Up Time

I ran this morning on the indoor track at the Y! I did the morning stretches and align-the-spine poses from the yoga book and some of the stretches for the back from the Miracle Ball book. I ran very slowly at first but picked up a little speed as I went. I was slower than before this "injury." There was a bit of discomfort bordering on pain but nothing that seemed dangerous or problematic. I ran for 30 minutes then repeated the yoga stretches.

It's been a rough week without running. I am impatient, grumpy, and liable to lash out if I don't get my endorphin fix. So I'm really happy to be back (so to speak).

Down Time

I hate down time!

My back has been acting up and I haven't been able to run for a week now. I usually run six days a week so to be reduced to zero is agonizing.

When I first noticed the pain Sunday morning (3/15) in my lower back, I ignored it. I got on my incline bench, did my situps, and ignored the pain. I went running and ignored the pain. But then I paid the piper. For the rest of the day, I was in excruciating pain, and it continued for the rest of the week. I tried massive doses of Ibuprofen. I tried a muscle relaxer. When I tried the heating pad, I ended up in worse pain. I couldn't sit for long. I had trouble walking. I had a hard time going up and down stairs and getting in and out of the car. By Friday I was desperate.

Then I pulled out a book I had bought many months ago, Yoga Heals Your Back by Rita Trieger. I did the morning stretches and the spine alignment poses. I felt immediate relief. I did them twice more that day and continued to do them throughout the weekend. The relief is astonishing--much better than the drugs. I'm not back to normal (occasionally my back just seems to quit and I nearly fall down), but at least I am not in agony anymore. Today I bought the Elaine Petrone's Miracle Ball Method. We'll see if that helps.

At this point, I would probably do anything to be able to get back to running. I have done a couple of long walks since my breakthrough on Friday, but I desperately need to get back to running. If I do something horrible in the next few days, I will blame it on the lack of running.

2.4 mile walk in forest

Here's an easy 2.4 mile hike we took today in the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest (a.k.a. Foxboro State Forest). I've also done it as a trail run. Easy surface for beginning trail runners.

Foxboro State Forest 2.4

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Trying out EveryTrail

We turned on EveryTrail on my iPhone about halfway through our quick walk in the Foxboro State Forest today. One bad data point in there, but otherwise pretty good. We'll try to remember to turn it on when we start next time.

Foxboro State Forest

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Wiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!

We bought a Wii and Wii Fit a few weeks ago. I haven’t bought any of the music-based games yet because I’ve been having fun with the skiing and bowling. In fact I’m very intrigued by the way that Wii Fit is forcing a rethinking of the potential gaming audience and the possibilities for games. For instance, senior centers all over the country are holding Wii bowling tournaments, as well as classes on how to use your Wii for fitness. A study is under way in Scotland to study whether the balance board can be used in helping elderly people improve their balance and prevent falls.

It occurred to me that some clever programmers, working with doctors and researchers, could design specially tailored rehabilitation programs to run on the Wii. The best design would involve a series of modules that could be enabled and configured specifically for the patient’s needs. Information from the patient’s sessions could be stored and transmitted to the supervising medical professional for review. I imagine this would be most useful in orthopedic and cardio rehab (some extra telemetry could be added for that one for even better monitoring). And there’s no reason it couldn’t be as fun as bowling or skiing or Zelda or Mario.

Gotta go. It’s my turn at bowling. My Wii Mii has a habit of tapping her foot if I take too long.

Spring fever!

There's nothing like a 50+ degree day or two in Massachusetts in March to make me get a wicked case of spring fever. I'm heading out to do my run in shorts and can't wait. Other people start cleaning their houses...I start counting my short-sleeved running shirts!

Album Cover Art

Downloading music from sites like iTunes and Rhapsody means album cover art is nearly a dying art. I remember spending hours browsing through album covers in record stores, decoding images on albums I owned, and trying to see something of the musicians' personalities in the artwork and photographs. In all my time spent with the covers, though, I don't think I ever encountered ones like these.