Dufisthenics

So if you have been a regular reader of this blog you will know that 2014 has been a very frustrating year for me health/fitness wise.

For many years my advancing age had not meant retarding performance in the gym or on the road.  I got accustomed to slow and steady progress where personal bests were set on a pretty regular basis.  Well that streak ended definitively and abruptly in 2014. I crested the hill and felt I was going downward in a car with bad brakes.

For most of the year it feels like have been injured or sick.  In reality a big part of it is being injured from being sick after my long GI ailment in April.   After the nearly 10 days of unsettled bathroom visits my body has never fully recovered.  I still haven’t seen a doctor about the changes after I was sick although I probably should have.

It seems almost appropriate I am closing out this year once again injured and in a pretty debilitating manner.  I would best describe my injury as back spasms where a slight move in the wrong direction can make me uncontrollably yell out in pain as pain flashes out from below my right shoulder blade.

I don’t recall ever having this sort of back pain before but I know how I got it.  I spent two days hunched over, pressing a paint roller attached to a four foot pole into the ground a couple thousand times as part of repainting my pool deck the past few days.  The deck turned out nice but the back pain is awful.

Since I had no organized exercise since Christmas Eve I felt I HAD to go to the gym despite not being able to walk more than a few steps without feeling the sharp pain.  I sat my ass down on the recumbent bike and slogged through a half hour.  I was hoping that getting my body temperature elevated would perhaps loosen up my back.  Unfortunately as soon as I tried to get up I was literally brought to my knee by more searing pain.

From a wellness perspective I can hardly wait to kick 2014 out the door and only hope I start traveling in a more upward direction again in 2015.

Today’s Workout

30 minutes recumbent bike – 7.41 miles covered