Typically by now I've wrote down some goals, decided on some races, booked some hotels, and began by planning for the races I'd like to do within the year. I had even thought I'd train for another full ironman. However, this year, I'm still sitting and pondering.... what can I do.... what will I be able to do! Right now there is NO way I could train for an ironman or a marathon.....
I'm still having major issues with my hip / lower back. I'm now gotten 3 shots, done lots of PT and nothing seems to be working. I'll lay off running for a week to 2 weeks and think it's getting better, but as soon as I try to run the horrible pain is back. I'm so depressed. Or maybe I should say aggravated! I've had issues over the years with my DDD in my L4-5 and SI joint, but it usually doesn't last this long. So I'm having a new MRI done this week. It's been a couple of years since they did one so the doc says that is the next step to truly see what is going on.
So I guess you can say my goal is to try to get healthy in 2023. I had already signed up for 3 races... Big Beach Half marathon in January, Mercedes marathon in February, & Little Rock marathon in March before the end of 2022. I'm really, really sad about Little Rock if it doesn't happen! It's a bucket list race that I haven't done and 3 of us signed up to do it this year. I really want to do it badly. I've done Mercedes and only signed up to do it with a friend that hasn't done the race before so I won't be too upset to miss it. I had thought back in November / December that I just had a little bursitis and it would go away so I signed up for these 3 races and made plans with my girls for a girls weekend for each. Now it looks like I may be going as the cheerleader instead of the runner. 😕
I'm truly sad about this and in a bad funk. I've been reading on the internet and if it comes down to me having surgery on my lower back to fix what's hitting my nerve causing this pain...... I could be down up to 6 months with no running. 😫😥 So I'm writing this post to remind myself one day..... I was down but I didn't stay down!
I have started back swimming. I only swam the first half of 2022 when I was getting ready for the half ironman in May and after that I mainly focused on running my marathons and did very, very little bike riding and no swimming. It feels good to be back in a routine of going to the pool prior to work. Maybe I can continue this while trying to heal this lower back/hip issue. 🙏🙏🙏 The bike causes some pain, but nothing like the running does so I've biked on my stationary bike the last few weeks.
Life often throws us lemons.... we must decide what we will do with those lemons....
