July Runfessions- The Chicken of Depression
Well, it’s almost the end of July- which means it’s time for Marcia to open her runfessional. As always, I’ve got a few things to runfess. Let’s get started! First, I would runfess that I have YET ANOTHER… issue. Let’s not use the other “I” word quite yet. When I went to visit my sister last week I did some hilly runs and walks. I was being super careful of my shin, which had been bothering me the week prior- I didn’t want to aggravate it on those hills. I guess I was focusing so much on that shin that I failed to notice my hamstring was getting aggravated… until the last day when I had to cut my run short. I took a couple days off, tried to run yesterday, had to abort that mission and well… this is all causing me to be visited by the chicken of depression. It’s funny- everything else is going so well! I’m enjoying my leisurely summer schedule, work has been good, my son is home, both kids are happy, I’m still doing my other workouts…. it’s just that one thing- not being able to run- that’s really getting me down. Sigh. Go away, chicken! In other news, I runfess that although I can get a free massage once a month at work, I don’t get them as often as I should. This week, with my sore hamstring and also a sore lower back (left hamstring, right low back) I finally went in for a massage. When the therapist started working on me he asked “Do you have a little scoliosis?” Um… no, actually I don’t. At least not that I know of. He decided it was just that one side of my back was extremely tight. Ahem. I really don’t think it’s a good sign when your back is so tight, your massage therapist thinks you have scoliosis. On the other hand, maybe I have developed scoliosis at the age of 56. At this point, anything seems possible. One last runfession, which is actually a “strength-fession.” Once again, I’ve rage-quit my pull-up routine. Three times now I’ve started working on pull-ups, vowing that THIS TIME I’ll keep at it until I can finally do one unassisted. I work at it for months, get discouraged and finally decide that I hate it, and quit. As my son said, I have a bad relationship with pull-ups. Instead, I’m been doing some much more fun Peloton upper body strength workouts with Matty. Not that every second of these workouts is actually “fun” but I don’t hate it like I hated the pull-ups. The good news is I’m getting a more well-rounded upper body workout with chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. The bad news is, if I’m really being honest with myself, I think working on pull-ups would have given me strong back muscles which would help me more in the long run. Oh well…c’est la vie! That’s it for now… if you want to hear more about my hamstring, come back on Sunday for the Weekly Rundown (I know how excited you must be!) Do you get regular massages? Lately have you been visited more by the Bluebird of Happiness or the Chicken of Depression?