Score One for Independence

When I ran out of sessions with G. the Meanie, I wasn't quite ready to take over my own training just yet. I had some tools, but motivation was harder to come by sometimes. When I started working with M. the Reasonable, I found that motivation again, and by the time we ran out of sessions--shockingly, almost a year ago!--I was well on my way to being more independent in the gym. But I still went to Matt for help--having him look over the workouts I assigned myself, asking questions, running to him at the slightest sign of pain, etc.

He's been very patient. He'd say, "It's my job." I say, "Dude, there has to be a limit. You're a saint."

The last few months, I haven't had him check out my workouts, and I've noticed that I've gotten pretty good at learning--through trial and error--how to make really effective workouts, and when to tweak a not-so-great routine to make myself work harder. But the real test of my new-found independence came this week, when--cue the screeching violins--my back started to hurt.

When I first started working with Matt, I almost immediately (a couple weeks in) had a bout of sciatica that left me sweating buckets and almost crying in a bathroom stall at the gym, ten minutes before an appointment. I honestly don't know how I would have managed the rest of the day had I not had that appointment--Matt helped me stretch to relieve the pressure on the nerve. I was sore for a few days, but I could walk without weeping in pain. Then, a week or so after that, my back started hurting again. Both of these times, I relied heavily on Matt's patience and expertise to get through it.

This week started off fine. I had my first long-ish run in ages (I've been so lazy of late, so the two-and-a-half miles I did Monday morning felt fantastic), followed by a really great workout at the gym--swings, single-arm lifts, sumo lifts, and other exercises using a 25-pound disc weight. I went home feeling fantastic. At choir that evening, I noticed some lower back pain, but that happens sometimes in the hectic stand-up-sit-down-stand-up-again trend in our rehearsals. My back was twinging as I went to bed that night, but I figured a good night's sleep would cure all.

It didn't. I woke up Tuesday considerably uncomfortable. Determined to get my run in, I pulled out my massage roller (a blue stick wit three "spiked" rolling balls on it) and went to work on my hamstrings, quads, hips, glutes, and lower back. The discomfort was primarily on the left, so I focused on that, then gave some attention to the right side. Then I set off into the neighborhood for my walking warm-up--a daily jaunt of about eight-tenths of a mile. As I neared my starting point for the run, I took a deep breath, started jogging, and...

No.

My body creaked, groaned, and then screamed, "Absolutely not!" My back, my hips, everything protested. Even my knees started chiming in. And my shins--it's been so long since I've had shin splints, and my current Mizuno's are only a couple of weeks old, that I knew there was something really going on.

I walked a few miles, with the slightest hitch in my step. Not quite a limp, just a tiny irregularity to my gait. I know how my body moves these days--and this was not quite right.

Swell.

So Tuesday was a bust, but I was determined to make Wednesday better. I figured running was out, so I climbed on board the StairMaster for 15 minutes, which really helped my muscles to loosen up without a pounding, but in a way that still increased my heart rate like running does. Then I did some simple step-ups, lunges, push-ups and triceps dips, before doing some stretches Matt once showed me and calling it a day.

Today, I set out to attempt running--I had a day full of appointments, and no time to do all of those and hit the gym, so I was determined to really try running. What do you know--I made an easy (slow) mile without stopping! No pain, minimal tightness. I walked home afterwards, feeling triumphant. Because you might notice that in all of this mini-drama, not once did I go running to Matt at the gym or via text message, asking for help. I figured it out on my own, and I'm really proud of that. I may just be a trainer yet someday.