The first 2 weeks of this thing, I sat. Really didn’t do much more aside from limping strolls to the store or post office.  A week ago last Sunday, all the ouch was gone and I could walk normally…well, normal but feeling mental about it: taking fragile, measured steps, hyper-aware of how each foot-fall felt.  What a headtrip.  Of course, it could have had an actual physical basis, maybe limping around for a couple weeks leaves a vestige of instability, but I suspect it was partly me being kooky in the head.

Last Wednesday’s stroll to the MRI was the farthest I’d walked in 2 weeks, the hospital being 2.75 miles roundtrip. I made the trip 3 days in-a-row thanks to picking up the disc and then the next day, the results.  The mental thing (or what I perceived to be mental) dissipated more each day and by Friday, my legs were mine again. (probably helped by knowing where I stood finally after the doctor visit)

The doc said I could walk as long as it didn’t hurt, so every day I’ve been enjoying a stroll in the park.  This has made the waiting game about a trillion times better, getting to enjoy the fall colors and sneaking in some people-watching.  It’s a pretty great consolation prize.

I’ve been going for 3-4 miles (4 takes me around an hour or so) which is also taking the edge off me becoming a porker from inactivity.  The food thing isn’t too bad, I’ve gained a couple pounds and this included two junk-food I’m-a-pathetic-loser-sniff-sniff days.

Back to the walks…  It’s funny that while there’s a perfectly good sidewalk on the way to the park, I always stroll on the road between the parked cars and the bike lane, because that’s my running trajectory.  And my wrist has only just lost its magnetic quality that makes me want to look at it whenever I pass a mile marker.  I can still feel the Garmin pull, but somehow manage not to follow through.  Makes me smile, though.

As far as interactions, yesterday, a grizzled character from the park with whom I’ve exchanged nods and smiles for over 2 years, though have never spoken a word to (white-haired shirtless kerchief guy for my local friends, the bigger one [because we have 2 in our park]), was stretching as I walked by.  Took him a sec to realize it was me, then he asked how I was doing and we had a short but friendly conversation.  It’s wild how you can pass people for that long and they become “real” in an instant just by having a voice and a few facial expressions.

Today, I was downright beggarly.  I’m not recognized easily with my hair down and in civilian clothes, walking, so when I passed this one walker who always exchanges Hi’s with me, I pretty much had to yell across the path “HEY THERE” just to get a hello.  Lol.  I was kinda needy this morning.

The Next 9 Days
I’m finally gonna start doing my Pilates DVD today, shame on me for waiting but I haven’t felt like rolling around on the floor.  I don’t have any time to lose though, need to shore up my muscles before I get out there again.

The other thing is that the muscle adhesions the ART lady worked on, in the area where this whole thing started, are still there.  After my tennis-ball self-mauling groin incident, I’ve been really nervous about doing any self PT and laid off completely for a week.  I just resumed but in a much lighter way, no more vigorous “get thee demons out of my body!”, more like a gentle coaxing.

I’m also using the regular foam roller for the main deal, the trigger-point one only sparingly.  If I feel like there’s still crunchy stuff when I start back to running, I’ll go to the ART lady again for one more session.

An Annoying Thing
…is looking up race results from the races I missed while injured.  This’ll sound assholey (woulda coulda shoulda) but I would have won first AG in all of them, even that major Bridge 10k race last weekend.  I’m not seriously bummed but it would have been a fun streak.

If I did want to get bummed, I’d add up the race fees I paid of the all those DNSs, but I’m not gonna.  It’s all funny anyway, no matter how aggravating this period has been, I can’t not see the humor in it.

A Supremely Sweet Thing
An online friend whose posts I’ve always enjoyed (he’s got that funny/smart thing going on) but whom I don’t even know that well, did something that totally blew me away; he sent me an iTunes gift certificate so I’d have some new tunes when I get back on the road.  It made me tear up when I received it, so unexpected and touching.  Thanks again G, that was a super-dude move.

And that’s it for now.  Lots and lots of words to describe how nothing’s going on.  How does she do it?    Have a great day, folks.

10 Responses to “A View From The Shelf”