Discussion: :)

I often wonder if the pain and unwillingness of my body to perform is normal aging or just me... either way, the answer is unkind.

Well, if hard work doesn't produce the results you expect, it's worth revisiting. Having just reviewed 24 years of my own medical records, it's very clear to me that my best results have been when I was treated by a fellow athlete. It really makes a difference to be able to talk about what "normal" feels like, lay out your training plan, and then have the doc have a good feel for whether aches and pains are typical or not. Good luck! Darned aging...

I'm trying to get some kind of base mileage down without upsetting my sciatica again, hopefully to then slowly start adding some running back in. Winter darkness sure doesn't help, though :-/

I wish I could have a bunch of fancy specialists, sports doctors, trainers, massage and chiropractor, etc like many people do, but I just can't afford that right now. Or a decent gym. I've only had my current doctor for a few years, and he's tons better than my old one (the same place I'd been going since I was a kid). Actually, I don't even know if he runs or does any sports!

Yeah, I'm about to lose easy access to all that - but even having had the ability to have my primary doc refer me to all kinds of specialists, I've found that it's been hit or miss whether they can figure out the root cause of whatever bothers me.

I got lucky in DC, though. The Pentagon has some pretty amazing programs. I'm torn whether they're more effective in rehab'ing the senior military folks that tend to be here, or should be more available to younger troops just starting to develop repetitive use injuries. The problem is, most of those serving units that do daily physical training are 1) not in DC and 2) in the middle of a culture that prides itself on taking another Motrin and just getting through the workout. So it's probably best at the senior level to get them to embrace the concept of preventative medicine, then tackle making the mid-level leaders true believers.

My three favorite docs thus far - a physical therapist I saw 14 years ago and a sports med doc here in DC, both marathoners, and the athletic kinesiologist at the Pentagon who helps us all fix what hurts. Most of the others in between have been well-meaning and helpful, but didn't zero in on the real problem the way the athletes did. And when I got a repetitive cycling injury? No one could figure that one out - actually got he diagnosis flat out wrong - until I saw a sports med guy at the halfway point of the Seattle to Portland ride. It makes me wonder if sports med docs study the mechanics of various sports...

Good luck with your back. Hip/back pain drove me into the docs this time...3 years of working on it, finally making some real progress. It probably helps that I'm not sitting at a desk any more, too! ;-)