Monday, March 4, 2019

Journey to Kona Day 30: Back Pain

I was moving a box yesterday and tweaked my back.  This has been a pretty constant issue for me since I herniated my L5-S1 over 20 years ago.  Despite a little soreness, and the feeling that my back could easily seize up more, I rode my bike on my indoor trainer for nearly 2 hours today (an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening), ran a mile (keeping my daily running streak alive), and swam for nearly an hour.  Normally, swimming helps my back, but I did some hard 50’s and a 100 and pushing off the wall may have tweaked my back a little more than it already was.  Lesson learned, maybe.  

I’m always reminded that I tweaked my back three days before Ironman Chattanooga in 2014 (http://wassdoc.blogspot.com/2014/), and had my PR that day.  The bottom line is that I didn’t let my back issues impact my day today.  I got in nearly three hours of training, spent a good portion of my day with my wife as we prepare to move to our new house, and even swept our yard this morning!  


I often tell people that I’m fitter than I’ve ever been in my life, nearing the age of 60, but I have more aches and pains than I’ve ever had.  It may be an irony of getting older, or a reminder that our bodies are never perfect.  In many ways this is what makes the ironman journey the perfect metaphor for life.  We have our goals.  We live our journey. We persevere. My back is just a reminder of the vagaries of the journey that I’m on.  

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