Two Steps Forward, One Step, Ugh, My Aching Back!

This week of running was not so bad after last week's vacation week. Well, not until this morning at least. I was halfway into a 45 minute run this morning when I stopped by a restroom in Sycamore Canyon near the Chumash Center. Without getting into too much detail, I was intrigued by the fact that there were three tiny frogs literally about the size of Oreo cookies camped out underneath the uh, toilet seat. (Yes, I know, too much information.)

On occasion I've seen little froggies back in that area, assumedly looking for water after all the ponds dry up in early Summer. What better place to find water then, uh, the men's toilet bowl. But this is the first time in my life I've seen 3 froggies camped out on a toilet.

I'm an animal lover so I didn't want to hurt the little guys (or gals, though I'd hope that the females were hanging out in the women's room). For a brief moment I thought, wow, would that be cool to bring them home for my little ones. But given their choice of accommodations, I decided not to handle the little hoppers.

So as I'm bent over checking out the cute little guys, I felt the equivalent of an electric shock on the left side of my lower back and yelped out in pain. As the frogs began dispersing from this sudden display of distress, I hovered half bent over the toilet, unable to move or stand up straight. The frogs thought I was some whacko or something. I shuffled out the door and attempted to stretch. I immediately gave up the idea of running back home, as I could barely walk.

Long story short, I hobbled back home and have been taking Advil, using an ice pack, sitting in a hot bath, etc. I get these back problems every now and then and have learned to attack the problem right away. I couldn't bend down to put my shoes and socks on, so I had to find a crouching/semi-fetal position to get them on.

At work I walked around with a weight belt to provide lower back support. My coworkers have seen me like this before and one commented on how I walked like Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) of Sanford & Son:

Yep, that's pretty much how I looked all day, except worse. So now I'm not sure if I'll be able to do a long run (let alone any run) this weekend as I was planning. And I'm just 2 weeks away from the Bulldog Ultra 50K Trail Run, the longest planned training run of my life. Time for a quick recovery and a little luck (in fact, I've read that in Japan, frogs are considered good luck).