For Whom the Dogs Bark

No watch, easy pace

9:55 pace.  Pulled up short with exacerbated injury.

Went to the chiro this morning but nothing much to show for it.  I just have a weak lower back that I never bothered to strengthen, so when I bent over for two hours a Christmastime to put some equipment together I injured it.  Sitting all day every day at work means that it never has a chance to heal.  Until Saturday I could still run on it, in fact I ran a marathon on it.  It would actually feel better when I ran than when I sat or stood.  But in the two full weeks plus very slow ramp-up following the marathon it only got worse.  I ran OK on Friday after taking the whole week off, then went out with Wade on Saturday morning and it seized up at just under a mile and a half.  I knew I was done, so I stopped and walked home.

I am going to try one more thing.  I noticed that I am at considerably elevated pain levels when I start to carry something heavy, such as a briefcase.  But if I "walk" through it and concentrate on relaxing my back muscles I can keep going and the pain subsides.  In the past, coming off of back injuries, that is the way it was in the beginning when I would try to run; I could actually run through an initial wall of discomfort and still get an almost normal workout in, though I could never run fast of course. 

But barring a miracle in that respect, I'm skipping Boston -- again.  I still refuse to go there just to run it, though that might be a mistake.  Since I have no qualifier at this point for 2014, this might be my last chance to run it.

If that doesn't work, I will probably go see an ortho, I have a friend who is a very good one.  But I am not going to get back surgery just so I can run, have heard very few good reports about back surgery.

Bottom line, I will try to post and read your posts, but I won't be a good blogger for a while.  I sincerely hope all of your training is going well.

No progress yet, haven't run at all and my back continues to worsen.  I'm on ibuprofen now just to make it through the day (and the night).

On the bright, side, I am going to see a doctor in the morning.  My sister recommended a physiatrist, which I had never heard about before, but they are like orthopedic surgeons without a knife, they specialize in bones, joints and muscles.  She swears by them.  So I went online and found the best-rated ones in Houston, at least in theory.  On the not-so-bright side, the top guy, unfortunately, is Dr. Kevorkian.  I figured it would be no problem getting an appointment and I was right, they wanted to know if I could come in right then.  But if he pulls out a needle I am out of there.  On the other hand, if I it turns out I can never run again . . . .

I asked this same sister a hypothetical question:  since she has run it at least 3 times, if she was signed up for Boston but knew her race was going to suck wind all the way from China, would she still go?  She said absolutely, even if she had to walk it.  I'm not so sure, could any race be that great?  Anyway, I have until the second week in March to cancel my hotel room.

Gaining weight, don't know how much though, I refuse to get on the scales.

That is all.

So today I visited the good Dr. Kevorkian, whom they call "Dr. K" around his office, which seems like a great compromise to me.  He is 67 years old, skinny as a rail, friendly and talkative, and quite knowledgeable about running.  I was in so much pain this morning that my wife had to drive me.  It was weird walking into an empty reception room, kind of like being the only occupied table in a restaurant -- makes you feel like you didn't get the memo.  He was assisted by a Baylor medical student and a doctor from Romania.  The gown was inadequate, but other than that everything went well.  He let me talk and talk, I told him my whole sordid history.  (OK, I left out the Ogden Marathon, he didn't need to know everything.)  The high points are as follows:

• I cannot run until running creates absolutely no pain.  Running of course compresses the back and irritates the injury.  Makes sense.  I can walk all I want, and do elliptical and other instruments of mental torture, so long as they don't create pain.
• I have to go through 4 weeks of physical therapy, whereupon I will report back to his offices.
• Pain meds are very simple, an Ibuprofen prescription that is 4x counter strength.  (I know I can buy it and do it myself, but the prescription is only $4.)
• Strengthening my back muscles will help my condition, not necessarily cure it.
• The MRI I gave him from last summer was mildly interesting to him, but he said half the adult population has herniated disks to some degree, just not a big deal.
• Definitely nerve damage on the right side from my first back injury 4 years ago.  He was able to isolate certain areas related to S1 that have less feeling on the right side than the left.
• Hams are tight as a bow string, hips are loose.
• My future as a runner is uncertain.  This is a serious injury but not necessarily the end.  We will re-evaluate on March 19.

Some takeaways:

1. This is not the same injury as last summer.  That was a piriformis pinching the nerve that goes through it.  My hips are still loose because I have been doing the proper stretching for that.  This is a plain-vanilla old-man strained back.  I think that is a good sign.
2. Doing the right back and other core exercises may help more than Dr. K. realizes.  The reason I have these injuries, I think, is because certain muscles (hams and glutes mainly) become stronger than the muscles further up the chain (back and abs currently).  Once I fix that, I should be in pretty good shape, though it now appears cerrtain that I will never be 30 again.
3. I have a pool-free back yard.  It might be time to change that.
4. Boston 2013 is history. I'm about to cancel my hotel room, so if anybody needs one let me know.

Excuse me, it's time for my nap.

38F, 74%, NNW 5 mph.  Best running weather in history this week.

36 hours after visiting Dr. K, after taking two 800 mg doses of ibuprofen, it was like it never happened.  I mentioned going out for a run and a cabal of family, work and running buddies practically staged an intervention.