Well, it's a start

I ran in the mornings on vacation in the hopes of setting up a habit I could continue once we got home. I've run in the morning for a week or two in the past but it never became a habit. But this year, I'm hoping for something different.

Today was the first day and I had to get up an hour earlier than I did on vacation if I wanted to be in the office by 8:30. But I did it. I woke up at 6:15 and actually felt awake, so I got up, got dressed, did my Chilooseners, got a few sips of water and headed out the door. I walked for about 10 minutes as I always do before taking off.

I started a little fast but I felt good. I slowed down and fell into a nice pace. I expected to run somewhat slower first thing in the morning than in the late afternoon and 11:16 was about 10-20 seconds slower than usual as were the second and third miles at 10:37 and 10:17. So I'm pretty happy with that. Besides the time isn't the goal. Running in the morning, liking it, and feeling no pain afterward is the goal.

Based on those criteria, this morning rocked. Hoping to try again on Thursday.

Turning things upside down

My back is healing really nicely but still no real exercise, but I'm hoping the doctor will let me start using the stationery bike tomorrow and maybe start walking 1 mile on the track.

In the meantime, I have decided not to do decompression. The doctor doesn't think I need it either. Instead I bought an inversion table. Did some research on the Internet first and found that inversion therapy uses your own body weight as a natural form of traction. "Inversion elongates the spine by increasing the space between the vertebrae, relieving the pressure on discs, ligaments and nerve roots. Less pressure means less back pain."

It also helps improve circulation and accelerates the cleansing of blood and lymph fludis, reduces pain in overworked muscles, improves balance, strengthens ligaments and lots more.

I have had to start slowly both in time and degree of inversion. No starting upside down for me. I could barely go past level before I started to feel a little motion sick. I get motion sick pretty easily. The good news is inversion therapy may help that, too.

So I've been doing it for 5 nights now. I'm up to 10 minutes (that's all you need) at about maybe 30 or 40 degress. Apparently you don't have to do full inversion (90 degrees) to get the benefits. In fact, 60 degrees is enough.

So far so good. I really like it. My mid back was sore this evening and after 10 minutes on my inversion table, I felt much better.

Let's hope the doctor is ready to let me start exercising tomorrow. I feel good.