As you may have noticed, I have moved this blog to its own space so that I can give it a style and face that is different from the Eco-fiction site, while still being on that network.
The last time I wrote, I was seriously doubting my ability to run more. I was diagnosed with degeneration on two of my spinal facet joints. I had fallen early last year and fractured my spine in two places (I don’t know if these two things are related). The degeneration causes the body to compensate and try to build up bone, which pinches the nerves in areas of my back. Many times after running, the normally just annoying pain can become crazy. However, I did see my physical therapist on Monday, and I told him how much running meant to me but how I felt it would be so hard to go on. He said that he wants to put me on a plan to strengthen both my back muscles and body core, and he said: KEEP RUNNING!
So I’ve removed the last post because I want to continue and get better. I feel a renewed sense of the reality of running and moving forward. I was in a little bit of self-denial about just picking up running without really exercising my core. I did Yoga for a while, but I was worried that some of it was aggravating my back pain. But now I’m back on track, with a definite plan from physio:
- Back exercises before each run
- Back stretches on various equipment at the gym twice a week
- Body core strengthening two or three times a week on my off-days from running
- Working in Yoga again once I feel that I can do some of the moves
So now I’m kind of excited. Already I am seeing a very slight difference, though I guess it could be that the therapist (same one who helped me with the IT band problems last year) filled me with confidence, whereas for the longest time I just didn’t know what was up with my health, including a cancer scare.
Now I feel that I am very lucky to still be able to run. I did about two miles today in a slow rain, and it felt wonderful. I began to let my thoughts wander, and before I knew it my time was up and I had to get back to work. I felt like I could have gone for quite a while longer.
Of course, because of all this uncertainty, I haven’t properly trained up to a 10K full run, but plan to do the best I can on November 8, our next race. I will do a big run this weekend and the weekend after and hope to at least get close to 10K. I always feel that races are very motivational, and I usually break personal records! Plus our team is full of family and friends.
There are many other things I wanted to cover soon, mainly the newly published Winds of Change and Canada’s riddance of Harper in that amazing election the other night–which is so much better for our environment than could be imagined, though the liberals still have a ways to go. At least they are against the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and any eastern pipelines. They also think about climate change and are committed to some really important changes, such as renewing the Fraser River wild salmon.
