stovebolts
Member
Well, I did it again… Another running injury chalked up to a lack of experience and not listening to what my body is saying.
I’ve only started running (since I was a teen) right at a year ago to the month and I’m now hitting mid 40’s. I went from taking almost three weeks to run 1.4 miles last March to my first half marathon in Detroit last Oct, but it’s been a painful journey as I made the mistakes of others by doubling my miles too soon and recently, I found the truth in “Speed killsâ€.
Earlier this week I found out that your core supports your lower back, so when your core becomes fatigued, then you’ll experience lower back pain. Well, it just so happens that I’ve been training very hard the past month and I’ve set some PR’s that I’ve very proud of by going long and fast on one run a week. Apparently they were too fast too soon and too close.
I noticed that the day after my long hard run, my lower back was sore but being stubborn, I didn’t listen to my body and during our recent kitchen remodel (which is a work in progress) I probably shouldn’t have moved that fridge with a sore back. Did that slow me down? Of course not and a couple nights later, sore back and all I click off 7 miles under an hour which for me, was no small feat.
Fast forward to last Saturday and I couldn’t sit in a chair unless I was straight as a pencil and depending on how I moved in the bed and my whole left side would shudder with spasms. Bring it forward to last Monday and even though my back is so stiff it’s hard to put on socks, and instead of being able to touch my hands flat on the ground during my morning stretching routine, I'm struggling to touch my knees and to add to that, it seems that every time I try to stretch my back, my back becomes more irritated and the pain increases. What’s up with that I kept asking myself.
So Monday I’m at work and I have to move this bulky item from one counter to another. No bending is required so I think to myself, cakewalk! Wrong! Folks, I can’t begin to describe the pain as this ripping and tearing sensation filled my abdomen and lower back and unfortunately, I had to move the item back when I was finished. The rest of the afternoon was all about pain management.
So I look stuff up on the web and I find out about trigger points, and sitting in my chair, I start massaging these trigger points and the pain starts to go away so that evening I get my very first massage from a spa that knows about trigger points and it’s affirmed that my problem isn’t all in my back, it’s mostly in my abdomen even though it feels like my back
So the gal at the spa asks me if I’d ever had a massage before to which my reply was, “no†and she says, “Don’t let this experience leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s not going to be a pleasant experience today†and folks, it wasn’t and 30 minutes later when I got off the table and she told me to be careful, that I was going to feel a lot of pain, well, she didn’t lie. I appreciated her honesty because if she wouldn't have told me I was going to be in more pain when I got up after we finished than when I first came in, I would have thought that she messed me up even worse. Even so, I was wavering on how much I actually trusted her but in all, I had to keep faith that she knew what she was doing as attested by her honesty.
That being siad, It was the oddest feeling getting off the table. My whole left side was spasing out horribly but when it stopped, most of the sharp pain that I had endured since the printer bit was all but gone. I suppose the only way I could describe it would be kind of like sweet and sour if that makes any sense. I was told to massage the knots in my stomach as hard as I could handle and not to do any forward stretches, but instead to stretch backward. Tuesday I woke up and felt fantastic, well, until I had t get out of bed LOL! I might mention also that I rubbed the knots in my stomach lying down, and I could feel the pain in my back, not my stomach. Odd…but I felt much better and over all, yesterday went very well and I could get in and out of my chair without any pain which was the first in over two weeks.
My back is still messed up, but it’s finally on the road to recovery. I’ll probably not go running for another week which my legs are not enjoying, but it will serve as yet another reminder why core strength is so important when doing longer runs and that when you have lower back pain after a run, you’ll probably want to listen to your body and add some extra sit-up’s into your weekly routine.
Thanks for reading!
I’ve only started running (since I was a teen) right at a year ago to the month and I’m now hitting mid 40’s. I went from taking almost three weeks to run 1.4 miles last March to my first half marathon in Detroit last Oct, but it’s been a painful journey as I made the mistakes of others by doubling my miles too soon and recently, I found the truth in “Speed killsâ€.
Earlier this week I found out that your core supports your lower back, so when your core becomes fatigued, then you’ll experience lower back pain. Well, it just so happens that I’ve been training very hard the past month and I’ve set some PR’s that I’ve very proud of by going long and fast on one run a week. Apparently they were too fast too soon and too close.
I noticed that the day after my long hard run, my lower back was sore but being stubborn, I didn’t listen to my body and during our recent kitchen remodel (which is a work in progress) I probably shouldn’t have moved that fridge with a sore back. Did that slow me down? Of course not and a couple nights later, sore back and all I click off 7 miles under an hour which for me, was no small feat.
Fast forward to last Saturday and I couldn’t sit in a chair unless I was straight as a pencil and depending on how I moved in the bed and my whole left side would shudder with spasms. Bring it forward to last Monday and even though my back is so stiff it’s hard to put on socks, and instead of being able to touch my hands flat on the ground during my morning stretching routine, I'm struggling to touch my knees and to add to that, it seems that every time I try to stretch my back, my back becomes more irritated and the pain increases. What’s up with that I kept asking myself.
So Monday I’m at work and I have to move this bulky item from one counter to another. No bending is required so I think to myself, cakewalk! Wrong! Folks, I can’t begin to describe the pain as this ripping and tearing sensation filled my abdomen and lower back and unfortunately, I had to move the item back when I was finished. The rest of the afternoon was all about pain management.
So I look stuff up on the web and I find out about trigger points, and sitting in my chair, I start massaging these trigger points and the pain starts to go away so that evening I get my very first massage from a spa that knows about trigger points and it’s affirmed that my problem isn’t all in my back, it’s mostly in my abdomen even though it feels like my back
So the gal at the spa asks me if I’d ever had a massage before to which my reply was, “no†and she says, “Don’t let this experience leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s not going to be a pleasant experience today†and folks, it wasn’t and 30 minutes later when I got off the table and she told me to be careful, that I was going to feel a lot of pain, well, she didn’t lie. I appreciated her honesty because if she wouldn't have told me I was going to be in more pain when I got up after we finished than when I first came in, I would have thought that she messed me up even worse. Even so, I was wavering on how much I actually trusted her but in all, I had to keep faith that she knew what she was doing as attested by her honesty.
That being siad, It was the oddest feeling getting off the table. My whole left side was spasing out horribly but when it stopped, most of the sharp pain that I had endured since the printer bit was all but gone. I suppose the only way I could describe it would be kind of like sweet and sour if that makes any sense. I was told to massage the knots in my stomach as hard as I could handle and not to do any forward stretches, but instead to stretch backward. Tuesday I woke up and felt fantastic, well, until I had t get out of bed LOL! I might mention also that I rubbed the knots in my stomach lying down, and I could feel the pain in my back, not my stomach. Odd…but I felt much better and over all, yesterday went very well and I could get in and out of my chair without any pain which was the first in over two weeks.
My back is still messed up, but it’s finally on the road to recovery. I’ll probably not go running for another week which my legs are not enjoying, but it will serve as yet another reminder why core strength is so important when doing longer runs and that when you have lower back pain after a run, you’ll probably want to listen to your body and add some extra sit-up’s into your weekly routine.
Thanks for reading!
