Some pain, no gain

My leg issues (calf and hamstring pain) have not gone away. It occurred to me last night that I am actually, really injured. Part of me was just figuring it was kind of in my head and that it would go away, but last night during biking from Capitol Hill for a swing dance class and actually during the class, my hamstring was getting some pretty bad pains in it. It wasn't really shooting pain, but it wasn't sustained either; it was kind of on and off. I had seen a PT on Tuesday, and he didn't even really check out the places where it was hurting. He did do a couple of stretches and checked some resistance with me, concluding that the pain was because my hips and core are relatively weak. I've heard rumor of this guys, often referred to as the "ass" man as he tends to diagnose everything within the ass or hips. I'm sure that strengthening my hips and core will not be a bad thing ultimately, but the fact that he didn't really probe the sore muscle at all really bugs me. Unfortunately, the other PT, who at least was a triathlete at one point, is on vacation, so I can't see her. I'm going to stick with it for a while, but I am not going to adhere to his recommendation of changing my position on the saddle by rocking my hips forward. There is a reason that most cyclist ride mostly on their sit bones, as there is some stuff that I certainly don't want to put all my pressure on. This is just getting frustrating because I really want to be in form for the FSA Grand Prix and the state TTT, but I know I really need to take some time off before that instead of the half-assed time off I've been taking.
As part of my ability to not actually stay off the bike, I did the Madison clinic on Tuesday. It was pretty awesome, but I had some stupid issues. First off, I brought Chris's shorts instead of my own. Oddly, they fit fine on the legs and butt but were understandably baggy in the waste. They were also really long, so I rolled them up to my tan line because I'm obsessive sometimes. I was pretty freaked out when the Madison practice got going above 20 mph. I didn't have as much problems being the person finishing the sprinting and doing the throwing. As the relief rider, I just kept getting scared about the speed and not being able to see behind me, then I'd proceed to slow down, which is way more dangerous than being faster. I actually connected at one point, when I was going to slow, and my front wheel went crazy. It seemed like I was going to fall down track in one of the corners (which would have been awful), but somehow I shifted my balance by wrenching the wheel and unclipping, so that I ended up just sliding down the track on my ass. Luckily, that's the most padded part to fall on. Of course my first thought was, "crap, these aren't my shorts," but both the shorts and my body were fine. I have an ugly bruise on my outer left thigh and another bruise on my inner right calf; I'm not sure what all hit where. That's my only fall on the track, unless I include the one that happened at a cross practice. So that freaked me out a bit more, but I just kept giving myself physics lessons in my head about how it's not the absolute speed but the relative speed that matters, so I should just speed up! Eventually the message came through, and I was decent through the motor-pacing. But about 15 minutes in my calf started getting sore, so I had to calm down right when it was beginning to get fun. I just have to keep thinking that rest now is better than more damage now.