Bad News Friday

I left the orthpedic in tears last night.  Not just or 2 - borderline ugly crying.  In front of the doctor and nurse, I held it back but he could tell I was upset.  I knew a while back that as I was increasing mileage, my body wasn't likin' it.  However, I chose to ignore it and keep going.  I mean, training for a half marathon shouldn't be easy and you should be hurting SOMEWHAT, right?!  I've been taking vitamins, NSAIDS, glucosamine, icing, etc.

Saro also said that I should consider "retiring" from long distance running after the half we are about to run.  Retiring from running after only 1 year of it and I'm not even 30!  Mind you, he's my #1 fan and I dragged him into this with me.  He hates running.  I'm not sure if now he still hates it - I doubt it.  He's lost 30 lbs in a year from running and eating better.  So last night I told him to keep going if he wants to.  I'd want him to and I'd be there to cheer him on.  Luckily, he hasn't had any major pains during this training.

The diagnosis - sciatica caused from lumbar radiculopathy and a degenerative disc in my lower back.  In simple terms, the disc in my lower back is pushing down on my sciatic nerve and causing this horrible pain.  He examined me and some moves hurt, while others didn't.  I thought it was going to be tendinitis in my hip, but no.  The pain starts in my lower back, goes to my left hip area, twists around through my hamstring and ends at the back of my knee.  Just lovely.

I really liked the doctor.  He took his time with me, asked me a lot of questions, am I wearing the right shoes, etc. and I asked him a bazillion questions too.  He said a LOT of orthopedics are going to essentially say that running is not good.  Walking at 4.2 MPH, biking and swimming are much better.  He said what I knew in the back of my mind, but didn't want to say myself and was hoping he wouldn't say.  "Some people are not built to run."

Anyway, he gave me a 6 day anti inflammatory so I'll try that and yes, I'm going to attempt the half marathon.  I am not, however, running until then.  Unless I feel 80% better on Monday or Tuesday, I'll do a few miles.

I've worked hard the last 14 months and even more so the last 11 weeks during this training.  I'll try to run as much as I can and if I have to stop and walk, then so be it.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the Debbie Downer Friday post.  I am very glad it's Friday and that I'm off tomorrow.  I'll spend the weekend outside.  It's supposed to be in the high 60s here in Jersey.