Ode to Pilates

Thank you Joseph Pilates......and to the good folks at my gym. Being the 40 year old non-endurance athlete than I am, it isn't surprising that over the past several weeks, my lower back has gone from "occasionally stiff" to "constantly sore" to the "Holy Crap What Was That?!?" on Saturday night, when I reached for a CD on a shelf at the beach house.

First, the obligatory weekend report......The weather was beautiful, but the deluge of rain that occurred through Friday afternoon really altered the beach terrain, and resulted in a couple of very interesting and challenging couple of 4 mile runs. The several inches of rain that collected in the dunes caused several washouts, about a 1/2 mile apart. Each was about 3 feet deep, and all had deep running water in them. Moreover, the wet sand and seaweed created a very unstable run surface......and of course there was the persistent 15 mph wind.

During each run, I had visions of the "steeple chase" run where runners are hurdling barricades and running through water. Because of the conditions, I am going to take the liberty of adding 20% to each run due to the added difficulty......not that anyone is counting, but I'm doing it anyway.

Now to the back......when I reached for that CD, I froze and winced so bad, that my 9 year old proclaimed to all his friends he was playing hide-and-seek with that "Daddy threw out his back!!!" Actually it wasn't crippling, but it was a warning sign.

I went to the doctor this morning for an X-ray, and the unofficial diagnosis is that I am a little out of whack.......nothing serious, but it needs attention in the form of therapy, etc.

So I got to thinking, with the family out of town, and nothing to do tonight, maybe I would stop in the Pilates Class at my gym this evening. All I can say is why the hell haven't I done this before? I am sure I'm not telling anyone something they don't already know, but just in case, trust me on this guys.......the Pilates program was invented for folks like us. I am going to commit to making at least one class per week, and will also incorporate many of the things I learned into my post run/bike stretching routine.

Check it out if you haven't. You don't know what you are missing. Assuming the benefits I feel after a single class aren't a fluke, you'll be glad you did.