Nope, not pregnant.  Had you thinking there for a minute though, right?

I couldn’t help but sing the 1982’s The Gap Band song “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” in my head after hearing the devastating news from my orthopedist that I will not be running the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon on June 2nd.

The doctor informed me that I have 2 compressed discs (L4/L5 and L5/S1) that are irritating adjacent nerves.  Since running is jarring for the back, I will not be able to do any running at all until my core gets strong enough to protect these nerves from being further irritated.

Fitness, #13in2013

I get 2 out of 3…
Image: GanMed64

I’ve been really upset about this news – not just because I wanted to go back to San Diego and finally have a good run in that city after my full 26.2 experience in 1999 but because I planned to run it with friends, for friends fighting cancer and because Wild Boy was excited to run the ING KIDS race.

I have an email into the RnR Race Director to see if I can defer until next year but I’m really, really disappointed.  This is the 4th half marathon in 4 years that I’ve had to pull out of due to injury.  I’m frustrated and sort of embarrassed because I pledged to run (in my heart and publicly on this blog) and now I can’t…again.

 

I will say that I’ve been a bit distracted by all the planning going on for Durandemonium 2013.  It’s very exciting to a part of this event but this race (and the training) was definitely going to be a fitness highlight for me.

To add a little to the blow, I’m also restricted from returning to indoor cycling.  I have been told that I can try outdoor cycling because there are different body mechanics required to hold up an outdoor bicycle vs an indoor one.  I’ve tucked the idea away for now.

My Pilates physical therapy has been renewed so it looks like I’ll be making new friends with these torture devices:

I’m desperately trying not to whine about this predicament (and failing miserably) and will put my full effort into making my core a real “powerhouse” (I’m practicing my Pilates speak already).

I’m hoping that maybe a side benefit of all this core work is that maybe I’ll be able to wear a bikini one day in the future.  Here’s hoping!