Time flies when you are having fun
Or super busy.. The last few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of activity and I have not had adequate time or internet set up at home to be able to write throughout most of last month. My boyfriend and I have now moved and settled into the new place, and have slowly been readjusting my schedule, routines and work/life balance to suit this new phase. I'm happy in my new neighbourhood. I'm now living abit closer to most of my friends and family, however I am still in a good position to drive into work relatively stress free, and I am also near some nice trails for training and an area that gives its tree lined streets a beautiful colour during bright autumn mornings. The universe seems to have been smiling on us and this recent decision for a change up.
Getting all the pieces of the puzzle to fit.
Training?
I have been throwing together bits and pieces of my training plan, managing to do most of the cycling, swimming and non impact sessions, however I have been struggling with the impact aspects of the training schedule. This has been largely due to the ongoing and niggling lower back pain that I have been dealing with since that stupid gate fell on me whilst still in Mordialloc over 6 weeks earlier.
I have ventured out on a couple of short runs on the local trails, which by the way are awesome and very picturesque, however I have been battling with this niggling back pain. Recently I've also felt some weird numbness and cold patches in my upper leg that made me start to question what is actually going on. For a health practitioner that tries to educate people regularly on being better attuned to their own bodies and acting on health concerns. In this instance, I have been guilty of not living by what I preach to others. I have continually ignored it, thinking that I was dealing with a muscular injury in the right side of my lower back that was not getting ample opportunity to heal due to how busy I have been.
My boyfriend happened to lightly press on the sore lower right back area during a stretching session that he was helping me with and promptly reminded me that such a high degree of pain from light touch in this area is a fair sign that something more serious is going on, especially with the additional neurological symptoms that have popped up recently. Hmmm. Good point I thought. Turns out that he hit the nail on the head.
A picture speaks a thousand words
A CT scan has determined that I have a fracture, albeit healing, but still a fracture on the right side of my sacrum (a bone at the bottom of the spine). This has been responsible for the ongoing pain and the associated inflammation accounts for my symptoms, including some of the neurological weirdness. Its funny how some things seem to all make sense so suddenly when you have the accurate information in front of you, the pieces suddenly fit into the puzzle very easily and appear quite obvious. Hmmm, on paper it does sound worse than it actually is though. It is a stable fracture, and not displaced. This means I can safely move around without risking something more serious happening.
My treatment involves avoiding high impact activities for another 2-3 weeks and until full healing has occurred and I am symptom free once more. The good news is that I am not discounted from swimming, my gym work, and some of the cycling. I still have time to execute adequate training in my plan, which is the advantage of a long range goal. All is not lost in the training regime thanks to having three disciplines, allowing me some flexibility in what I can get my body to do.
Most importantly, I have some new gear that needs to be used haha. Priorities. I have a girly new Garmin watch (I destroyed my other one) for running and swimming, and a new bike computer to play with too.
I am also a member again back at the old gym and swimming pool that I used to go to probably over a decade ago. I feel at home there and am in my comfort zone. With some significant tweaking to my training during recovery, a close medical eye on me, and the right strength and conditioning tips and progress, all is not lost. I refuse to be defeated by my own body.. and that bloody gate.
Love being back swimming in this 50m heated outdoor pool
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