Yellowstone, Setback, and Moving Forward

Finally, at the end of my summer (I head back to school later this week), I went on vacation.  For the first time in my life I visited Yellowstone National Park.  It was amazing!  As somewhat of a science fan-boy, I loved the incredible natural wonders that the park holds.  I spent the better part of 3 days in the park and I know I only saw a small fraction of the wonder that it contains.  The vistas and views were awe inspiring.  The thermal features were breathtaking (but seriously, some of those you don't want to breathe around...).  The wildlife made the biologist in me giddy with excitement.  And the petrified tree gave me perspective on time.  It was such an amazing trip and I'm so happy that my sisters made me go...ahem, I mean invited me to go with them.  I can't wait to do it again soon!

I went on vacation with plans to continue the success that I've been having.  The first night there, my brother-in-law told me that he wanted to exercise with me in the morning.  The next morning we went walking around the island we were staying on.  It was a refreshing 3+ mile morning walk.  My sisters and I took turn preparing meals for the days that we were together.  They are aware of the changes I've made in my food choices and were very accommodating to ensure that I had something that I would want to eat.

One of the most exciting things that I did outside of Yellowstone was four wheeling.  I had never gone before, and I had a healthy respect for the power and risks of riding a four wheeler.  The more I rode the more comfortable and confidant I became.  Perhaps I became a bit too comfortable and confidant...

It was afternoon (the picture above was taken in the morning) on a westward 4 wheeler path that ran parallel to a paved road.  It was here that I didn't see the corrugated steel drainage pipe just to the left of the trail.  I caught the pipe with my left front wheel.  As I was flying through the air, probably going around 20 mph, I tried to piece together what was happening.  Before I hit the ground I knew what had happened.  Then I hit the ground, landing on the left side of my body, and rolled.  I stopped rolling just a few feet from the sign in the picture above.  I later went back and measured that the sign is 15 paces (25-30 feet?) from the pipe.  After I stopped rolling I jumped up and was happy to note that I could still move on my own power, though painfully so.  I noticed that my right arm got scraped up and that my hip was throbbing.  I was following my brother-in-law and he must have noticed that I wasn't behind him anymore.  By the time he turned around and came back to me I was back on the four wheeler ready to continue on.  We had just gotten gas from the gas station and the plan was to go ride on some of the trails.  So we went.  I tried to have fun despite my fresh experience, but much of the previous confidence and comfort had left me.  More hindering was the pain that I experienced with any bump or turn.

After we got back to the cabin, I started to clean my open wounds and assess the damage I had just inflicted on my body.  I noted that most movement involving the right side of my body caused quite a bit of pain. I quickly realized that I was in no condition to run the next morning as part of my C25K training.  This realization almost moved me to tears.  It was to be the end of 6th week of training.  I wanted to run, but I could barely walk...

Somehow I still managed to be able to walk around Yellowstone the next few days.  Sometimes the pain wasn't bad, but sometimes it was barely bearable.  There were times that I had to sit down and rest while my family moved on.  Despite my injuries, I had an amazing time.

So now I sit here wondering what the next few weeks will hold for me.  I don't know that I broke anything, I'm thinking about going to see a doctor just to be sure.  I want to keep moving forward with my exercise, but since I made changes in my life so that I could live a healthier life it would be counter-productive to push through the pain if it's actually making an injury worse.

I guess it comes down to the fact that although I can't quite exercise how I've been exercising for the past 6 weeks, there are still things that I can control that will help to move me forward in this journey.  It's not the end of the road, but merely a detour that I have to make to get me where I want to go.

Since June 30th I've lost 29.5 pounds (I really wanted that last .5 pound... hopefully tomorrow).
I've also logged over 115 exercise miles in that time.