Two Steps Forward...How Many Steps Back??

The Dance of Injury Recovery...

 A week ago Wednesday I went to see a new doctor who ended up performing a diagnostic procedure on me that really worked.  I went this past Tuesday for the "real thing" (a Medial Branch Radio Frequency Neurolysis).  (I'll try to write up a post on what all that really means this week sometime.)

I was really glad the doctor managed my expectations well because if he had not I'd be very discouraged about right now.  He told me to expect a greater level of discomfort at first then it would settle down to my "normal" level for about four weeks and THEN it will feel like it did the day of the diagnostic block.

Tuesday night I was in pain.  I slept quite a bit and then went to bed early!  I woke up Wednesday unsure if I could teach Spin, but I didn't have a sub lined up so I figured I'd try.  I was a bit stiff at first, but after I got warmed up I felt GREAT and had an excellent workout with a great class. 

Thursday I had planned to run with some friends...it didn't start off well but not because of my neck/shoulder/arm.  My left leg wasn't happy.  After I stopped and stretched a bit and walked it out I was able to finish up strong.  Immediately after that one of the athletes I'm coaching was going to be doing speed work so I planned to go to the track to yell at encourage her.  I told her I didn't think I'd be able to DO the workout with her but when we got done with the warm up and a few strides, I was feeling spunky so I thought I'd see what I could do.  Let me just say it wasn't easy, but it certainly wasn't hard.  I was glad I was coaching and that wasn't my workout for the day, although it was certainly a workout nonetheless!!  My athlete made some GREAT improvements and, I think, learned some valuable information that will help her in the future.  And, I got a big ole heaping dose of encouragement in terms of how my body was feeling.

Friday morning I taught Spin and felt really good through class.  Then...(play creepy scary-movie music)...I swam.


I wish I had better news to relay.  I wish I could say how great it was to be back in the water.  I wish I could talk about how encouraged I was.

I can't.

It hurt.

Bad.

I didn't swim a lot.  I was actually coaching so it wasn't MY workout (once again).  I did that by design.  I knew if it felt GREAT there was a chance I would overdo it.  I also knew if it felt bad I would have to try to keep a positive attitude.  I didn't do the best job at that, but at least I didn't cry!  The truth is, it wasn't as bad as it has been.  I was able to swim some.  I got some excellent coaching from Eric (since he happened to walk in about the time we were finishing up).  But, the truth is also that it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be.  It certainly wasn't as good as it had been running/spinning.

However...when I woke up Saturday morning...I was ready to go race a 5K!!  :D  I had no idea what I would be capable of since I haven't been training other than the little bit of speed work Thursday (which should have kicked my butt but didn't).  I ended up running a MUCH hillier-than-expected 5K in 26:53.   They had 10 year age groups, so in the 40-49 year olds I came in 4th out of 24.  (First place was 22:07, 2nd 24:28, 3rd was 26:06.)  I ran about as hard as I was prepared to run.  It did NOT feel good, but I wasn't killing myself either.  I was talking which always tells me I'm not working as hard as I "could" but for that day it was as hard as I was going to.  Also...I didn't get any kind of warm up!  I walked out of the bathroom planning to go run a mile to get ready to race, and they made a big announcement for everyone to listen up.  They proceeded to have 15 minutes of presentations.  This race is a special race for a local man, David McKannan, who lost his battle to ALS this last year.  I wasn't about to go trot off to do a warm up when they were talking about his life and battle.

Oh...and...it started pretty much up hill!  I'm pretty darn pleased with that 26:53 time, all things considered!!

I woke up this morning and ran/walked just over six miles.  I was with an athlete who was having some issues we needed to work through otherwise I was feeling good enough I could have run the whole thing.

I had planned on riding my bike today but after church and lunch I was in a fair amount of pain so I decided to take a nap instead!  I know my mom is reading this scared to death that I'm not taking it easy enough.  Don't worry, Mother, I really am.  It's just that "easy" is relative and my "easy" doesn't look like it does for a lot of people.

I have no doubt my body will be ready to teach Spin again in the morning...and then I'm going to get back in the water for some chlorine therapy.  I'm keeping in mind the doctor said I'd be at my "normal" level of pain for a while.  That hasn't really been the case so far.  Other than when I was swimming, I haven't really had pain in my shoulder.  It's been confined to my neck.  THAT is VERY encouraging to me.  I know I've taken steps forward this week.  I can't honestly say if I've taken any back.  I may not be where I WANT to be (uh...there's 17 weeks until my Ironman)...but I'm not where I was a week ago either.

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!  :D