Ho hum...

Thanks for the support and advice guys. I do appreciate it.

To answer a few questions first:

(1) no, there will be no photos (or even descriptions) of the dress before the big day. Sorry ;-)

(2) as for my ITB, I have tried the following since it first flared up in August last year (in no particular order):
* physio
* massage
* acupuncture
* chiro/osteo
* cortisone
* resting
* running through it
* adjusting my orthotics
* lots of stretching
* various strengthening exercises for my problematic glutes

As for exercises:
* I have found that cycling and pilates both aggrevate my knee
* I can walk without pain (most of the time) on flat courses
* Although I have done yoga in the past, I haven't tried it since my ITB flared up simply because my gym doesn't do it
* Haven't tried the elliptical machine because (a) I hate them and (b) I have assumed that they will aggrevate my knee in the same way cycling and pilates does...

Oh hum. I've had an email from my physio today telling me she is shocked that it is still playing up - she's not the only one. She has suggested a return visit to the sports doc. My next appointment with my chiro/osteo is this Friday. As for any other treatment regimes, in all honesty I'm pretty sick of seeing various practitioners and not getting results - not to mention the serious $$$ associated with doing so. Perhaps I just need to forget about running for a couple of months, build up the duration of time that I can walk without pain and then get back on the bike and return to running in, say, 3 or 6 months time...I really don't know right now...

On Sunday, I did nothing. My 'legitimate' excuse is that on Saturday afternoon I felt like I was coming down with a cold so it seemed sensible to stay out of a public pool. Yuk. The real excuse is that I couldn't be bothered. Ho hum.

This morning I decided to test my knee out. I don't know why I did - even as I was on the bus on the way into the city I was still undecided. In the end, I decided to give it a go. As it was, I had to go to the gym because our hot water system has died and we have had no hot water since Saturday evening. I should have just had a shower and not bothered with the treadmill. I decided to do 10mins walk/5min run/5min walk/5min run based on the 'return to running program'. My first 5min run instalment lasted 2min & 32sec before I pulled the pin. Grrrrrr.......

My mood today probably wasn't helped by big changes at work. Basically my firm's office is closing and the partners are moving to a new firm. This was in fact the reason that I took last week off - my entitlements are being paid out so I decided I needed break before I go back to having a big fat zero annual leave up my sleeve. I have mixed feelings about the change. While professionally it should provide me with greater opportunities, personally it is very distressing as there have been a number of redundancies including a few women that I have worked with for 7 years. All of this is due to happen before the end of the month so crazy times are ahead...

Headed back to the gym at lunch to see Satan:

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: not so great

Upper body circuit with a focus on core strength today:
* assisted chin ups on the smith machine
* prone hold on toes (2mins)
* dumbbell reverse flyes
* oblique move using a swiss ball
* dumbbell shoulder press standing on disks
* crunches,
repeated twice. A tough session - I felt pretty weak but strangely the weights and reps didn't reflect it.

Back to the godforesaken pool in the morning...