Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Inner Athlete - Nice to see her again!

Yesterday I went to see a Chiropractor for the first time in probably 5 years. My back has been killing me and there is a spot that is not straight and needs to be realigned. Thankfully my insurance covers 100% after my co-pay and I don't need a referral. Thank Goodness! I made an appointment yesterday as fast as I could when I found that out.

I was supposed to work out at 4pm yesterday and run 3 miles. As the day went by and my back was still hurting I decided that running before I went to the doctor probably wasn't the smartest idea and that I would do it afterwards, plus I wanted to talk to him to make sure that I wasn't hurting myself by running. By the time I got there it felt better to stand than sit. He did an exam and decided because there was one soft spot that unbelievably painful for him to touch that he wouldn't align me that evening but instead take an X-ray, get the results this morning and have me come back tonight to get realigned if everything checks out okay. He also discovered that I have what I call "funny hips". They completely sublux (pop basically completely out and in) so since the X-ray was my lower back he got my hips too in the picture to make sure there was nothing connected between the hips and lower back pain.

Then I felt like I was back in the training room at Texas A&M before practice doing stem and message and stretches to help out with the pain and tension in my back. It was great because I felt so much better when I left. I discussed with him that I am training for a 15K and have a 5 mile run on the 28th too. I was supposed to run that evening 3 miles and wondered if I could still do that or if I should take a break day. He told me that I should be okay to run just to take it easy. If I felt any pain to stop immediately (walk back home if I was running or if on a treadmill drop to running to cool down and get off).

I got into my car and drove towards the YMCA which I had to pass to get home from where I was. The probably 5 minutes in my car to the YMCA I had a whole conversation with myself trying to convince myself that I should take the evening off. I then argued back that no I would be fine; you would have thought it was an old married couple fighting. Ultimately my inner athlete won and I pulled into the YMCA. I changed and hopped on the treadmill. I was suppose to run 3 miles yesterday and then on Thursday I drop to 2 miles with strength work. Well I decided that I would "take it easy" and only run 2.5 miles and do a 0.25 warm-up and down totaling 3 miles and in return I would up Thursday to 2.5 miles so I still get the total miles needed this week in. Compromise! I make a good married couple! hehe! It was difficult and hot in there, but I powered through and got in my miles. Afterwards I felt great and even treated myself to Chipotle for dinner. YUMM-O!

I really was proud that my inner athlete came out and my motivation prevailed. I have been struggling with that lately and it was nice to see that I made the decision that I knew I should make without anyone's help. I know that if I would have gone home I would have regretted that decision and probably beaten myself up a little bit for it. It was definitely great to see that athlete side of me take control once again. I have miss her!




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