Yeah, starting off on a downer, but I'm still having back pain. It has been over 2 years since that hike at Joshua Tree that started all of this. Many different procedures and it still hinders me greatly. It is better than it has been for sure, but still gives me that nagging question of "If I do this, will it hurt my back?"
I started off in February with a decent routine at a gym near work. I was doing a full body workout about every 3 days. I was fairly sore at first, but it was a good sore. I went through about 3-4 weeks and was actually looking forward to the gym. And then COVID hit. I was at the gym on Thursday, March 12th and then I didn't go back to the gym for 6 months. I stayed at home and tried to do body weight stuff. I suck at doing home workouts. I started up running again in May though. I think I took some time off because I was having knee and back pain again. I started running and was still having knee and back pain, but kept running though. I gained the COVID weight too. Gained about 20 at the worst of it. I even tried to go back to the gym, but there were too many covidiots there and it was crowded when I could go to the gym. Decided to stay at home and try to do body workouts. And yeah, body workouts, not that great. My diet wasn't great either because I mentioned in my personal blog, I had a lot of anxiety in 2020. Many people had a lot of anxiety last year. One of my (unhealthy) coping mechanisms is eating. So, I topped out at close to 210. I've trimmed some of that off, but I started off 2020 at about 189 with goals of hitting the gym, and I ended at 209 and no gym in months, basically. Eh, it was a shit year.
I did run still though. And snowboard. And I got serious about cutting weight when I could no longer stand up on a snowboard on my heelside because my stomach got in the way which prevented me from getting my weight far enough forward to stand up. That was a very rude awakening.
But for 2021, it is the same as last year: lift heavy and trim up...once I feel OK with going to the gym again.
2020 run mileage: 125 miles
