You're not being stalked by Stephen Hawking...

I was out running on Friday evening, a couple of miles through Cox's Meadow and Sandford Park in Cheltenham. I was with the dog so it was easy pace and just a leg stretcher. As I rehab from injury running with the dog keeps my pace down and means I take more walk breaks as I inevitably need to wait for her or chivvy her along. On Friday I was using Strava on my iPhone as my Garmin Fenix was out of charge (I had left it trying to synch all night).

I had my phone in my flip belt recording the run. What I had forgotten was that Strava speaks to you. So at mile 1 I jumped out of my skin as my phone told me, at full volume, I had run a mile at whatever pace I had. We continued to run and as we made our way back towards the car we closed in on a couple of lady runners. As we got within maybe 3 metres of them it coincidentally was mile 2. My phone started talking, loudly.

The two female runners jumped!

I apologised and said it was ok they weren't being chased by Stephen Hawking. I thought it was funny but i'm not sure they laughed or not so we just ran past them and onwards to the end of our run..

Dreams have the answer

We're going to NYC on holiday this summer. One thing, among many, that I'm looking forward to is running in Central Park. I've been to NYC twice before but never as a runner.

I've obviously been thinking about it and planning it with last night's dream giving me the answer!

The question being how not to let running kit stink out a hotel room? I thought about maybe some special travel wash or stuff like that. 

My dream, though, had the answer. 

Merino.

Specifically Ashmei. 

Wear, run, sweat, wick repeat. Does not smell and does not need washing. 

A couple pairs of socks and a t-shirt and sorted!! So that's the answer and it came in a dream....

Who says I'm obsessed with running??

Not running

I'm not running at the moment.

Again.

Injuries again, I thought it was piriformis giving me sciatic referral pain. This, it appears was incorrect. The issue, or one of them, is sciatica. Lower back stiffness the probable cause. This caused by running, lots of running, and core work. 

I also have an inflamed sacroiliac - this is a ligament not a muscle. It's in the hip and is a shock absorber.

I've also strained my psoas. I did this doing lunges with 2 x 50kg kettle bells. I lie, they were 10kg each - no really. 

The fix for these is not that elusive. Quad stretches, back stretches and a lay off from running. 

I'd already determined to take February off from running so while not ideal it was easy to accept.

More physio on Monday means massage and ultrasound.

The lesson? There's always a lesson. As good as google is it isn't a trained professional physiotherapist. We, runners, think we know all this stuff but we don't. 

Professional diagnosis people. 

Sent from my iPhone