About Exercise-Keep Your Clothes On

This 40-year old body is prone to injury and thwarted a goal to run 10 miles this weekend. Brief ailment history: I broke my left ankle 2 years ago (wish I would have investigated non-surgical alternatives), sprained the same ankle in March, then twisted a few vertebrae in my lower back out of alignment in June and was unable to walk for a few days.

Despite these injuries, as of three weeks ago, I was running on tired shoes and not stretching thoroughly prior to runs. StUpId! I'm hoping my current injury is a mild case of shin splints or Medial Tibial Traction Periostitis (MTTP). I mentioned it to my chiropractor on Thursday and he said if it is MTTP, there is adjustment for this. He is awesome with extremities! Otherwise, it may be a stress fracture.

Either way, I think I'll be hanging up my running shoes for 3-8 weeks. This is NOT going to be easy--I love the intensity and enjoy the runner's high. I thought I would try replacing the runs with non-weight bearing exercises until my shin heals.

From my apartment, there is a beautiful one-mile natural corridor along a river to a spring-fed quarry. Not in accordance with the laws of our fine city, one can experience the thrill of jumping off the limestone cliffs and go for a swim (au naturale, of course) . Unfamiliar with open water swimming, for now, I just want to get use to swimming in this environment with a swimsuit on. At this point, its worth mentioning the back injury I referred to earlier was due to my first nude yoga experience. Please laugh because I am! FYI: It was a spontaneous decision and I was alone. Women: Be wary of the nude cobra! If you're going to fully extend the arms, remember, support the spine with your abdominal's and dig in the thighs (yum!).
Namaste!