Running Fail

The past few months, I have gotten into a pretty regular routine: Gym @ 4:45, run with dogs at 5:45 AM.  Unfortunately, a week and a half ago, I tweaked my neck again.  I then compounded this by falling!  This has pretty much put my running out of commission.

On Saturdays, I work in a restaurant.  I try to bring a baked good of some type with me every couple of Saturdays. On Friday, May 3rd, I was going to make a brown sugar pound cake, but ended up out at dinner with friends and got home too late.  This meant that I was making my cake on Saturday morning before work in a hurry.  I initially tweaked my neck while reading the paper Saturday morning.  Then, I was looking for my cake plate in the basement, and remembered the icing needed to be stirred on the stove.  I went flying up the stairs, put my foot in a puddle of water by the dog bowl (Lucy's doing!), went completely sideways in the air, and then crashed to the ground.  By Sunday morning, I couldn't move my head anymore.

I didn't want to make my neck worse, and I knew I had a chiropractor appt. on Thursday, so I thought I would just hold off on the exercising and down some Advil.  It didn't get any better until Thursday, after my appt. at the Chiropractor, but still wasn't 100%.  I thought I would hold off a few more days.  Today was the first day I woke up with no pain, so today was the day!

Both dogs went outside and went to the bathroom (this is key, as no one likes to run w/ a bag of poop!).  I put my new playlist on my phone, and headed out the door.  A quarter mile away, the other dog stops to poop again! WTH?! Fine, this was okay because we were close to a park and a trash can.  We discard the bag, and continue running.  I notice my calf is unusually tight about a half mile in, so I stop to stretch it out.  We then keep going until the other dog thought he heard thunder, and it started to sprinkle rain.  Thunder and the other dog don't mix...at all.  It usually involves some drooling, a lot of crying, and a Thundershirt.  Back home we go...total failed run: 2 miles.

Hopefully, my neck is better again, and I can jump back on the exercise train this week!  Lucy had fun at least!

Getting back in the swing of things

A little history about me today...a long time ago, I hit my head, and ended up hurting my neck somehow. I have had problems off and on for years now.  Sometimes I can't turn my head at all, or even lift my arm.  All my X-rays and MRIs show nothing on the side that hurts (but a surprising amount of things on the side that doesn't) so no one has really been able to help.

I have been to multiple drs and ended up at a pain clinic. The Dr. asked me to take a break from working out to see if that triggered it at all.  While I assured him it didn't, as I was having issue from before I ever started running, I took said break.  I was running about 25 miles a week, and doing some weights 3x a week before the break. I got what I believed was a miraculous steroid injection, but it only lasted 8 days. 3 months went by, and we attempted it again.  The second time, there was no relief, AND my neck got stuck a few days later.  I was still stuck at my follow up appointment.  Some manual manipulation was attempted, but no relief was found.  It came unstuck about 3 weeks later.   I decided I had enough for now. I told the Dr. I would call him when my neck was stuck, thanked him, and left.

I decided that I needed to get back to my routines.  Unfortunately , it was zero degrees out.  Really, who wants to start running outside again when it is that cold??  Not me! A few outdoor attempts were made, with horrifying disgust at myself for wanting to quit so soon.  Back to the gym I went! My gym uses little keys in the machines.  The keys store your routine and weight amounts, which I love! I have never liked bringing my little notebook along with me with my routines in it.  I got my key updated and started with my weights again.  They also have a few treadmills and ellipticals to do quick little 15 minute cardio routines.  It makes it nice and easy to get in and out.  Ideally, I would like to do my weights and some easy cardio, come home and run with my dogs.  I'm not there yet, but I will be soon!

Monday's, I am up particularly early.  Today, I made it to the gym at 4:50, did 30 minutes of weights and 15 cardio.  Tonight, I will be walk/ running on the treadmill during an episode of Downton Abby on the iPad.  I would like to run at least 3 miles. Here's to getting back in the swing of things!