August 17, 2012 – 3.03 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

This was a wonderfully victorious run. I have been dealing with bulging disc issues. My previous 3-Mile sprint was the last straw and my back just….. Gave up. The pain was immediate, excruciating and appeared to come out of no where.

That is not exactly true. I first tweaked my hip on a pretty intense trail run several weeks ago and never let myself recover completely. It started out with sciatic pain. Compensating for it during subsequent runs, swiftly moved the pain to my back. About a week and a half of this twisted form was all my 40-year-old frame could take.

After popping many Ibuprofen gel caps, I finally had to admit that I really messed myself up and couldn’t fix it on my own. I needed to see a doctor to get myself back to normal. Fortunately, just about everyone in my office goes to the same chiropractor and he’s right next door to our building. So I made an appointment and went to see Dr. Ed.

My biggest fear was that he would tell me that running was not for me and I would have to find another means to get my sweat on.

This is a big problem for me, as I believe running is the only real sport. No disrespect to all those wonderful, swimming, tumbling, racketing, throwing, shooting and diving Olympians. They all have my love and respect but frankly, Track & Field, the Marathon, and even that ridiculous Steeple Chase were the only things that held my attention. Although, honorable mention goes to Women’s Beach Volleyball. Yowza!

After seeing the doctor, I was told that I was twisted up pretty good and it would take a round of treatments to set me straight again. Being a sports doctor, he was just as eager to get me back into my running shoes, but in the meantime, I would have to do something else.

I had agreed to join a team for the Ventura County Dirty Girl Mud Run this November, so I figured swimming as well as other aquatic exercise was a good option to work into my cross training. So I headed to the nearest public pool and purchased a punch pass:

This is a washed out picture of me after an hour of swimming laps and water jogging. Feeling good:

But it wasn’t just swimming and water jogging. Dr. Ed also approved of yoga. This was not my favorite but it helped a great deal:

I spent the next two weeks, swimming, doing yoga and spending time with the fam. It was a great time.:

I made several loaves of Amish Friendship Bread. Yum!:

I went to see Michael Firestone in concert. He’s the best Michael Jackson impersonator around. He was great:

Spending time with my girl. She's cute!:

Chris and I took the kids to Hurricane Harbor. That was awesome!:

This is me and my Beloved. Sweet!:

Now I am back and ready to (slowly and easily) roll!!! I will continue on with the swimming and as much of the yoga as I can stand. Cross training is never a bad idea. Taking it easy was rough but it reminded me of how grateful I am to be strong and healthy. Injury sucks but I have so much respect for my body and how wonderfully and fearfully made it is. God is so good and He made our bodies so perfectly. I’m so glad I get to run around in this one. It’s a good one.