Greetings from a rainy Sunday during the pandemic. Seeing how my job puts me in the "essential personal" category, it is pretty much business as usual. More than usual, actually. The past few days have been downright Christmas-like. This has kind of put any bike training on hold for the past week, the days were long and fatigue (or laziness). Anyway, for the next three weeks, there will be no time off for training or injury recovery, so we will take it a step at a time.
As far as my injury goes, I have been doing some unprofessional Google and internet searching for a diagnosis, and I have come to the conclusion that I have something called Piriformis Syndrome. The Piriformis is a muscle deep inside the gluteus, when it compresses or spasms, it hits the sciatic nerve and can send pain down the leg. I seem to have most of the symptoms, leg pain, difficulty standing from a sitting position and going upstairs, pain in the right buttock, and worsening pain when walking or running.
That last statement is the key. Since I still have to work, I am not sure how hard to push the running. I could only go for about 1½ miles on the treadmill before the intense pain kicks in. I am not sure how much of that pain would spill over into the workday. The positive news is that I have been exposed to an increased workload, and the results have been pretty good. At certain times I have been downright pain-free.
As far as upcoming races are concerned, I did enter the lottery for the Peachtree 10k in Atlanta on July 4th. I have heard rumors that everyone who signs up this year will be accepted because of the COVID-19 crisis, but I know nothing for sure. I would also imagine that the possibility of the race being canceled is still on the table. The Horseneck Half that I have had my eye on is still on; however, I would guess that even it does proceed, I am not going to have the training to run a half. We'll see how it goes.
