October progress report

Woops, I almost forgot to do an update this month! :O I guess that’s good news, right?

What’s Going On?

Recovery is going really really really really (etc etc) well.  I still have pain most days, but it’s a very subtle burning or sore feeling, not even terribly noticeable.  It’s at the point where distraction often makes it go away almost completely — if I’m involved in a good book or movie or conversation, I generally don’t notice the pain at all.

To that end, and I hope this doesn’t sound totally New Age-y, I’ve started doing a 30-day workbook on the Mind-Body Connection.  Here’s a link if anyone’s interested; the gist is that chronic pain can be caused/exacerbated by stress or by emotions that the brain doesn’t feel like dealing with.  This really rang a bell for me as my anxiety issues are the same way — my brain will often pull bullshit like, “hey, I don’t want to think about this deadline for work; instead I’ll ramp up your anxiety so that your chest hurts and you think you’re having a heart attack”.  So it makes perfect sense to me that the brain would also say, “hey, I don’t want to think about XYZ, so, here, have some back pain instead”.

Anyway, I’m on Day 5 of 30 of that workbook and I think it’s helping already, if for no other reason than that it makes it easier for me to deal (mentally) with the pain that I still do get.

Exercise.

• Still doing three 20-second planks every night (“normal” forearm ones, then side planks on each side).
• My weekly training with Melinda continues to go very well.  We’ve been working together for about six weeks now and I’ve never had a flare up or any kind of problem afterwards.  This past week, we started incorporating some light weights — a 5lb weight bar for doing straight leg deadlifts, and 5lb dumbbells for doing single leg deadlifts.  Everything else remains active stretching, bodyweight work, core work, etc.

Motorcycling.

• As evidenced in this journal, the motorcycling is going really well! Once I got over that 80 mile flare up, things are pretty much back to normal.   I don’t have any issues at all after yesterday’s 17-mile ride, and I’m planning on riding to Tuesday’s Sport-Touring.net dinner (about 6 miles each way).
• I have hopes that maybe Peter and I can ride to Half Moon Bay for an overnight ride over Thanksgiving break — obviously we’ll play that by ear, but it would be fun.  I bet I could even talk him into eating at Cameron’s and getting massages.  Rough life!

So that’s what’s going on.  I see my back doctor for a checkup tomorrow, but I’m not expecting anything other than “glad things are improving; see you in another 4 months”.