I threw my back out in December. I don’t know precisely what i did to achieve that, because my back has been in very good shape for a while now. But I did something and I did something horrible and I was in such pain that I couldn’t sit, stand, lie down, or walk for any length of time. You may note that leaves “hovering in mid-air” and I couldn’t do that either.

The first thing I did when I hurt my back was stop exercising. Which is scary for me because as I’ve said exercise is key to my mental as well as physical health. Someone told me that eating 10 percent fewer calories would keep my mood elevated (possibly relying on this book Eat Your Way To Happiness, I don’t know. (Oh, and apparently calorie restriction improves your memory too. That’s a good factoid to know. I hope I remember it.)

The holidays came and went (urp!) and then Darin and the kids and I went to Hawaii for a week. Yeah, I know, my life is rough. Unlike the last time I was in Hawaii, though, I didn’t run at all. The streets were incredibly narrow (when I say they were two-car-lengths wide, I’m including the shoulder, except on the single-lane bridges) and the sand on the beach so dense and heavy that my foot would sink into it. I just relaxed.

But, I have an image of what I want to accomplish this year, so I was back at the gym today. I told my trainer, “I haven’t exercised in three weeks, and I want to take anything slightly stressful to my back off the table for the time being.” My back has been fine, but why chance it?

We did a modest workout. I know I’m no bodybuilder in training, but man this was a mild workout. Split leg squats with no dumbbells! Straight leg rows at 70 pounds! Not even trying to get to the bicep curls! And I still know I’m going to be mildly sore all over tomorrow.

But this is where I have to start at the moment. There’s no use wishing I could do the workout I was doing in early December — that girl managed to hurt herself bad (I’m pretty sure I hurt my back during my workout). I’m not one of these natural athletes that holds my development indefinitely. I have to start where I am and slowly work back to it.

I just hope I don’t hurt enough to keep me from running. Which somehow is on the schedule for tomorrow, although I can’t quite figure out how.

I’ve kind of let my exercise regiment fall to the wayside over the past month. For one thing, it got really cold — I know, I know, wasn’t I the one who would go running rain or shine, in the heat or in the cold, no matter what? Didn’t I run 1000 miles one year? What happened?

I stopped being so hardcore is what happened.

Since I feel better both mentally and physically when I exercise, I need to get back on the stick. I have my general goals, and then I have my reach-for-the-stars goal.

My exercise goals for 2012:

• Run at minimum 3 days a week.
• Lift weights at minimum 2 days a week.
• Run a marathon in under 5 hours.

Which means, running friends, I want to do another marathon. I did one in September last year and it was total crap: there was a five mile stretch both out and back that basically was a single lane through blond gravel, so it was painful, annoying, and blinding…for ten miles of the 26; they didn’t have enough water/refreshment stations and they weren’t stocked well; it was hot. I didn’t do well for a number of reasons, but one reason is that I need to concentrate more on training to do more than 26 miles. Most training programs for beginners/non-elite runners seem to taper off at 20 miles in the training, and every marathon I completely bonk out at 21 or 22 miles. So I need to work on training runs of 25 to 30 miles. I can’t believe I’m actually typing that out, but there it is!

So: let’s do another marathon! Santa Barbara’s half marathon was great, so I wouldn’t mind going back down there!