A Slight Glitch

In my dryland, that is.  No, it's not the weather--although yesterday,  May 2, it snowed most of the day here.      Fortunately or unfortunately, dryland is impervious to weather conditions.  And it's not lack of workout partners, although most of my Tuesday-Thursday dryland folks have fled the city, state or even the country in search of nice weather and relaxing vacations.  I've done dryland on my own before and I can do it solo again if necessary.  It's not even "getting close to the end of the school year" stress and general lack of enthusiasm for anything that seems like work--which dryland definitely is.

No, my dryland is suffering from "I'm old and stuff keeps malfunctioning."

This past Monday, I had completed three full weeks of dryland workouts and was getting ready to launch into the last Tuesday/Thursday efforts before the oval opens next Monday.  However, there was a slight--or not-so-slight--problem: my back, which had been bothering me ever since the first day of dryland, was now hurting to the point that I couldn't even bend over to put on my socks in the morning.  I've had low back problems before, in 2000, but this had initially felt different; higher than my previous SI joint pain, and more muscle than joint.  Now, though, I felt the return of the old SI pain as well as the muscle stuff, and so I thought was time to do something about it (besides whine, that is.  I was already doing that).

I see a very good chiropractor about twice a month to keep my neck and back functioning properly, and I happened to have an appointment with him last Monday.  I had seen him once since starting dryland, but at that time had just assumed that my back pain was delayed onset muscle soreness from starting dryland.  On Monday, though, I had him look into it, and he informed me (after poking a couple surprisingly painful spots) that my SI joint was inflamed and a muscle on the left side of my back was extremely unhappy.  He did some adjustments, prescribed deep tissue massage and said I could use my TENS unit and an NSAID if necessary, and demonstrated some stretches for the muscle.

Oh, and he said to stop the dryland.

Part of me, of course, says "damn."  I really want to do the 2007 workouts as they were written, and early May of 2007 included quite a bit of dryland.  On the other hand, I hate dryland, and I hate it more when it causes pain that lasts 24/7.  And there were only two dryland-only workouts left before the oval opens next Monday and we switch to mostly skating.  I was able to skate one day this week (on the trails) before the rain/snow started, so I did make up for missing Tuesday's dryland; I didn't manage to do anything to replace Thursday's, though, so I'm currently a workout down.  Not a huge deal, but I don't want to start down the slippery "skip the workout" slope that I found myself careening down last year.  If the weather cooperates I should be able to get in a trail skate this weekend and then three oval workouts next week, and then I'll be back on track.

I'm amazed, though, at the difference that 6 years of aging brings.  When I did these workouts in 2007 I was 43.  Now I'm 49 and, despite having worked up to significantly more challenging workouts by the 2011-12 season, I am discovering that my body is now coming up with some strenuous objections to even the 2007-level workouts.  I'm also discovering that I really need to get better at stretching, which has never been very popular with me.  Apparently it takes a lot more to sustain an athletic hobby at 49 than it did at 43.

So bring on the TENS unit and the ibuprofen, the massage and the yoga--it's time for the old lady to skate!