Fallllllllll

It’s fall and I feel like I’ve been fallllling, or rather failing, for a while now. My back was not feeling better so I took a one week+ hiatus from all activities including my chiro and pt care. That was about the worst week ever!!! Sometimes I couldn’t sleep as my back was throbbing with pain. It just hurt all the time. Go figure as it didn’t hurt nearly as much all summer while training. So I figured what the heck, I’ll try to jog for a few minutes. Well, I made it 20 minutes pain free and opted to stop anyway as I didn’t want to push my luck. Wa-la! It hasn’t hurt since! Now that’s magic! Swimming though is what usually aggravated it more than anything so I haven’t been in the pool in a couple months. Well, I eased into the pool this morning for a 20 minute flip-turn free very very very easy swim. Ah, like a pig in mud I was! I could not have been happier and my back was fine. I SO wanted to keep going, but knew better. Again, I didn’t want to push my luck. So here I am 8 hours later wondering about my future. My back doesn’t hurt, but it feels a little sore or something. It’ll be at least a couple more days before I try to swim again, but I may try to jog tomorrow. I HATE this lack of activity! Usually when someone gets injured there is some sort of activity they can do. Unfortunately, I am not in that boat. This thing keeps trying to beat me down, but I keep rising, I won’t let it win. I know I have to be careful with everything, not just athletics, but playing with our angels, not making sudden movements, etc. And it can be really hard to remember that when all is feeling good. Slow and steady will win this race!

So now that I can’t have an athletic goal at this time, I’ve chosen to focus on something else, something where I need some improvement, something that could very well improve my athletic performances. That thing, my readers, is nutrition. Now I’ve never had a big weight issue, thanks to my love of working out, but I gain lbs quickly as soon as I stop. My last race was at the end of August and by Oct 1st, I’d gained 9 pounds. Yes, I think it’s absolutely fine to treat yourself after a long season, but an additional 9 pounds isn’t exactly healthy for me, 3-5 would be more acceptable. This happens to me (I do it to myself) every year and I usually don’t shed it until July or August. I’ve never dieted though, I just do my workouts and in time it comes off. This year, now, I’m making a change. Clean is the name of the book I’ve been following to do a 21 day cleanse. Yes, me, the one who has been incredibly skeptical of any diet, fast, or cleanse. Diets are temporary, so those are out for me. Fasting? Well, I’ll only do those for colonoscopies. A cleanse though, I have found many reasons to do one. Losing weight is just icing on the cake. As most of you know, I’ve struggled with GI issues for some years now and it became much more pronounced last year. I was diagnosed with ischemic colitis. Fortunately, that has completely cleared up, but the GI issues remain. So this cleanse will be great way to possibly determine what foods are triggering these issues. Gluten is the obvious enemy of choice, but we’ll see when I’m done…in 13 days. I’ll slowly reintroduce it and see what happens. In the meantime, oddly, I’ve lost all 9 pounds. I suspect much of it is water weight, although I’ve been staying hydrated. I must say, the first 4 days I had a raging headache. Of course that’s to be expected when one consumes oodles of Diet Coke 4-5/times per week. I knew I was addicted to it and I knew that I couldn’t just cut down. I had to go cold turkey. I’ve only craved it a few times, but those few cravings have been really strong. I don’t care for coffee so DC is my caffeinated beverage of choice…with a sporadic Chai Tea Latte. Hmmm, what else? I hadn’t noticed, but Scott said I’ve had an abundance of energy lately. My skin looks and feels better too. Amazing what healthier eating can do! Ok, so to be nice, please don’t bring me any food, ask me to b-fast (my fav) or dinner within these next two weeks. 😉 I’ll report more later…no off to work on our big reveal. 😉

Pity party

I’ve been having my own little pity party lately as my back hasn’t allowed me to do the things I love, namely, being active. I know I am fortunate to have and enjoy many other things in my life, however that doesn’t take the sting away. I’ve been an athlete my entire life so when you take that away, I feel totally stripped of my inner core. The bad news is that it’s been ongoing since late spring. The good news is that it didn’t affect my training much. Oddly, it hurts more now that I’m not doing anything. Maybe the endorphins took over while training, who knows. All I know is now is that I’m 100% focused on not just alleviating the pain, but finding a means to fixing the issue. (It started as a back spasm, then 3 bulging discs appeared, but now they are gone. So, back to the beginning…). I’m in cahoots with a an orthopod, a chiro, PT, and a running coach to address the issues so cross your fingers for a quick resolution. But really, what’s making matters far worse is that I’ve had good friends diagnosed with some pretty heavy stuff this year, from MS to cancer, and everything in between. I don’t know how people get through this stuff! My thoughts, prayers, and hugs to them and their families! To wrap things up, you are NOT allowed to join my party. It’s only for me and my A list guests below. Besides, it’ll be over soon…and, things could be a lot worse. And therefore maybe I’ll try this: PS A huge congrats to Bruce Noxon for an awesome race today! He placed 7th with a 4:39 at the Halfmax National Championships and grabbed himself a spot to the World Championships!!! So proud of you Dr. Noxon!!! Tom Chisholm too!