Oh, to be back in the pink

It's been a while since I've written anything here.  My usual post-season training break is part of the reason.  Another part is my health being down in the dumps.

That "cold" I had during my last race turned out to be more serious than I thought.  As the following week wore on, it became clear that it wasn't going to go away without some pharmacological persuasion.  I finally went to the doctor, who prescribed an antibiotic.  Within a couple of days I was noticing some improvement at last.

The weekend of October 11-13 was the annual crafts fair here where I always demonstrate bowl carving.  I skipped it on Friday because I still wasn't feeling well, but spent Saturday and Sunday swinging my axe and adze.  Bowl carving involves handling some heavy logs, and at some point on Sunday I managed to strain my back.  That sort of thing happens once in a while and it almost always gets better after several days, but this time the discomfort dragged on all last week.  To make matters worse, I woke up this past Friday morning with pain in my neck from having slept on it wrong.

I don't visit my chiropractor as often as I used to because she dropped out of my health plan's network and it's a lot more expensive for me to see her now.  But today I shelled out her fee and got some spinal adjustments.  Sometimes when I see the chiropractor she cracks me just right and I exclaim "Oh yeah!  You nailed it!!!!"  But that didn't happen today.  At the moment I'm still sore, and I can only hope she hit the right spots to put me on track toward healing.

I do have a bit of good news: I've arranged a trip to South Africa in early February.  I'll be staying in the town of Fish Hoek, home of the Miller's Run, the global mecca for downwind paddlers.

I'll be talking a lot more about this trip in due course.  Downwind is the most physically demanding paddling discipline I've ever done, and my training in November, December, and January will seek to put me in an optimum state of fitness.  For now I plan to take it easy for a couple of more weeks and try to get myself feeling good again.


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