Physical Therapy

I can already tell I have I'm going to have a love/hate relationship with physical therapy. I LOVE that someone totally GETS exactly what my problem is. Where it hurts and how it hurts and when it hurts. My PT absolutely understands. The massage and trigger release therapy he did was AWESOME. I didn't have to keep telling him where it hurts, he knew exactly. The stretches he showed me where also amazing and felt so good. I'm cool with doing them. The strength training portion was not terribly fun, though. It made me hurt. The nerve manipulation was also not fun. It hurt. And I am not a fan of the TENS unit, although some people tell me they enjoy the sensation.

Overall, some of it is great and some of it is not so great, but in the end, I have been told that Piriformis Syndrome is manageable and they can definitely decrease my pain. I'm all for that. They do want me to keep my running mileage really low, which is good because at least they aren't telling me NOT to run, but rotten because I'm antsy to get back up to higher mileage again. I also have orders to avoid hill training or speedwork for the time being. Ugh. I have to be patient and work through this, but I am finding I am not a very good injured runner. Swimming, walking, stationary bike at the gym, it all feels like a waste of my time...time I could be spending running!

On another positive note, my PT also told me that I might want to consider some different running shoes since I never had problems prior to switching to the Mizunos. That may or may not help, but it certainly is worth a try, he said. New running shoes?! YES, please!!! I'm always up for that. Of course, that'll make me want to run all the more...

I think I'll go stretch and ice and Advil myself while I dream about new shoes. And running in them.