Thu 12 Feb 26: Knee felt great going to bed... getting up, not so much. Think the sleeping position may've allowed meniscus to slip into one of its old pathological positions, as the stiffness and pain haven't returned w/ vengeance, but is unfort'y familiar. Treating the splinting ham helped quite a bit... and at end of laps did feel better. Nothing like the previous week, tho... Laps (R1): --- Lap 1 - 5 -- can cover all of them in 15 secs; rest day so did dial down pace due to the tweak. Thought at the time I'd dodged a bullet... but that'd turn out slightly optimistic. Driving and getting out is again 1 min walking to warm before it feels normal. Gotta get a handle on what during the night could've caused the knee to regress this much
Fri 13 Feb 26: Knee still a bit cranky this AM -- got a strange rating from the CPAPualung on the wakeup: a 35; said I'd broken seal 30x and only slept 0.4 hrs Checked it again literally seconds ago... the s/w dev equivalent of 'oh... never mind'. Full (99 - 100) points, of course Slept good that I remember, no idea why the Die Machinen decided to brain fart. Only neg was I still had the knee tweak. Laps (R2): --- Lap 1: 4:37 -- pretty typical R-day starting lap Lap 2: 3:45 -- wait, wut? Stopwatch doesn't lie tho... no idea what took 47 secs out of L1...? Lap 3: 3:56 -- am I in the f***ing Matrix? How is this possible, when this lap felt better than last...? And knee's ache-y, not amazing Lap 4: 3:51 -- feels okay now but still no idea why this isn't over 4 mins as past Rs on sore knee were Lap 5: 3:51 -- guess the weird wasn't satisfied yet. Felt faster (for an R day) over L4... but not according to my wrist Machinen --- 'Tf is going on Guess the fates have deemed 13 Fri as a real head scratcher today. Most times it weren't, historically... ime this phenom mostly applied on mainland in past, around people who believed in it (much like the now-very-obvious change on and around 31 Oct), just wasn't a thing here. But the hoards of mainland transplants now dominant at least 2 generations calling themselves 'Locals' have apparently changed the air The only explanation for the jump in L2, could be a thought experiment I were doing after the split on L1 --> L2, where were looking at the brick floor on the upper mall level, and seeing if my steps could stay within 3 brick widths (100mm L x 50mm W bricks, so trying to follow a 150mm line of these zigzag pavers). But if anything that'd slow me down, not speed things up? Weird
Addendum, Fri 13 Feb 26: Quite an odd, if not unpleasant day on the table. As before, not sharing possible identifying info about the client or session (will mention their stories later in recollection, to prevent clocking story to date)... but suffice to say two of the day's clients were rather unusual for this gig... Lesson from the first: a reinforcement that every client should be treated as individual... and my policy of explaining what's happening and reasons why in length that often stops the session, should and will continue. Getting the conscious mind to grasp at least the cliff notes of the work, helps the subconscious mind accept the frequent and often intense pain to come -- and prevents feeding fear, which directly fights progress and depth. Lesson from the second: you must cater the work to the client always, as above... but esp when comes to age. Children don't yet have the life exp to face and process pain (often not until they set out on their own, removed [a proper] parents' well-intended protection), so you as prac must not sow trauma in their delicate, open fields of a mind. Elderly have much thinner skin, atrophied muscles, and often grossly-ignored adhesions... which with too-aggressive, ham-handed pracs can lead to simple non-resolution in a young adult... but crippling, debilitating -- and permanent -- weakness, paresthesia, and pain in those over 60. In addition, injured athletes w/ large areas of joint scar tissue, victims of burns or other catastrophic damage to connective tissues or organs, often need bodywork far from the average client's care, into the weedy median. Let's hope your work has proper cable barriers to catch the odd mistake sending your work into it. But unless medical needs contraindicate deep-tissue work, every client has an area / range / point where pain and suffering can be reduced; one just has to have the skill to first find and identify it, then have the tools to do something about it. Have it, get that in return. Lack it, may as well send them home, but at least in the direction of those who don't. The realist life of the bodyworker
Valentine's Day, Sat 14 February 26: Had to cut P1 laps short due coming down w/ a cold, so no times. Got steps in anyway... just not there and not interval stuff. What a bonkers day this is been. May be need to add this holiday to the list of bad-luck days on Maui -- lots of angry / stressed / both people everywhere, esp on-road. Mostly males -- not one bit surprised Knee does feel a bit of the interruption of routine, stiff mostly. Had to sit in a doc's office ~ an hour today to make sure it wasn't something other than a cold (wasn't, no worries Not sure why, but traumas admitted but triaged non-critical are flooding the clinic today -- man, is the holiday that bad nowadays...? What the hell do people expect it be and why does it make peeps bash heads / damage GI tract / get organ failure, today of all days? Or am I just seeing a 1-day sliver of what happens all the time? Hope y'all are having a good VD (will never get over the irony of that acronym ). May your clinics (and ERs / A&Es) be quiet as a mouse
