The Dreaded Foam Roller!

Day 23
Backtracking a bit, since I forgot to post yesterday, I'm back-dating this to make it look like I posted on April 13th! ;-)

I had a great spin class again this morning, so sad that I have been slacking the past few months and missing this class. Previous to starting the 24-Day Challenge, I used Wednesday mornings as my "sleep in" day since Evan didn't have to be at special preschool on Wednesdays. Over this school year, I think my "sleep in" Wednesdays have been hurting my sleep patterns since the other 4 days of the work week I am getting up at 4:00am. On Wednesdays, I can still sleep a little longer (about 45 minutes more than the other days) since the spin class doesn't start until 5:30am. I will be so happy when the school year is over so I can get to spin on M, W, and F mornings!

The continuing saga of my lower legs! Sorry to continue the ramblings, but last night, I borrowed a friend's foam roller (since I couldn't find mine). If you aren't familiar with a foam roller, it is a dense foam cylinder about 1.5 feet long, not exactly sure of the diameter, maybe about a dinner plate in diameter? Anyway, I was introduced to the foam roller after running the Tucson Half-Marathon back in 2008.

I had to check back on the Tucson Marathon website to confirm the year I ran in the half marathon. What a pathetic runner I was (and still am)...I was overall 1209 out of 1462 with a pace time of 11:58, yikes, I probably could have walked it faster (the majority of the route is downhill)!

The route for the Tucson Marathon goes through the town of Catalina, and puts you on the high side of a berm (you are running on the oncoming traffic side of the road which banks to your right). At the time, I didn't feel any pain aside from the general fatigue from running a distance race. A few days later I started to get really bad pain on the side of my knee cap. I've never been one to have joint injuries (knock on wood) even in my time in the military. I found out it was an IT Band injury (Iliotibial band syndrome). It is actually a thigh injury that shows itself as pain in the knee joint. Due to the camber of that road through Catalina, I had an IT band injury (so proud to actually have a runner's injury...it shows I'm a runner, just joking)! So, a great remedy for an IT band problem is to use the foam roller on the outside of the knee and thigh to work those muscles (and yes, it hurts like a mother when you use the foam roller on your outer knee)!

Now, back to my original story...I thought that maybe I need to use the foam roller on my lower legs to try to work that pain out that I am feeling when I walk. So odd that this lower pain only happens when I walk, but not during a step or spin class! Using the foam roller causes you to be in very odd positions and you have to hold yourself up at times to use your own weight to help with the pressure. trying to hold myself up while rolling the outside of my lower legs was quite a challenge!

I love how one thing leads to another! As I was using the foam roller, I noticed on the outside of my left lower leg, I had this oddly shaped lump. I have a similar, but smaller one on my right leg. It's more pronounced when I am kneeling and sitting back on my heels (there is probably a more formal yoga name for that sitting position). I even had T look at it and he said it looks similar to the bumps he has on his shins (he always had them even in the military and they were quite painful for him). The lumps on my legs aren't painful to the touch since there's essentially no pressure on them. After researching on-line, it is a muscle herniation, of which there is no "cure" per se. It's just a little bundle of muscle that is protruding from the long muscle in my lower leg. From what I read, I still don't think that is the cause of my lower leg pain. The mystery continues!

Foods Consumed Today
- Oatmeal
- Peanut Butter sandwich on multi-grain bread
- serving of rice crackers
- salad w/Italian dressing
- minestrone soup
- turkey sandwich

Advocare Products Used
- Spark
- Catalyst
- MNS 3