I got the “you can try it out” from my therapist on Monday so, today, I tried it out.
No shoulder pain. No …other bad stuff. Just 30 minutes of good, non-stop running. Not so much as a tweak or an ache. It all felt good.
I’m going to give credit to years of running – especially the high-mileage year leading up to my layoff for today being so easy. It would seem that, I was born to run. 
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what’s been wrong with me. In doing so, the Doc eliminated some very bad stuff (MS, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes etc).
While that was going on, I began taking copious amounts of supplementation – especially magnesium and calcium (LOTS). After only a couple of weeks doing that, things started to feel better.
I also started hitting the gym (am going 4 times a week for about an hour each day).
It turns out, the gym is exactly what I need to be doing since the final diagnosis is that I’ve got some pretty bad disc degeneration in a couple of places in my spinal column and THAT was causing all kinds of other problems – the scariest of which was numbness and tingling in my hands and arms.
The latest is that I’ve nailed down the precise spot in my neck that is causing the majority of my pain and numbness and I finally have medical people (the Doc, Chiropractor/Active Release Guy and massage therapist) telling me this is SOLVEABLE. This is the first time in years that anyone has KNOWN with confidence what was wrong and has told me it could be FIXED. What a relief.
So, the plan is that I am going to continue strengthening my core, back, chest and shoulders (and everything else to a lesser degree) and let the professionals fix the rest.
I’m feeling strong and hopeful for the first time in a long time. I even look better – the strength training is adding some muscle and improving my posture. I’m actually pretty amazed how quickly my body has responded!
AND I think I’ll even be back running within a couple of weeks.
