Recovering, slowly

Monday I went and saw Dr. Seller's and found out that my left shin soreness was due to a tight left calf. Today the pain is practically gone in my left shin. The left shin soreness seems to have been a short-lived thing. As long as I keep up with the calf stretching I'll be okay on my left side.

The right shin soreness, which has been sore for a week or two now, is being caused by a tight right hip joint, which has been causing me to over-pronate, flatten my arch, and ultimately cause the medial shin splints on my right leg. I was relieved to understand the cause of the problem and we talked about treatment - Active Release Therapy to elongate the muscles, electro-therapy and ultrasound to break up the scar tissue, and eventually strengthening exercises. I felt better that I understood the problem and had a plan of attack to fix it. But it wasn't going to be an overnight miracle cure.

After the Monday session my right shin felt better, I was finally able to walk around without too much pain, but I started to feel some weakness in my right hip. Apparently this is all to be expected. But it still feels weird and a bit unsettling. At the Wednesday session he commented that things weren't as bad as Monday, but I still have a fair amount of soreness in the tendon. He did some more ART, some hip adjustments (to re-align the hip joint and thus improve the mobility), and we finished with electro-therapy and ultrasound. I swam Wednesday night and was careful when pushing off the wall (normally I have an awesome push off the wall). I also substituted the fin set for some pulling instead.

Today my right shin is a bit more sore than Wednesday morning. This is more than likely due to the treatment yesterday afternoon, and maybe even the gentle push off the wall caused it to flare up a bit. I'm going to go to the trainer ride tonight and take it easy. I'm not planning on running any time soon. I'm going to wait until all of the soft tissue soreness is gone. I'm hoping this will only take another week to week and a half, but realistically I just want to be better for IMAZ. If I can't do much running between now and then, I guess I just have to accept that fact and focus on getting recovered for IMAZ. According to my coaches I have 98% of the fitness I need right now, so long as I maintain it (which I can, with elliptical, swimming and cycling) I'll be in good shape physically. What I notice I've already lost is the confidence I had about this race. Initially I was aiming for a 13hr finish, but now it's completely up in the air and I'm just hoping to finish.

Of course, I'm writing this while I'm not in the most positive, uplifting place, so I reserve the right to change my mind once I'm feeling better...