The Saga Continues

If you remember my lawn mowing saga from the other day, you probably remember how proud I was of myself. I was over the moon to add "mowed the lawn" to my wifely resume. I should have known better than to speak so soon. Since nothing in my life is ever simple, I don't know why I thought this would be. Let me back up. . .

I failed to mention the attributes of our yard. It's fairly small (thanks DR Horton!) and mostly flat (thanks former farm land!), but does have a bit of a dip where it meets the farm. Nothing too significant, but it definitely added another dimension, and more work, to my lawn mowing experience. I started by pushing the mower down the hill, then pulling it back up. Well, about the fourth or fifth time I did this, I slipped and the lawn mower went straight into the fence. No need to worry, I still have all my fingers and toes, but it was a bit annoying. I got the mower and continued with my work.

Fast forward to Saturday morning when I was on the treadmill. I had just gotten into a groove with my run while Don Draper (LOVE me some Mad Men!) was off wrecking more havoc on his marriage, when I felt a sudden twinge in the top of my leg. Actually, twinge would be an inappropriate word. More like, as excruciating as the needle from my kidney biopsy pain in the top of my leg. I hop off the treadmill pretty quickly and attempt to shake it out. When that doesn't do anything, I started stretching. Alas, nothing was working and I tossed in the towel on my workout.

I hobbled back into the house and called The Momma (have I mentioned how terribly convenient it is to have a nurse for a momma?!) who told me to lay low. Bah humbug, I had plans! Anywho, I laid low the rest of the day in hopes that it would go away. By that afternoon the pain had gotten so bad I was dragging my leg behind me. Called The Momma again and she diagnosed it as a pulled muscle. A what?!? A pulled muscle, most likely from mowing the lawn, that was aggravated by my running.

I was not too pleased to hear this answer, especially after I did some research (thank you, WebMD) and learned this would put me on the sidelines of running for a few weeks. Momma said it's likely that not only is the prednisone for my kidneys thinning my bones, but it's probably doing something to my muscles too. Awesome. The fun never ends!

Needless to say, I'm a little bummed. I was planning on starting to train for a 10K in the next few weeks and completed another 5K at the end of the month. As much as I don't want to believe it, it's probably better to be safe than sorry and to take it easy the next few weeks. I found some stretches to do to strengthen the area, but until then I'm out of commission. All the more reason to never mow the lawn again;-)

Any one else ever had something like this? I'd love to hear suggestions on exercises to work around this!