Niggles Be Gone!!!

Good morning.

Another sunset for a sunrise. As I look east from my favorite chair, coffee in hand I see roofs of snow. But, way out there is the sunrise with all the pinks and teals and purples and other fantastic colors you might see during a sunset. Another sunny day in Chicago.

I've had some niggles for a long time that I've been working on. These are not the kind that stop me from running. They certainly have not stopped me from making huge strides with my training. Niggles are a part of what we/I do with all of our running. There really is no escaping them. I do not talk about them either on this site. I figure why bother all of you with stuff like that.

It's funny how I figure the niggles out. Sometimes they are totally phantom. For example, I thought I was having an achilles tendon problem while running. Every now and then I would feel a tiny sharp stinging sensation in my left achilles when running. I finally figured out that it was the tip of my right shoe lace snapping the back of my leg. Problem solved.

My left hamstring area has bothered me since before the Chicago Marathon. Nothing to stop me from running but just a tedious little something. I had a deep tissue massage on Thursday and the massage therapist worked on various spots in the left leg. At one time he was morking very close to my crotch. He was hitting spots that hurt. At one point he said, take your right hand and move your scrotum over. OK!! Well, whatever he did it seemed to fix the problem. Amazing!

Recently my left ankle has been bothering me. It has done so for about a month. I thought of what I may have been doing differently during that month. Riding the bike?? The bike shoes?? Yep. The shoes would hit a spot right where I would feel the niggle. Yesterday I did not tighten the shoes as I rode the bike. Problem solved. Interesting, isn't it?

Right now my legs feel great. So, next time you have a niggle do a little detective work. It might be something simple.

Yesterday was Friday and Friday is Triday. I put a couple tri bricks in place with a swim and a bike session. The swim was a continuous 2500 yard endurance exercise that took 55 minutes. The bike was 15 miles in about the same amount of time. A good day.

Today, sunny, nice...Boston Bound calls for seven miles of whatever we want. I may do a 10 mile marathon pace run. What is the pace? I will let my body tell me as I go.


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" Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."

* It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anais Nin