msfitrunner

I ran.  twice.

I have run 12 miles this week

and

they were lovely miles

No pain in my back/hip/pelvic/any anatomy in the general vicinity of those things

Zero

Zilch

Nada

I ran only 3 miles on Friday instead of 10

then I took Saturday, Sunday and Monday completely off

no cross training.  nothing.

nothing but coffee drinking

and more coffee drinking

and just hanging with my little loves

I missed an 18 miler on Saturday and a workout on monday

I am not complaining

Come Tuesday, I was not really planning on running.  I was going to wait another day.

but I didn’t have any pain.  I felt great.  puzzling.

fear was keeping me from walking out the door and picking up my stride

I was afraid of getting hurt again

I was afraid that something really bad was wrong with me, and it was going to rear its ugly head at any moment

and I do I suppose something far worse could be wrong, something that hasn’t really surfaced yet, and what happened last week was just the tip of the iceburg

I was afraid of the rest of the iceburg

or

that was it.  that was the “thing” and I’ll be ok

the truth is, we are all one step away from disaster

OR

we are one step away from something great.  fantastic.  fabulously life changing.  or even just ordinary and simple, but special

being afraid of the disaster

will just keep you from that possibly great thing.  or that ordinary thing that you never think twice about, that matters to you

you can’t predict the future, and you can’t let past experiences paralyze you.  This was such a tiny little blip, but in the moment, that one little blip was stopping me from being able to do what I do every single day.  without a thought.  almost like a reflex.  a habit.  a way of life.

It is smart to be smart when something goes wrong.  whoa.  you can quote me on that one.

but for me, I was going to hold off running not because I wasn’t feeling up to par, but because I was afraid of what might happen if I did.

so I took a step

and went out and ran 5 lovely miles

and I survived

I think I held my breath for the entire first mile

and then I let go

and I ran

and it was all good

it was still all good after I ran

that made me even happier

I could move freely.  bend down and touch my toes.  stand back up.  sit. twist. turn. sleep.  eat.  and nothing hurt.

So what happened?

I do not know

I would like to know

I got an amazing sports massage on Sunday.  it may have brought me to tears somewhere around the elbow digging in my piriformis or the knuckle in the quadratus lumborum – can’t quite remember.  the consensus is that I am all off balance – tight on one side, not as tight on the other.  strong on one side, not as strong on the other.

I cautiously went to the chiropractor on Monday.

going to be honest – they make me nervous.  I feel like you have to find a fabulous one, or else you are screwed.  I think I found a fabulous one.  he took some X-rays.  he did some tests.  he did some cracking.  and some more cracking.  I guess it’s technically called “adjusting”.  but I cracked.  a lot.

What I learned from the chiropractor:

(I debated putting the picture of my lower back, pelvis, sacral area up here, but I was feeling a little too exposed, so it’s going to stay in photo album. for now)

- “Everything looks good for….how old are you?”  31 “ok, everything looks pretty good for 31.  you are aging well”

good to know I’m aging well

- “I’m not exactly sure what this is protruding right here near your spine, so we’ll send it to radiology, they will know”

ok, that’s not so good to know, but it is what it is and it wasn’t a huge thing.  just a little thing.  we’ll see.

- “We only consider hip height discrepancies if they are greater than 3mm difference.  you’re are about 5-7mm difference.  that’s significant”

ok.  so my right hip is significantly higher than my left.  I could see that clearly from the xray.  I HAVE to start running on the other side of the road.  I NEVER run on the right side of the road. in fact, it might be one of my biggest running pet peeves when I see runners running with traffic.  I am now that runner.  I need more balance.  the hips need a little help.

- “You have no curve in your neck”

I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it, but there is virtually no curve in my neck.  your neck is supposed to have a slight curve to it.  we all know that.  hmmmm.  not sure about that one.  just fix me.

Other than all that jazz, things were looking a little too close for comfort in the lower back, and he’s going to work on making it a little more roomy for the group.

I was VERY happy with the chiropractor visit.  skeptical at first.  and in turned out great.  the receptionist even watched luke while I got all fixed.  free babysitting.

it doesn’t hurt that he’s a charming stud

and has nicer eyelashes than me.  I’m jealous of my son’s eyelashes.  I will admit that.

I ran again today.  #2 for the week.  so thrilling.

I bumped it up to 7 miles.  10 miles is my go to daily distance.  I was not about to try that.  maybe friday.  I might go for 8 tomorrow.  and chase it with a nice p90x yoga session and some rolling rolling rolling.  I’ve never been so aware of how I move and how I run as I am now.  I guess that’s a good thing.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of the yoga stuff.  I might have pulled a little muscle in my shoulder from one too many chatarangas or down dogs.  I’m a hot mess.  but I’m feeling mighty limber and stretched.  I didn’t do that nearly enough.  I ran.  and didn’t take as much time as I should have been stretching and rolling.  I would passively roll and stretch and do my “extras”.  I need to do more.  this showed me that.  no pain, no gain, it’s true.  I needed a painful experience to snap me into shape.  it was painful on friday.  physically.  I’m hopeful that it’s all under control.  what I gained from it was a better understanding that as many miles as I put in, I have to put even more in to taking care of the body that lets me run those miles.  and not do it passively.  it’s amazing to me how running and moving and existing requires so many things to WORK well together.  I want to keep them working well together.  I also have a half marathon in a week and a half that I really want to be healthy to run.  and I kind of want to run it fast.  we shall see.  taking it day by day and loving every striding moment of it.

2 runs, 12 miles, 1 massage, 2 chiropractor visits, lots of yoga, little bit of core, more yoga, little bit of hamstring work, more rolling, and the back is feeling pretty darn good.  fingers crossed.  praying things will continue to move swimmingly.

Tell me about your week!?

Chiropractor – love it or leave it? 

Yoga – love it or leave it? 

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