Getting to the bottom of my sciatica

Well what a busy day, I finally had my long awaited physio appointment, it was at 07:30, so in order to keep my runstreak going and get the dog out I got up at 05:00, after being awake since about 04:00. The downside of having an early night. I just did a very gentle run this morning on a slightly different route. It was very icy on the pavements. I then had breakfast and took Jed for a Dogjog, it felt like it was getting colder bbbrrr!

After feeding Jed and preparing my lunch I went to physio, I expected to be in and out in 10 minutes but it was  more like 40. The physio asked loads of questions and did quite a few checks and gave me some different exercises to do to strengthen the muscles around my spine. She said I could carry on doing what I normally do, (yes, I did tell her that I run, cycle, swim and walk about 20 hours a week.) so that pleased me loads, also she showed me on a skeleton the area of my spine that was most likely to be irritating/pinching my nerve according to my symptoms. All good, because now that I know where the root of the problem is, I can work specifically on getting back to full fitness.

And because I was told I can carry on doing my training, after work and walking Jed I swam 1450 yards before going to Ripon Cycle Studio to do 2 lots of 20 minutes at above 184 watts with a 5 min recovery. I succeeded and averaged 186.5. 

These watt bike sessions may be tough but they measure progression quickly, and Dewi has everyone on their own programme. I really enjoy the sessions.