She hurts me in all the right ways.

In the course of my training, I have discovered many new parts of my body (and I'm not just talking about my butt, which I discovered on my first bike ride). The parts have been here all along, I just get to learn a lot about them when I break them. So basically, Triathlon is just one big learning opportunity!

A short list of my "new" parts would have to include

• Piriformis
• Transversus Abdominus
• the Ilio-Tibial Band, and
• Mr. Psoas and his friend the Iliopsoas

The logic for most people is that if it hurts you're not supposed to be doing it. I've often heard from the mouths of dedicated non-runners, for example, that running is "bad for your knees" when the informed truth is, not necessarily. When I consider the source, I have to re-consider the advice: if someone tells running is bad for me, but they say the only time they would run is if they were on fire, how extensive do you suppose their knowledge on running really is?

And so it is that I feel a combination of shock and relief when I find out that most other triathletes I know have "new" bodyparts that they have to devote a fair amount of love and attention to in order to maintain their fitness. In essence, we are all fighting little battles with our bodies. What a relief - this is great! It means I'm not broken, and I don't have to give up!

In a manner inspired by Super Athena, I will now devote most of this blog to a new bodypart that has been troubling me, the Quadratus Lumborum, or "QL" for those in the know. This is a muscle that I am told takes a pounding from people who bike or run, or (heaven forbid) both. For me, this seems to be especially true when I do any kind of climbing (biking or running).

My gut says it's a weak core that's the contributor (pun intended). However, no amount of creative core strengthening seems to alleviate the short term stresses that my QL gets.

A couple weeks ago, I went in for trigger point massage, since I have had on-again off-again hip pain ever since I started biking and running. No amount of stretching seems to get to it, it's buried pretty deep. I get regular therapeutic massages anyway, which I find helps a lot. The hip thing is likely related to a shoulder thing, also related to an ankle thing. I won't bore you with the details, but I am firmly convinced that it's all related.

The trigger point gal knows me and has a husband who is a triathlete. She knew right where to go and she dug in with a vengeance.

For the uninitiated, trigger point massage hurts like fire. I stopped breathing when she dug into my hip, and had to focus on not crying. And then after a time, it feels...well...fantastic. The pain goes away! In the course of being treated, I found out that the QL refers pain right into my hip (holy moly, does it ever). She found it!

Unfortunately, the trigger point session was weeks ago, and last night's La Luz training run triggered an interesting flare up of my hip-hurty, so I have had to re-discover my QL on the edge of a countertop. Ahhh, bliss...

In other news, my beloved will be running his very first marathon this weekend, and he picked a doozey: the (first annual) Valles Caldera. It starts at 8000ft, and has roughly 5000ft elevation climb.

Good luck honey, I know you'll do great! My QL is happy it's you and not me!