North Field Gimp Club run. Solid run, felt great. I was planning on going an hour, but didn't have my watch on me, and probably did 70 minutes. Still nothing really acted up, which is great. Ian claimed to be aiming to inflame everything as much as possible today, so that any and all problems would show up on his MRI tomorrow morning. Seems a reasonable plan.
Gym: crunches, bicycles, bridges, shrugs (for my mildly-injured shoulder), eccentric calf exercise, some back machine, and a few pull ups.
It's been a while since I did much of anything in the gym, because before my back started hurting whenever I did a crunch or arched it in any similar way. If felt good today, except for a bit of tension/soreness down in the lower back. I feel encouraged, both by finally getting in a good run and Ian's upcoming appointment with the "good" physical therapist.
Saturday, November 24 (45 minutes)
More nighttime laps of the North Field. Lower back a little bit sore. I want to start some core exercise soon. Earlier, my back wouldn't hear of it.
Book review: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (PBF Comics)
Friday, November 23 (40 minutes)
Easy post-nightfall run around the North Field. Got a cell phone from my boss. Email me if you want the number.
While I was running, they locked the gym with my wallet and keys inside. Officially, it had been closed to begin with, but at the time I started my run it was unlocked temporarily due to a basketball game. After I ran I couldn't retrieve my stuff, and no one had the keys to let me in. After some investigation I discovered that the gym is far from impenetrable, and triumphantly slunk out the back door with my bag.
Thursday, November 22 (no run)
Thanksgiving at Parkwood. Pretended to be useful by mashing squashes for Ian's pie. Ate lots of food, met Michelle's family.
Wednesday, November 21 (30 minutes)
Continued the cautious plan. North field was cold, but my feet only went half-numb so I was able to continue the run.
I read the letsrun boards today, and noticed again a phenomenon that seems nearly ubiquitous among runners (and, I'm sure, many other communities), which is that the final championship is something of a letdown.
People spend inordinate amounts of time speculating about who will win, who will move up and who will go down, who will shock us and who will deliver what we expect. It's considered a badge of honor to make good predictions, and the further away they are and the more outlandish, the better.
But the chatter on championships and victors is predominantly about the future (with plenty of talk about the distant past as well). For example, after Ryan Hall won the US Olympic Marathon Trials, there was a fair amount of gushing about how great he looked and how fast and controlled he was. But there was far more talk about what the time was "worth" on a fast course with competition, and whether Hall would go on to medal, and if he would become the greatest American marathoner ever.
We're caught up in the "things to come" rather than the "things that are". When I run an easy hour long run by myself, if I'm thinking about running, it's probably about running months or years from now and wondering how much progress I can make.
This feels wrong. You can miss a great deal of opportunity by spending too much of your time speculating on distant trophies festooning the parade of victories that time will inevitably bring marching your way. I think I do that.
Any weatherman will tell you that only the near future is real. Anything more than a week away is almost unpredictable. So we can all imagine sunny skies and cool, clean air to slice our way through months from now. But when we think about now and what's immediately at our hands, we are forced, despite our wishes, to be realistic.
Maybe, if being realistic becomes a habit, living in reality
Tuesday, November 20 (30 minutes)
11/19/07 - 11/25/07 De-Cocooning (225 minutes)
Sunday, November 25 (70 minutes)
I ran an extremely cautious 30 minutes on the north field, and seemed to be the better for it. Ian told me Mike Davies had a bad back spasm and needed six months to recover. Some internet searching confirms that it can indeed take this long to get better.
However, I am putting some faith in the feedback mechanisms of my body to let me know when my back is and isn't better. It seems to be marginally better today than yesterday, which is good enough for me.
I still don't understand what caused (or allowed) this particular injury. I had been lax in my core exercises for months before my back started hurting, so I presume that made some contribution to my susceptibility.
Also, this is not the first time I've had problems with my back. The problem is in my upper and mid back, not lower. I've pulled muscles in that region several times before. Each of those times I could trace the injury to something specific - picking up a chair (which held my sister in it), carrying my luggage through Pasadena, etc. This time, I didn't notice anything that caused the pulled muscle in my back two weeks ago. I first felt it upon waking up in the morning. It was a sharp, localized pain that fired whenever I moved my back much (which is almost all the time). It got better bit by bit over the course of days.
The spasm across my back came about a week after that, occurring suddenly while I was running. I was ten minutes into a run when, in the course of only a few seconds, I had to stop completely. I stretched for a while and tried to jog, but it was clear this was not something I could "walk off".
Erin told me that sometimes muscles simply choose to spasm, especially after an injury. There isn't much I can do about it. Self-massage and ice are practical options, which may help some. Rest seems to be effective, though. It's simply slow. At the moment I feel no rush.
Midnight Mile. Unfortunately my spasming back would not allow me to compete. I did run the mile with JR in 8:24 (slightly better than half Alex's speed).
I realized how much more interesting this sport is when you're actually competing. I think I didn't notice that while watching cross country races because I don't like them very much.
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8 comments:
You considered getting some massage for that?
I mean like, not self massage but like a 200 pound masseur smashing down on your back and getting deep into the tissue?
kangway,
no, i didn't really consider that until you suggested it. in my opinion it is not worth trying. my back is healing on its own, so massage would speed that process up at best. at worst it would hurt me, and there's a decent chance it would do nothing.
i don't have the money to throw around on stuff like that, since it's a luxury, not a need.
I suppose it is pretty expensive. Are you doing anything in terms of treating it aside from rest? I guess in my experience, immediate rest (the first week or so), usually does the most, but after that first week straight doing-nothing-resting only results in minimal improvement. I've definitely had times when I'm sure that stretching has made the injury worse, but really gentle stretching and massage after the first couple of days always help seem to loosen things up. Of course, if it seems to be getting better fastest while you rest, definitely go with that.
In regards to your post today, I've decided that I've started hating letsrun more and more, although I thought this post was great.
I realized while reading your post that my own thoughts about running have sort of changed the past few months. Ever since I've focused less on racing and running fast, and more on getting healthier and staying injury free, my running thoughts usually focus on the upcoming week, or the next two weeks. I find myself thinking a lot more about how I feel or how the last week of training has gone as opposed to "man, I'm going to be so fast in a few months!" and thinking about racing a lot.
In a way it's sort of odd because the entire trying-to-stay-injury-free thing is something I'm doing to make sure I'm looking out for my long term goals, but in a way it forces me to think only about the immediate future.
I met those guys from the letsrun post at Interhouse. The one is a former HS state champ in NM. His brother is fit as hell and somehow weighs 200 pounds (I made him get on a scale to prove it.) He claims to run barefoot on concrete and asphalt all the time without getting injured, and if he steps on glass it doesn't hurt him.
I'm with you on the "focus on here and now" thing. My plan for keep my back healthy is to continue to be cautious with my running and begin core training, and continue foam roller/tennis ball stuff.
Looks like Sunday was a really solid day of training.
Good job, keep up the good work.
i feel like thinking about the distant future is beneficial or detrimental depending on context...
GOOD: i am going to do X (realistic training) today so as to give myself the best shot at being as fast as i can be at Y future date.
BAD: i ran X today, which should be worth Y at the end of the season, which means in 5 years i should be at Z, and then i will be awesome. (or if in 5 years i am not at Z, i will hate myself and be unhappy forever)
the thing though is, i guess some people just enjoy the state of running so much that its enough for them to live in the very near future and the very realistic present training... but like, personally, its not that i don't enjoy running for the sake of running, but there's something missing to me if there's no goal or no future or no racing.
lately i kind of get through the day by telling myself that the training i do today may be painful and unsatisfying, but i'm gonna do it anyways, and not give in to the desire to overtrain because that's the best shot i have to heal and eventually be able to train and improve again. i think if there was no future, no promise of something better, if i knew beyond a doubt i'd never manage more than 30 minutes or running per day without getting hurt ever again, then i would be totally devastated and my outlook in the present would be drastically different. i *have* to think about the distant future, or i wouldn't be able to make sane decisions for my present.
if i'm doing an easy run... which is.... basically the only type of run my body will deal with these days... i do tend to think about running, and i almost always think about some far off time when i'm fabulously fast and achievining things that i or no one around me though were possible. but i like to think that the difference is that, a year ago, i would think about those things in the light of "i will be SO disappointed and hate myself if i don't achieve this, and its going to be so embarassing to be slow forever" vs. now i think about the possibilities in the future and i just think about how much i want those things, and how much i just really want a shot to try for that.
megumi you sound frustrated you need a hug *hug*
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