The day after State, I signed up for 24 hour fitness. Coach Williams and I talked a lot about how swimming laps is a very similar workout to running, without the impact. I found myself back to 24 about 5 hours after I registered for my first swim. I was anxious.
A few weeks later, the pain was not getting better. My parents, coaches, and I decided it was time to turn to doctor number 4. We decided Dr. Michael Murphy would be the lucky one to get a shot at the back that no one knew what was wrong. Dr. Murphy is different than the other three in that he is a chiropractor. He is the official chiropractor of the Rams and the Blues. He helped running back Malcolm Agnew with his hamstrings earlier in the football season. Dr. Murphy has pictures in his office of people he has helped. Everyone from Marc Bulger, Chris Pronger, Bruce Springsteen, and Eric Fernandez (Parkway West 2008) who seemed to not be able to be fixed, and just competed in Nationals with Arkansas.
Dr. Murphy isolates specific spots on my back, while his assistant moves my arms and legs around. He's good at finding the right spots, so it hurts, in a good way. He think I have muscle strains. But since this has been going on for years, it will take more than a few visits to work them out. He then pops my back in 3 or 4 different positions, and that feels awesome. He thinks he can fix my back, and surprisingly I believe him.
I will start a workout plan in the middle of December that will be made up high intensity, low volume runs and some pool stuff. Dr. Murphy ran a 1:50 800 back in the day after never running more than 4 miles in practice. Hopefully I can make it through May.
Spcial thanks to T Bone and Coach Williams for spening a ton of time on my back.
