Groundhog Sees A Shadow

I don't care what Punxsatawney Phil says, it's spring.

Over the last week things have improved considerably in many ways. The sun has made an appearance more often, for one thing. I started supplementing with vitamin D and while I can't tell a difference yet, just knowing that there is something really wrong and it's an easy, though slow, drawn out fix, getting my vitamin D level above 11 will surely help things.

My back is still sore most of the time, but I'm able to move better and with less pain. Friday I went out on the Spring Creek trail with some of the running club runners and did about 20 minutes of running before I had to stop. I walked back, and got about 4 miles in. Since then, each day I have walked 6 miles a day, some with the girls, then more on my own.

Saturday I added some very easy yoga stretches, and on Sunday I threw about 20 minutes of running in to my walk, here and there, a few minutes at a time, and that seemed to be okay, and the next day it didn't seem to make things worse.

So I will continue that. Maybe I can build up by adding more running into my walks. I've been plowing through the drudgery of some necessary tasks for work, which will be done by next Monday and then I can move back to the good stuff.

What really has me excited is my new project, Fighting Dinosaurs. It will be launched sometime this spring, I have no date set yet, but I'm working on it. It's going to be a blog about...you guessed it...nursing and healthcare. It will be very different from this blog, though. I'll keep you posted, or you can check back at the URL.

Also, the book Empowered Nurses will be released March 2 and I have a chapter in it, so be on the lookout for that one. I'm being interviewed this Friday and that will be on the book's website when it is released.

Finally, on the running front...I spoke with my friend Bob Becker in Florida yesterday and he is applying for Badwater. He's already run the race twice, we actually met for the first time in both of our rookie years, 2008. If he gets in, he is planning to do a double, to celebrate his 70th birthday. I am going to crew him on the return part of his trip. So I have a running purpose again. It all helps my overall outlook. Now I need the weather to cooperate!