from top to toe, made me bend my spine, lift my knees, get up on my toes and so on.. she took notes while feeling and pushing on my bones & muscles - and she explained things to me as she examined. Later I told her about the two doctors I've seen that one thought it was an inflamed SI-joint and the other one that I have a disc pushing on a nerve. She said both theories could be true. I asked if it's possible to have this pain if I don't have an inflammation (while I don't want to eat pills if I don't need it) - I guess she said yes to that, but I think I will continue taking the pills, just a few days left on this treatment.

What she noticed:
• small bone spurs on my feet
• my right calf is bigger than my left
• my right hamstring is tighter than my left (even if it was the left hamstring that was tight this spring, she said sometimes it could be the leg feeling fine that is creating all the problems in the other leg)
• I carry my head a bit forward (should pretend I have a string pulling it straight up)
• tight muscles in left part of pelvis & left butt
• my left upper corner of the sacrum was further into the back than the right one (so sacrum has been slightly twisted)
• my hipbone wasn't leveled

After the examination she said she'll try to fix a few things. So she looked at my hipbones, made me do some exercises and then said "ok, now it's better". She also pushed on these tight muscles, it was hurting, then she lift my legs/leg in a way so that the muscle relaxed, held it in that position for about 2min. Then she pushed on the same muscle again and I had to ask if she was pushing in the same spot or if she was pushing as hard. She was. Just muscles weren't as painful anymore. Magic. She also showed me some movements to loosen up my pelvis.
Now I need to keep doing these exercises, otherwise the muscles and bones will most likely go back to this painful position. And for the pain I feel sitting down she said I can sit on a pilates ball =) will look funny in the engineering office! But then I can also roll around and keep my pelvis loose.

This imbalance of my muscles , cramping up muscles and twisting of bones have probably been going on for quite some time. But pain has been right under or on threshold , so I have managed, lately it has reached a higher level though.

She's all for exercise while rehabbing - yes! =) She said I can start doing pilates again, I should just get a thicker mat because I don't have enough padding back there. I can do pretty much anything to loosen up, just listen to my body . Also I should hold off on running, because that kind of pounding could be bad right now.

Now question is: should I sign up for the Highlander or not?

C • Wow 9

Went back to the Edge gym in Milford and this time Calla was there. Great class. She has a cool style, harder choreography.
In some moves I felt soreness after Karen's treatment yesterday. But apparently salsa-like moves and hip rolls is what I need, so should be good!

C • Salsa = rehab 1

The pain was the worst it's been Friday afternoon/evening (even if I didn't exercise all week).
Recap: Called doctor's office while it was still hurting after the first strong anti-inflammatory treatment, secretary told me doctor wanted me to get an MRI, they called from MRI-place and told me about my appointment & that they had checked with my insurance company and it would be fully covered. My friend Marie who came to visit last week said that an MRI costs ~20000SEK so I should definately have it done if insurance covers. Figured I should maybe double check so that "fully covered" means what it sounded like to me.. had a frustrating bunch of phonecalls to insurance company, MRI-place & doctor's office - comes out I would need to pay ~$2000 so I cancelled the appointment and will save it as the last option. (would probably even be cheaper to fly home and have it done there, allthough I would have to wait longer)
Talked to the doctor and asked why he wanted me to get an MRI, what he expects to see.. he said nothing too, too serious: a disc bulging out, pushing on a nerve or a bone spur. He understood my decision to cancel the appointment though and informed me that the prescription of voltaren had one refill (at home it would say on the prescription, here it says on the pill bottle..) So now I'm on my second treatment of voltaren, this time while resting from exercise. And PT appointment Thursday.

Talked to dad again and he says I come from a family with bad backs.. he and his sisters have all had problems with discs and ischias. He also told me situps aren't good if I have a disc bulging out, I should do the opposite movement, lay on my stomach and push up my upper body.

I hope to find out what's causing the pain and how to treat it soon! Going through a serious withdrawl not being able to exercise =(

Event: WCOC Sessions Woods--NOD
 

Still in pain. The specialist doctor called back, he wants me to do a MRI, have one sheduled for Friday. Also got an appointment with George's physical therapist in Simsbury next week.

C • Is it too late to go back t... 2

to & from the gym

Lagom size class and a few new songs, fun!

C • Lagom! 2

Neil came up to me as I was copying my map, he asked what had gone wrong the day before. I said I did so many different kind of mistakes but for example I would set the compass and run way too fast without checking features and then ending up not knowing how far I've come. He told me to run without a compass and so I did (put it in my pocket).
What a difference, it was like the contours really jumped out at me, I realized how little I usually pay attention to them. I went slow and steady, knew where I was. When I got to #7 it had the wrong code, I circled around that hill to check some features and decided that it still was my control. Leaving #9 I lost direction in the big boulder maze and hit the trail, rounded the lake, it was very thick and slow. Punched #10 together with Jeff S and something flew into me, I lost that calm and controlled navigating and just took off in the wrong direction. So a major bom on the last control. But I had still learnt something today and I had a much better time out there.

FR 7.225km

C • Nice, glad day 2 was better! 5

Figured I could do a little bit more while I was warmed up. Orange course on the Big Island. Thicker than the map says in a lot of places. Still had the compass in my pocket. Did a few mistakes where I left the control in the wrong direction, so when I do use the compass I think I should always try to do that check before leaving.

FR 4.164km

C • direction leaving control 1

This was a nice weekend! Road-trip company/kids in the backseat =) Waking up at campsite #49. All you great people! Beautiful forrest (although I hated it at times). BIG thanks to everybody involved!

Green, Day 2 - Splits

Event: UNO Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend
 

So last years Pawtuckaway-weekend was my first time on this map. In a year I had forgotten that I ended up in tears out there doing all kinds of mistakes. So I copied a blue course on my map(!) Bad idea!

This is my first attempt trying to find #1, then giving up to go back and ask for a new start-time.. (when instead I should have copied a different shorter course)

Probably my worst orienteering experience ever:
Well, the gps-track kind of speaks for how I did out there. Didn't do any better on #1 this time and just continued like that. On my way to #4 (in the devil's armpit, tough part of the map) I saw Mike, he had had that control and pointed me in the right direction.. I sprinted, couldn't find it, started circling, panicked.. ran into Mike again and had a break-down :( Decided to walk and read the map carefully in the butterfly. Slowly started running again to 15 & 16, but was upset and couldn't focus so kept missing. Then leaving 16, I went straight S(?) and ended up lost, again. Any sane person would have given up but my stubborness took me around the whole course. I asked not to get my time posted and noticed later that they put HFA (had fun anyway) on my card - I really didn't.

FR 12.809km

C • Imponerande 1

After the longer than expected time in the woods my left glute/lower back was really sore. I was also emotionally exhausted so decided to skip the wicked hard night-o :(

I was feeling good after the run with Becky Wednesday night. Then went to pilates Thursday morning, which felt good during class but then I had a bad pain in the left side lower back area all day Thursday & Friday.

Will skip pilates-classes for a while and see what that does.

Called the doctor, which he said I should if the pain was still there after the anti-inflammatory treatment. Couldn't get a hold of him. Don't know if I wanna see him again anyway. Might try to get an appointment with the PT George recommends instead.

Fun evening run & chat with Becky. When we came back along the Hopkins school fields nobody was insight and I just had to try pushing one of those football dummies. Couldn't move it an inch. Becky also tried but it was not moving. When I told Mike he said: " Did you check maybe they have a parking brake?" Maybe..

C • Next time! 1

Did some pretty fast running without warming up Sunday and I could feel that afterwards, tried to stretch a lot. Left side glute/back pain didn't get noticeable worse though - hopefully woods running helps!

There are some moves in pilates that bothers me. Still there are so many moves that feels really good so I don't want to skip class.

Vintage car racing at Lime Rock park

Event: WCOC Pond Mountain
 

Nice morning at the campsite, enjoying breakfast while the sunbeams came through the pine trees. On our way to the meet site I wanted to hang an o-flag on the pole where 341 intersects Skiff Mtn Rd but we agreed that the sign was enough. This I ended up regretting when people had trouble finding their way there. There can never be too many direction signs!

I hung some controls around the pond and then checked the ones Becky hung while she checked mine. I was feeling stressed and messed up in my navigation to a few of Becky's.

When we came back from hanging controls, some people had already arrived. It was a bit chaotic for a while until we got things more organized and moved the registration and map-copying to the other side of the gate.

Over all, people seemed to be having a good time - they found their way back, enjoyed the woods and the courses, nobody got injured. Good turnout too ~75 participants. Beautiful weather.

THANK YOU
Boris - for designing the courses
Becky & Anne-Louise - it would have been very tough without your help
Kris, Ali, Neil, George & Lyn - for helping with the control pick up

Collecting some controls in the area I thought was the most beautiful. Saw a snake right by #76. Messed up #61 coming from #71, overshot it a lot.

Hanging controls together with Becky & Anne-Louise. Beautiful day and amazing terrain. Tricky in some places and we spent a lot of time for each control, making sure we were right (as this was: field check/first time on the map/hanging controls - all in one). We ended up getting really hungry and saved the controls close to the start/finish-area for the next day.
Now afterwards I wish we would have at least driven over to the assembly area to get a better idea about how to set up.

After a nice dinner in Kent the girls had just enough daylight to get their tent up when we got to our campsite at Housatonic Meadows. Icecold showers. Mike collected firewood and made a fire.

Had time in the morning to listen to the speaker and follow the results from medel-SM. Elin finished third in D18!!

I think I should have rested longer even though it felt like the anti-inflammatory were kicking in and I was almost painfree Monday. I only did some easy stuff but I sure have been in pain these last couple of days, it's a constant dull pain. =( Been trying to stay really busy to not have to think about it.