Rollercoaster of PAIN

Peaks and troughs. Loopty-loops. Zero gravity. This ride has it all.

Here's your monthly? weekly? I forget how often I've posted about my well being already. Dementia must be setting in.  We'll go with 'periodic' health update.

By now you all know that TVR went pretty bad.  Even taped and braced TVR was just too much.  Set me back a bit but I got back on top of things in time for a little road ride Wed.  That ride felt pretty good.  Fitness is maybe a bit behind but still within my normal range for this time of year.  Wrists held up fine and I even noticed on one of the climbs that rocking the bike back and forth and using my wrist flexor muscles actually alleviated some pressure in my wrists.  I continued with some very light exercises later that night and the next morning that really seemed to help.

Further confirming a theory I've had of late that not all of the acute pain I'm dealing with now is arthritis.  I think there is also a muscular / tendon issue in there as well.  A while back I randomly realized that putting some pressure at certain spots on my flexors or extensors actually provided a bit of relief.  As funny as it sounds a tennis elbow strap actually seems to provide me a small amount of pressure release as well as a small increase in range of motion.

I think I may have developed some kind of muscle imbalance that might be snowballing on me a bit.  Riding off road seems to be getting a bit harder/worse for me lately than it was even a few weeks ago.  I rode Franklin last night which is in no way anywhere near TVR and by many accounts is probably one of the buffest places you can ride in New England and it was still way more painful than I would have liked.  I was able to get around at a decent pace but it hurt and I've definitely got some swelling and even during riding I was starting to feel some fatigue and pain in my forearm muscles further confirming my thought about some sort of developing muscle issue.  It seems like the issue I'm having now is more with grip strength and pain created by compression in the joint while griping/holding the bars and my EVS braces can't really guard against any of that.


I go back to the orthopedist next Wednesday and the plan is to try and get setup with a PT hopefully who specializes in upper extremities.  My gut is telling me there is a good chance that if I can figure out the puzzle of which muscle(s)/tendon(s) is tight/loose/aggravated I can get to a much better place.  In the meantime I think I need to steer clear of the MTB.  Its not working right now and I feel like every time I ride it its setting me back.  Road still seems to be fine so I will be racking up the miles in the meantime.  Maybe this year I'll just do Gran Fondo's and Dirt Road Randonee's.

But to be honest, who the hell knows.  I think at this point I've changed my outlook and plans 300 times in the last 6 weeks.  So this weekend I'll head to Willowdale for the team and to volunteer but I'll be chalking up a DNS unfortunately.

Who wants to ride some road?