Welcome to October – the month of Halloween, the true ushering in of Autumn, all of the pumpkin (please make it stop, I’m just not a fan of the pumpkin onslaught) and the revisitation of my back injury.  This post could have been titled Oops, I Did It Again but I’m pretty sure that I may have post titled with that in the past.

Image: Athenna.com – I like the 80’s Pac Man monster.

I’ve reinjured my back so many times and whined about it incessantly (like here and here and here) that I’m very sure you all are all sick of hearing it.  But I should have seen this one coming – I’ve been active but inconsistent about my activity.  I don’t normally weigh myself but when I went to the doctor a few weeks ago, I noticed that I had put on a few pounds (which makes a huge difference when you’re only 5′ 1″) and I’ve paid little or not attention to my core strength.  In addition, I’ve finally been convinced that spinning is not the friend of those with injured back.

I love indoor cycling but the the last two times I’ve injured myself, it’s been due to spinning.  I also believe that the spin shoes I bought a year and a half ago are cursed.  The day these shoes arrived (after I purchased them on eBay), I injured myself in a spin class.

Can shoes be cursed?

After the injury, I put the shoes on a high shelf in my closet and didn’t take them down until about a month ago.  Yesterday, I put them on and said to myself that I needed to put clips on them (cheap on eBay because they had no clips) because I’d been spinning regularly and then in spin class yesterday, I felt a small twinge of pain – you know the pain that kind of vibrates through you?  It was a tiny twinge so I pulled back my effort, engaged my core muscles a little bit more but didn’t stop until the class was over.

I didn’t listen to the little things – Image: OkyDay

I thought the little twinge was a sign to pull back or I would get injured NOT that I already was injured.  By the time I got home (after finishing the 50 minute class and going grocery shopping, of course), my right lower back was tender, achy and giving me all of the signs that I was indeed injured and not on my way to injury as I believed.

So now I’m here – icing my back off and on for the next 48-72 hours and slowly incorporating some active recovery.

I’m ridiculously pissed off (at myself) but I’ve finally realized that I need to go on a break with spinning for awhile.   I’ll be going back to my Physical Therapy exercises, possibly going to the pool for some water core work and recommitting to Pilates (at least 3x/week), in addition to putting some strength work into my routine.  My WundaBar Pilates 60 Day Challenge last year showed me the power of Pilates work for core strength and although I’ve been doing some core work, it’s obviously not been enough (or consistent).

As much as I keep thinking that I’ve worked past this back injury in the past, deep down, I know that I haven’t.  I need to make some very big changes in my body if I want to continue to be active for the long haul.  I’m certain that I’ll be in running shape for the Run Hard Rock Cafe 5K in November but being healthy long term is the overall goal.  I’ll be 45 on my next birthday and I’m not quite ready to be put out to pasture in terms of my fitness activity level.

In the meantime, I’m going to try not to be bitter but it’s pretty likely this will be closer to the truth.

I’ll keep you up to date with my recovery progress but I’m open to core strengthening exercise recommendations so feel free to let me know your tips in the comments.

Also, if you’re interested in some cycling shoes (that may or may not be cursed, size 7, purchased for $50), let me know as well.