Oh, my aching back! (e.g., "Feel My Pain!")

I had a nice session with super Massage Therapist Meredith Wauqua, who turned my shoulder inside out. In doing so she informed me that my left scapula was "not very mobile." She said when she worked my back the scapular area went "crunch, crunch"!!

Hmmmm. Crunch? Isn't that how Dr. Fiesler described it?

Man, what is up with this shoulder?? (Shoulder, back, schmack! It's my scapula, which operates my shoulder, but it rests on my back.) The evidence is overwhelming that I injured it at some point, but for the life of me I can't remember doing so. I did have a nasty mountain bike crash circa 2002, but I don't remember anything involving my shoulder. (But then again, like the aftermath of a car wreck, everything hurt so that particular aria of pain may have just succumbed to the power of the chorus.)

The depressing thing about it is: there is nothing really to be done. No cure. No "fix". A doc can't just go in and repair a torn ligament or some such injury. I suppose this will be something like arthritis (?) that I just have to live with. :-(

The Curse of the Stinky Gloves!!

Is there any cure for stinky cycling gloves?

I wash them after every ride. I don't use fabric softener but do use a drier sheet. And they don't smell too bad when I first put them on. They are not even that bad while I'm wearing them.

The real curse is the smell after I wear them. No matter how many times I wash my hands, within ten or fifteen minutes, the sour stink emerges from my palms. What to do? Will I be forced to burn all my gloves and by new pairs every two months? Or is there some magic concoction that will rid my hands of the stink without making them smell like cheap perfume?

No Magic Bullet

I went to see Dr. Fiesler again today, hoping we could take treatment of my back spasms to the "next level". She's given me lidocaine shots on previous occasions to break up the spasm and provide some relief, but the spasms always come back. I had though that cortisone shots would provide longer-lasting relief. However, today, even though she shot three major trigger points with a mixture of lidocaine and cortisone, she said it would not provide a lasting solution. Disappointingly, there were few alternatives offered for a long-term solution. She did say something about therapy with some kind of electric stimulation device (!!), but we didn't really follow up on that. (She was thinking about me wearing it during a race, which isn't practical, besides which it's during training that I need relief. Race day I can get a shot two days before and probably be able to tuff it out.)

So I am left with no real path to pursue. I have refitted and re-refitted on my bike; I have done upper-body training; I have done therapy exercises for the scapular support muscles. It would be nice to see if massage therapy or acupuncture or something along those lines would help, but I am pretty sure insurance would not cover much, if any, of that kind of therapy.

But I'm still riding my bike(s), if only 25 miles at a time. (My non-triathlete friends think 25 miles is an incredible distance! And that's a bit of an ego boost. However, fellow triathletes know that 25 miles will not prepare one for an aquabike distance of 56 miles.) Yes, I am RIDING MY BIKE!! I am enjoying my last weeks of FREEDOM!! Other people think of summer vacation and they think of trips to the mountains or the beach, or a foray to Disney World. Not me. I just WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE! I WANT TO RIDE IT WHERE I LIKE!!! (Go, "Queen"!! The cyclists' anthem!) 'Cause come August 24th, all those morning rides go bye-bye.

Tears on my keyboard.... Must stop now. ;-)