Friday, December 22, 2006

Continuing saga of sore back running

I ran 6.6 miles on Wednesday. It's the longest distance in over 8 weeks. Started slow and basically stayed slow. Okay, we did get up to cruising speed for about a mile but....

The run felt pretty good but after.....ahhhh, the back was barking!

That said, I can feel the back getting better day by day. Will attempt a longer run on Sunday...maybe 10-12 miles with lots of stretching breaks.

My physical therapist watches me run for about 10 minutes every visit. This morning she said that my back is pulled in too far when running. I recall my good friend Anna telling me once that I ran with a, "sway back." I used the same term with my therapist and she agreed. This has contributed to the irritation and pain. I'm now working on exercises to help correct this.

Moral of the story: Listen to your friends...they can save you money!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

26 days to the Houston Marathon

Okay...so I missed the annual JP long run. For those of you not BCRR members, the JP long run is ~21 miles, a great breakfast, and lots of comraderie every year about 3-4 weeks before the Houston Marathon.

The good news is that I plan on running long next Saturday or Sunday (22 or 21 days to the marathon). Maybe only ~15 miles but hey...if Lance can run a marathon on a short long run.

Physical therapy (PT) seems to be going well. Although the exercises make my back sore, I am increasing my range of motion...at least that's what Barbara, my physical therapist, says. Of course, Barbara wants to believe she's helping me as much as I want to believe it. The fact that we/she has identified specific weak muscles in my back is enough evidence for me to continue the PT visits. I've upped my visits this week to 3. Hopefully, there will be more improvement by Friday!

Other good news is that I'm learning more and more about, "proper" running technique. Something I thought I understood. What's really interesting is that the proper technique is the result of appropriately strong back muscles. So...I have to strengthen these muscles so that the "proper" technique occurs. In other words, one should not attempt to fix the technique...the technique becomes evident as the back muscles strengthen.

What does this mean? Well, when I suggested to Barbara that I was going to run on a treadmill, in front of a mirror, to monitor my running style; she said, "that is fine...just don't try to fix it." If I were to try to fix it, I would likely create some other problem.

More later

Friday, December 08, 2006

A new beginning

Okay, I'm back to the blog...who knows, maybe I'll get motivated enough to update runbayou.com.

Today was my second physical therapy session. So far, my take on physical therapists (at least the one I'm seeing) is that they induce less pain than massage therapists. Don't know if this is a good thing or not. That said, my back feels sore but better today.

Wednesday, I did some light upper body weight training and ran for ~24 minutes. My first run in seven, count 'em, 7 weeks. You know you've been away from running when the times are approximate and there is no mention of seconds...

Today will be ~40 minutes of running. Very slow with some walking involved if necessary.

With only 5 weeks to the Houston Marathon, the plan now is to be able to complete it within the 6 hour cutoff time. I know my running club friends (go BCRR!) will probably be gone by the time I finish. All I ask is that someone leave me a cold beer in my running bag. A Shiner Bock would be great but no doubt, anything that can wash down 800mg of Ibuprophen is gonna be welcomed!