Charlie Brown On Skates

Been awhile since I posted and a lot has happened. First, we had our first outdoor practices last weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I had been looking forward to that day for 6 months, it’s been a long winter. It was great to see some faces I hadn’t seen in a long time. We had great weather and just skating with the team outdoors again was awesome.

I also got the results of my MRI, and discussed it with the doctor. As I have mentioned, I’ve been dealing with a lot of back pain while skating. Well, it turns out I have no less than 3 bulging discs and 2 herniated discs. I had a feeling the news wasn’t going to be good, but I didn’t quite expect that many issues.

So practice kind of lost its luster a bit due to the pain and the news. Sunday I only skated a half hour, then did some of my exercises and stretching. In talking it over with my doctor, we’ve decided to give this 6 months - the outdoor season - to see if therapy and exercises can improve my condition. I’ll be doing all I can to use my legs and abdominals as much as possible while skating.

I’m also in the process of looking for a new job, which has been going slow. And truth be told, the last couple weeks I’ve been kind of feeling sorry for myself a bit, and getting back into old bad habits of eating and skipping workouts - so that is going to stop immediately.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting back into my morning training routine in addition to doing my back exercises. I’ll be working on training myself to skate in the best way possible for my back. It’s the only shot I have if I want to stay in this sport, which I have really grown to love. It’s something I feel like I can actually be pretty good at, if given the chance.

If at the end of the season things are not better, the doc has advised taking 6 months off (essentially taking off the winter) and then see what happens. Today I feel about average, but I know I’m not doing all I can to make things better, and I don’t want to have to look back and say I didn’t do everything I could to stay in this sport.

Time to set the alarm and get some sleep! Looks like a rainy week too, so there won’t be much skating for awhile anyway, so it’s time to get some good workouts down, and we’ll see if things improve.