The One Where I Hurt Myself

I'm a total klutz. Not the kind that trips over things and spills her coffee every day, but more that I pretty much always have something inexplicable and completely random ailing me. These ailments vary from small nuisances to major, life-interfering problems, and they have historically served as a crutch and excuse for me not to exercise.

In the Fall of 2008, I hurt my back really badly. I had a herniated disc in my lower back which was compressing a nerve, causing numbness in my leg and foot in addition to crippling back and hip pain for months. I overcame the injury without surgical intervention, thanks to my physical therapist's expertise and positive attitude (and of course all the hard work that I did). That episode has caused me to be really careful about my body, but the motivation to get fit that I was hoping would appear after my injury hadn't materialized until now.

When I started running, I wasn't sure if/how it would affect my back, and I'm happy to report that it's holding up just fine.

BUT.

A week and a half after I started training, in late December 2009, I sprained my knee. I didn't do anything specific to it, it just started hurting one day during my run. I was devastated that my newfound motivation was stopped dead in its tracks, but like anything else, this has been a fantastic learning experience.

I want to write in detail another time (or times) about how my knee has healed, what I think caused the injury, and exactly what I'm doing to strengthen my weak muscles and prevent any kind of future injury or re-injury. I've started back on the program and have just finished Week 2 of Couch to 5k, which is 2 runs farther than I got last time. I'm optimistic that, although I don't expect to be pain-free, I can do this. By improving my general health through exercise, I know I can greatly reduce the number of aches, pains, and ailments that I tend to experience on an almost daily basis, and I'm so excited for that.