May

a bummer of a month

First, I want to warn anybody reading this post. It 's more of a journal entry and is not too interesting. Had a bad month and moping a little. I hope to be moving down to our beach place next month and need the change of scenery. Should have something more interesting to post in July.

I pride myself on persistence - not the George W's stay the course at all costs. When something isn't working keep searching for a solution and alter the plan. I listen to others advice but have found that their good intentions usually don't accomplish nearly as much as hard work and retrospection. I can reflect on the past in relationship to my issues better than someone else in most situations. This point of view is also a reflection of me being a loner and at times has also been a hindrance. In the end though, I go with what works for me which is solving my problems with limited outside influence.

I'm a serious runner and for those that are also obsessed with running will easily relate and for those that aren't will just wonder how and why I put myself through all these trials of miles. Ninety-nine percent of my current health issues, albeit minor problems, are all directly related to my running. Through 2010 there were few if any negatives in regards to my running and life was in balance. Now, after 18 months of injuries, I'm completely out of balance. My fanatical persistence, in this instance, ultimately hurt me. I've managed to make adjustments to my running form and types of running I do to run with injuries. Now my body is a knot of confused tendons and muscles.

It's important to keep my health in perspective in lieu of only focusing on the negatives. My health is exceptional in a general sense. I'm a healthy middle aged male with some minor issues that are having a major impact on the quality of my life at the moment. My weak links are my joints and tendons which are now chronically fatigued but for the most part I haven't causes any long term damage.

Over the last month I have had countless doctor visits and massages to no avail. I really can't remember when a doctor has helped me in the last 20 years. Doctors are great but with sports related injuries that aren't caused by trauma are hard to diagnose. Last week I had the dreaded cortisone injection into the heel. I've had about five in my lifetime on various body parts and most are only mildly painful but the doctor told me this one would hurt lots. In the end, it accomplished nothing with the exception of me screaming in pain. I told him to not mess around and jab me like a pin cushion.

I'm done with the doctors and am going to fix the underlying problem. Been told this is the route to take now for the last 18 months. I wanted to slug most the people saying it and still think it is an overused runners cliche. Most runners would fix whatever might be causing the injury(s) if they only knew what was causing their body to fall apart. Find the underlying cause – duh – and what the heck do people think I've been doing for 18 months!

My hips are extremely tight and releasing the tension might be the answer to running injury free. I now rest most the day and stretch rigorously a few times each day. I am bored out of my mind. Started biking again and that helps me get my exercise fix. I've watched more TV in the lat 10 days than I've watched over the last four years in total.

Anyhow, my pathetic post is over and back to watching another episode of “The Wire”. I haven't watched a TV series in probably five years so I could watch TV every waking hour for months without running out of new shows. Hope that doesn't become a reality.