I’ve been dealing with sciatica for going on two weeks. It’s on my right side, and it started two Fridays ago. I am not sure what caused it. That day, I climbed in the morning, but didn’t do much else physically for the rest of the day. The next morning, I woke up with sciatica. Maybe it was something I did in my sleep? Who knows. It is the worst when I first get up in the morning. Lying down on my back and/or sitting in a sofa or armchair seems to bother it, as does bending down to my right with my knees straight. Cycling does not bother it at all, but it has played havoc with my running mechanics. The first few times I ran with it, I felt like I was favoring the right side and slapping my foot down. My average cadence fell by about 5 steps/minute, and my average pace has slowed by about a minute per mile. In general, it has made running seem laborious, like I have to expend more effort to get the same amount of output. This past Tuesday, after slogging through 3 miles, I decided to consciously try to shorten my stride length and increase my cadence. When I had my old Apple Watch SE a few years back, I used to always average 180 steps per minute or above. With my current watch, though, I have never once hit 180spm. Instead, I seem to average anywhere between 173-175spm. It didn’t seem like my mechanics had changed, so I wondered if maybe Apple had changed the algorithm it uses to measure cadence. That is possible, but I also think my overall cadence has dropped over time, so I thought I’d try to reset it. The second half of Tuesday’s run felt better, and I finished the run with an average of 175spm, which is 4 or 5 steps per minute more than what I’ve averaged since the sciatica hit. I ended up with a hotspot on my right heel, but I think that was more a result of my biomechanics being off due to the sciatica. In any case, as of today (Thursday) the hotspot is gone.

Today, I set out trying to maintain a high cadence for my entire 7 mile run. It went pretty well, but I started to tire about 2/3 of the way through, and it was difficult to keep the step rate up for that portion of the run. I ended up with an overall average cadence of 178spm, which is not too shabby by recent standards. My overall pace was still off by about a minute per mile, but the run felt better, and if I can get my biomechanics back in order, my pace should follow. I still have yet to top 180spm for any run over 5K with the new watch. I’m not convinced that Apple’s algorithm hasn’t changed, but I think that’s going to be my goal for my next several runs. Hopefully, the sciatica will eventually go away as well, which will certainly help.