Last Few Weeks Have Been A Pain In The Butt

So it's been a while since my last update, and it's because I haven't done much in the way of racing. Ever since my last race at the Chippewa Creek Race in Ohio, I have been continuously nagged by sciatica, an irritation of the sciatic nerve.

The sciatic nerve either passes behind or through, depending on how you're made, the piriformis muscle. If that muscle is injured, it can compress down on the nerve and cause pain, tingling and numbness in the buttocks and along the path of the sciatic nerve descending down into the leg.
 
I've been dealing with this for almost four weeks now. It's affected my riding and racing in that I am not getting the power output I need out of my right leg, and a lot of great discomfort in that leg. I've been to my chiropractor for a needed adjustment and massage, and he gave me some stretches to do to work out the piriformis. I've been doing them and even took some time off the bike completely.  The pain just now seems to be slowly going away, with an emphasis on slowly. It's still there but not as bad or as deep into my leg. In fact, I had a decent 60 mile ride yesterday with some friends/teammates. Although I was still bothered by my condition, I felt good enough to put in some hard efforts.

I don't currently have any races planned for the month of June partly because of this issue and partly due to some "outside of riding" stuff, so this is a good time to continue to stretch and adjust and massage this out of my body and get back into shape just in time for some HOT racing in July and August.  I'll keep you posted.