Ofer

Well, my visit to Dr. Gilbert last night was quite interesting. I gave him the rundown on what all had been going on and he told me that he was gonna do some tests on the muscles around my hips/pelvis and would be surprised if I passed more than two of them. Since the last couple times I'd been in there I'd passed them with no problem at all and I was logging decent mileage up until a few days ago, I laughed him off and said I'd take his bet and thought I'd get a perfect score. I then proceeded to go 0 for 6. Ouch! It's still a little hard to believe I was that messed up and he said that even he was surprised by how bad it was, but there's no denying that I was pathetically weak. He did some adjustments and worked on a few muscles and by the end I was 6 for 6. It still amazes me how with a few adjustments he can make you go from not being able to do a simple test to being able to do it easily, but it definitely happens (and I'm a total skeptic). Anyway, he said that the muscles, tendons, and soft tissue around my pelvis were probably pretty irritated and might take a while to settle down, so he recommended I lay off running for a few more days then come back to see him again on Thursday. He said if the adjustments hold, then he would say I could try to run on Friday. However, if they don't hold even with me not running, then I might have an even bigger issue.

Now, all that said, here's the million dollar question. Did the dog incident really have that much to do with this? My guess is that it didn't and only served as the straw that broke the camel's back. Dr. Gilbert actually seemed pretty frustrated and gave me a lecture on how I was getting better structurally to the point where I was retaining strength between adjustments but then got overconfident and quit coming in before my body had time to build up to a point where it would hold me in alignment long term. To a certain extent I would expect him to say that, but he's probably right.

In retrospect, my last visit to him was September 25th, so almost 3 months ago. Additionally, when I had some back/butt problems around that same time, I gave up on my core work, not knowing whether or not it was helping or hurting. Based on this new info and my past history, I'd say that it might have been aggravating an existing condition but it was not the cause of the problem and something I should have stuck with in order to help my body hold itself in alignment. Live and learn.

All that said, I think I know what I have to do. I may not like it, but if I'm ever going to run competitively again, I'm just going to have to commit to getting adjusted every 2-4 weeks (more at first and less later) and get back to core work and not quit. The key is being very diligent and not getting lazy or overconfident when I'm feeling ok, while at the same time not overdoing it to the point where it becomes counter productive. I actually resumed core work over the weekend, and I have a pretty good routine of planks, crunches, back extensions, and push-ups that only takes 15 min to complete and hits all the major stabilizers including my abs, back, obliques, and hip muscles. I'm going to replace some of the AI stretching and other things that I've been doing (that obviously haven't worked) with that routine and see what happens. What it all boils down to is I just want to run, but in order to be able to do that, I'm gonna have to be willing to do other things. It stinks, but it's part of it, especially as you get older.

Anyway, that's my long-winded post about my current situation. I know it sounds like a broken record, from the problems to what I say I'm gonna do about them, and I'm really frustrated by the whole thing, especially my own stupidity. However, maybe one of these days I'll learn my lesson and/or figure out something that will work and I'll finally be able to stay at it. I know I can still run well if I can remain healthy, so I don't want to give up just yet. In the meantime, I'll go back to getting my money out of the ultrasound machine I purchased back in the summer. I hadn't used it in a while, but I fired that sucker up last night and again this morning. I figure if I have soft tissue injured that's a great way to speed the healing. Hopefully I'll be back on the road before all the Christmas get-togethers start. Otherwise all the eating I'm bound to do will put me at a post-college high for weight. 140's here I come - ha, ha.