Slumping and grinding, and my new thingamajig

I've been in a bit of a slump over the past few weeks.  My motivation has not been high and I have lost momentum with my training.  I think it's a combination of burnout, fear of exacerbating nagging injuries, and analysis paralysis.

I find that when I'm working or training consistently, that it's easy to keep going... but once I undergo lapses, then it gets progressively harder to get back on track.  Lately I have been lackluster about doing my physical therapy and I've been rewarded with a resurgence of left-knee and left-hip wonkiness... Because of this I have cut back my weekly mileage to avoid aggravating things further.  But the mileage reduction only serves to make me less motivated to do my physical therapy and to log my miles.  It's a vicious cycle.

I have also been experiencing some recurring neck soreness over the last several weeks.  Initially I thought it might have been a relapse of a muscle pull from a few months ago, but the soreness this time around is much different than before.

Another thought was that perhaps I was just sleeping with my head at an awkward angle.  I've been in a tweener spot with my pillows where one pillow is not enough elevation for my head, but two pillows is too much.  I've gone back and forth between:

A) Using one pillow and trying diligently to reinflate it (similar to what I do with all the loaves of bread I buy from the grocery store that somehow always get squished in transit)

and

B) Using two pillows but trying to mash them both down (similar to when I'm traveling and I try to squeeze an obscene amount of belongings into a carry-on suitcase)

Unfortunately neither option has worked.

As a general rule, I don't like going to the doctor unless I really, really need to... however this problem has gone on long enough now that I am starting to think it really is necessary.  The word on the street is that a chiropractor might be the best professional to consult. 

Does anyone have any chiropractor experiences, recommendations, or words of wisdom to share?!?

Allright!  Shifting gears here...

After a 3-year relationship with my Blackberry, I finally moved on and got an iPhone.  I was apprehensive about the process of shopping for a new phone given all the options.  But, it turns out that my firm's IT systems only support Blackberry or iPhone, so it became a very straightforward decision.

The biggest adjustment for me so far with the iPhone is that I've always been very accustomed to having a keyboard on my Blackberry, which the iPhone doesn't have.  Touchscreen typing really does take some getting used to.

On that note, I've learned the hard way that spelling auto-correct is both a blessing and a curse.  For example, the other day I was trying to IM my friend Ed "okedoke" and instead it came up as "ole dole" (apparently both a Swedish film and Swedish nursery rhyme.) 

My friend Katie was also telling me about how she once tried to send a friend "prayers" but instead she sent her friend "pirates." 

In many situations, pirates are still very useful to send.

In short, lesson learned that I will have to be very careful to grind out the correct words when typing iPhone messages!

Beyond that, I am really enjoying the iPhone's capabilities.  It's fun customizing my interface and downloading apps (hello, Blackhawks app, Epicurious app, and Shazam!)  The iMessage system is nice - with Blackberry Messenger you had to get someone's PIN to message them, but iMessage doesn't require that step.  It will also be fun trying to confuse the iPhone's voice command system (e.g. speaking to it in Pig Latin).

My one issue so far is that the iPhone's battery longevity is not great.  This isn't helped by the fact that my office environment eats phone batteries for lunch.  But, overall I think it's a small price to pay for the iPhone's vastly improved functionality.

Folks, we have officially added another element to the Bermuda Triangle (now Quadrilateral?) of Productivity!