The bike - my safe place

Sometimes, it feels as if my bike really is my "safe place" - when most other things are overwhelming, riding my bike is surprisingly simple.

Of course, the getting dressed for the weather outside can be quite a task when you are not feeling great to start with, but when I have made it through all the decisions, which bike to take out, what to wear, what nutrition to bring, where to go, it gets surprisingly simple.

I am just sitting on my bike and pedaling.
There is really not much more about it.

While riding on the road, most of my atttention is focused on the few meters of road right in front of me, and the cars behind and in front of me, and the rest is mind-wandering or a casual glimpse at my watch to check for heart rate.

I must admit that even when the traffic is a bit daunting, my bike still feels like a safe place.
As for the possibility to get hit by a car, that possibility is there just as much when I am on the road driving myself, or when walking or crossing the road.
So I just try my best to be a "decent cyclist", meaning that when I am on narrow roads, and hear a huge truck from behind, and know there are few chances for him to safely drive by, I slow down and give him space if possible.

Why being a stubborn cyclist, claiming a huge part of the road when I can be decent and give way for someone that is probably driving his truck to make a living, while I ride my bike for the pure joy of it.

A few seconds more or less, or even minutes, on my workout total don't bother me at all.

I'd rather be a friendly cyclist and ride safely and share the road so I can have a good experience, and feel "safe".

One funny thing that doesn't happen very often, is that I got hot on the bike because I had dressed too much for the outside temperature.

After all, yes, it was sunny, but it was also end of august and by definition, fall was approaching fast.

I usually love sleeveless tops for bike riding in the summer (for the freedom of movement and better tan lines) but chose a bike jersey.

And it got soo hot!
And while I often wear a really thin sleeveless top underneath so I'd be more flexible in terms of how many layers to wear, I didn't this time.

Well - it was still nice bike ride.
The hills were long and beautiful, the sun shining and the view excellent.
My legs felt fine and I didn't bother too much about how fast or slow I went on.

Just had a good time on my bike, and a break from my usual overthinking.

Yep, my bike is still my safe place.

Pollen fight!?

When I was young, I never had allergies.
Although I think that I did have a predisposition to get allergies, since I had atopic eczema. There is some degree of correlation between atopic eczema and allergies.

The summer when I filled 21, I experienced  my first signs of allergy though, and it was against mugwort. It was exhausting, but lasted only a few weeks. I can't remember taking any medication against it, I was still living at home, and my parents somehow weren't too fond about taking medication that you don't necessarily need to survive.
And I was still livint at my parents home, and also financially dependent on them.

Fast forward to today, over 20 years later, when allergies came and disappeard, then came again and disappeared again. All depending of my general levels of stress. The worst bout I remember was when I started my master studies and at the same time had a job at our university as a teacher's assistant.
What an irony that I had developed a full-blown pollen allergy against both grass and flowers, and my job was joining our teacher outside on our excursion on botany.
I remember it being both fun and exhausting, since the students were all really nice, while my body battled against the pollen in the field.

During the recent years, I haven't had allergies, only minor reations against dust inside my appartments from time to time. Fortunately!

But this year, it flared up again.
For real.

Looking through my medicine closet, I realized I was almost running out of antihistamines (I am using Loratadine against pollen allergy, if anyone is wondering about it) - so I started taking what I had left, and ordered a new recipe at my doctor.

The recipe is supposed to be available today.
And I really hope that the fresh pills will do a better job than the ones I had left at home (ok, they can't be that old, but you never know).
Because my allergy is bad. Despite the medicine I have been taken.

Even Garmin recognizes the stress my body is under.
Usually, my stress levels are below 25, and rather variable.
And the last days and weeks, the physiological stress was rather low (the psychological though, quite high):

Yesterday though, and through last night, it looked like this:

I spend some time trying to figure out the cause.
Was it severe mental stress?
But it couldn't have been, since I just had decided to just give in and accept that there are things I don't like to do, but that are the right thing to do.

I haven't been training too much either - for usually, after too much high intensity training, the stress usually starts right after the workout, and keeps getting up and down, but calms down at night.

So I decided that the cause must be the ongoing allergy, which doesn't give my body any break at all, and I can feel it all the time.

But! I was thinking that even though my body is stressed out, there really is no need to stress about it.
After all, if I didn't have my fancy little Garmin watch, I wouldn't have known about it, and just thought that "Oh no, that annoying allergy is bad, I am exhausted, I hate it." - and tried to do the best about it.

Also, I am not sure if training or not is right, but I am guessing that light training AWAY from pollen could actually be benefitial.
So maybe I will go for an easy hike up in the valley today, where there is no mugwort but only refreshing mountain air.

I could even go as far as to take my tent and sleep in the mountains tonight.
But I am not so sure about how restful that night's sleep will be, and there is stille the sprint triathlon om two days.

And not that I am planning to do a great race, but I'd rather not be in brain fog when I am there.
So, today will be an easy day - hiking, and picking out the necessary race gear, and washing my mountain bike so it's ready for saturday.

Also, taking small breaks and giving my mind a rest, since it is actually rather disturbing feeling the body at high alert with the faster heart rate - but I'll just do the best about it 💪👍

Plantar Fasciitis and Strength Training

First, an overdue update and summary about the whole plantar fasciitis (PF) thing:

I have been doing triathlons (all distances) throughout the last 6 years, injury-free (apart from MCL tears that were just bad luck).

Then this summer, I got plantar fasciitis.
So, I'm asking myself - what could be the cause(s) and what can I do to treat it?
There is the whole range of advices and experiences out there, both online and amongst physical therapists (and people suffering from PF).

For me, after a break from running between january-march this year (due to a MCL-I sprain) I focused on speed runs and interval training, while at the same time starting heavy weight training (5x5 program), and preparing for a halfironman in july.
I also hiked/trained with a backpack between 20-25lbs in the woods (wearing running shoes).

I had to drop the halfironman due to poor mental health (mental overload).
And I recognized I had to reduce my training accordingly.
I focused more on unstructured activities like hiking and running up my favorite mountain top.

I got on a group hiking trip/pilegrimage in august, with a backpack around 20lbs, doing appr 10miles a day in rough mountain terrain.
My boots were well used, but I forgot to use my soft innsoles, so my feet started to hurt.
They didn't stop hurting during those five days.

Well back home, esp.my right heel hurt, but I'm kind of use to an aching body, so I just took it easy, no running.
Soft shoes - no more boots!
Hiking in running shoes with a super light backpack.
But on the last mountain trip I almost didn't make it down the mountain due to the sharp pain in my right foot.
To compensate, I put most of my bodyweight on my left foot/knee more, resulting in pain in my left lateral meniscus.

I got home in the end by walking backwards through the woods.
That's when I called a friend who is a physical therapist (after I got so many results by googling "heel pain" which I thought sounded innocent).

PF confirmed at my GP, and by ultrasound.

---> so, what now?


There are probably thousands of advices out there, millions of people (literally, yes) are suffering from plantar fasciitis, and some of them blog about it.

It's not always encouraging reading.

And I kind of miss the "scientific" approach of it.
I mean, the plantar fascia is more like a ligament, joining bones in the foot together to form the foot arch and support it.

There is almost no flexibility in the fascia, and there shouldn't be, so why would I try to stretch it, why are there so many recommendations about stretching the fascia?

There has been good results from stretching the fascia compared to stretching the achilles tendon (sorry I forgot what article that was), but there was no controll group, so who knows what the cause of improvement was?
The stretching, or the enhanced blood flow to the fascia caused by stretching and handling the foot, thus helping tissue healing?

Anyway, I stumbled upon an article published this fall (2014) about weight training in the treatment of PF.
While there is no clear evidence (I guess there never will be anyway, for PF is way too complicated and individual to make sense out of structured studies) there was at least a positive outcome at some point of the course.

I like the approach of strengthening, I can hardly understand how a structure in the body should heal merely by stretching, without strengthening or any other treatment enhancing his function.

This is just a rather long note, mostly written to remind myself of the topic, and that I want to do more reseach on the topic.
And, implement some strengthening routines so my feet get stronger, my calves get stronger, and my fascia thus maybe get more support from the surrounded muscles so it can heel properly without being overloaded every time my feet hit the ground.


If you're really interested and want to do some further reading on the topic, I can strongly recommend Chad's Physical Therapy Blog:

Screenshot from Chad's Physical Therapy Blog. Worth a visit!

You will find the article I was refering to here: "Strength Better Than Stretch for Plantar Fasciitis".

So much for now.
Have a great weekend and get well soon, you PF sufferers out there!