Week in Training - January 28 to February 3

How do you train when you're injured?  Very carefully.  It's now been 2 weeks since I badly strained several muscles in my lower back / gluteus maximus and I'm coming to grips with what I can and can't do for training.  Running?  No way - it still hurts to walk (particularly down stairs).  Roller-skiing?  I thought so last week but now I'm thinking maybe not so much.  Cycling?  Last week I thought not so much but now I think yes......a little.

The old Salomon SNS bindings

Such is the struggle along the road to recovery.  Figuring what kind of training I can do (and for how long) to maintain fitness without re-injuring myself is now the challenge.  After doing four days of NOTHING I thought double-pole roller-skiing would be a good way to start back up.  It's non-impact and uses only core and upper body muscles so I was hopeful.

V2 roller-skis - still handmade in Milford, NH (USA)

Tuesday, January 29 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Wednesday, January 30 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Thursday, January 31 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Friday, February 1 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski

Swix carbon fiber ski poles from Norway

Now that I've lived with this injury a little longer I think roller-skiing (or too much roller-skiing??) may be making it worse.  My back/butt is pretty painful after these workouts and I think it's because roller-skiing is still activating stability muscles.  Or, to put it another way, I'm discovering through trial and error that my injured muscles are stability muscles.

Historic Hanger One as seen from the Motorola parking garage across Moffett Field

Why not ride my bike?  Because before getting hurt (and doing NOTHING for 4 days), I was riding my bike and said arse muscle was killing me.  So, following the advanced diagnostic technique of "if it hurts, don't do it", I decided not to do that which causes pain - biking.  In hindsight (no pun intended), I think my butt/lower back was so jacked up that anything was going to hurt.  Now that I have a better feeling for what's wrong, I think some easy, flat road cycling might actually be better than roller-skiing.

Saturday, February 2 - 15 mile road bike ride
Sunday, February 3 - 27 mile road bike ride

The new Juniper Networks building near Moffett Field

This week I'm looking forward to my first physical therapy visit and hope to get a better handle on what exactly is wrong and what I can do to make it better.  In the meantime, all I can do is ice, heat, stretch, hot tub and not poke at my injury with the sharp stick of too much training.