(G): I spent all weekend doing some sort of rehab work and I am not exaggerating when I say the struggle is real. I barely get all the stretch, strength and ice/hot foot baths done and it’s time to start again. I am beginning to think running 50-60 miles a week is way easier on the time crunch. I can only imagine what this will look like when I start running again but need to maintain all these other activities to keep my challenges in check. As we all know, the moment we start feeling better all our good habits go out the window. I don’t think I have that luxury this time around.

Two things have become apparent:
1. I am not as young as I used to be.
2. Prehab is going to be the rally cry once the rehab is done. Prehab, for those of you who don’t do silly stuff like me, is when you doing particular exercises, even when you don’t have an injury, in order to prevent one. An ounce of prevention is worth …

Aside from rehabilitation being my life, I do have good news to report. My foot is definitely better. The super sensitive pain points are way less painful and I am shooting for getting back to speed walking, at the very least, this week. I have to remember to start slow and ease into it but I have another event in 10 weeks and if I can only walk I will be there. Period.

Eagle Up is June 24 and the race title has also become sort of my motivational slogan. Swaggy J keeps telling me: Eagle Up!

Now when I find myself wanting to slack on the exercises or feeling too tired to do one more round, that’s what I say, Eagle Up! Sitting on the sidelines is exactly zero fun. I have now officially withdrawn from two races in a season that had such great promise and an awesome training start and I need to come to terms with that. I can’t jump back in where I left off even though that may be my instinct or desire. I have to pace this thing out just like I would a long run or race: patience, perseverance, and persistence. That’s it.

It’s not flashy or sexy but it gets the job done. It’s one of the hardest things for me to do, frankly, to keep my head down, not look too far ahead, and just handle the task at hand. When I can get into the groove it can be a rather meditative way to be because you are in the moment. You aren’t worried about the past (why do I have this $%^^% injury?) and you aren’t in the future (Will I be able to run again in 2017?)

See what I mean?

Breathe in, breathe out, stretch, stretch some more, add in a little more intensity and see how that goes. It’s a much simpler, less maddening way to go. You know, if I can do it. Before long I hope to be back to full throttle and it’ll be like it never happened. But it did and I hope I can at the very least say I am better for it, smarter for it, stronger for it. At least one of those.

Hope renewed. Eagle Up!

(L):  Glad G is feeling better and hopeful.  I, too, am on the mend.  Most days I can can get out of bed with much less effort.  I am also happy to report that I can put my pants on without having a wall to support my back.  It really is the little things that make a girl feel like she might find normalcy again.  Then there are the intermittent days when I wake up and I feel that ever-present kink in my back that threatens to take me out at any  moment.  These are the days I sit a little straighter, breathe a little deeper, and pray that turning to look at something doesn’t send me back to square one.

I get it.  This is no way to be.  I can’t continue to live in this space of not knowing how I will feel each morning.  I have been doing ice, heat, and some epsom salt baths when it really gets tight, which has helped.  I also think just resting it and not pushing it has been the key difference.  I have had a tendency to run on the treadmill (because it is a little easier on my back than being outside) as soon as I wake up feeling better.  This time I have just taken the rest approach.  Of course, this definitely is not helping me reach my goal of fit and fabulous.  It’s amazing how your perspective changes though as soon as something you take for granted is giving you trouble.  I never really gave much thought to my back until it started hurting.  Now the only fit I care about is how fit my back is.

I am also trying to take notice of how I am sitting.  I have a tendency, especially when I am writing, to sit in strange positions.  I curl up in a chair and type away on my laptop.  It doesn’t bother me at all until I try to unwind that pretzel position and then I can barely move.  Apparently I am no longer 25.  I can’t just hang out on the floor for hours or sit like a pretzel.

I did walk a couple times this last week, but other than that I just stretched and laid flat on my back when I could. My goal this week is to continue with the stretching and maybe try to walk a little more.  Baby steps for this war eagle.

Sunshine & Sarcasm,

Lowi & G