I woke up with one thought on my mind. How was my back going to feel after my first run since I decided to give it a break. I rolled over, no pain. I pulled myself out of bed, no pain. I stood up, no pain. Phew. Apparently I have given it enough rest after all. I still had some stiffness and a bit of pain during the run yesterday, but I had taken it easy and focused on running softly to alleviate jarring. I also only did minor stretching after the run and last night paying strict attention to not pushing it when it came to my back. The biggest thing I did was not laying down to watch TV, by sitting up in bed before I went to sleep I think I did the most good for myself.

The weather rumor today was that it was going to be cold in the morning and warm up later in the day. So I didn’t jump out of bed and head off on a run, but only made it to 11 before I gave in a headed out on roads. Last night watching the Blazer game I was thinking about where I wanted to run today. I decided on a new route down into East Moreland, across reed college, over to Cleveland Track and back home through Creston Park. The route was a combination of runs I normally make and it sounded interesting, so route chosen, off I went.

The first two miles into East Moreland and up to reed were pretty easy and I ran them a pretty stiff clip.Once through reed around miles 2 or so the difficulty of the route changed. Essentially I had to pay the piper for all the downhill I had been doing. And not only did I hit my first hill but I realized that the remaining run was basically a series of rolling hills one right after another. Up and down, up and down. I took the downhills slowly again focusing on soft running to avoid jarring the back and powered up the uphills. It was a good run and an interesting route to try again. I think I will add an additional hill through reed heading down to Crystal Springs near the Rhododendron Garden. I think it will make a good quality run, but a somewhat easier one and should be a good compromise for the transition from training to base building (or maintaining).

The other day I managed to do something not so good to my back. I think it happened when I went off an unexpected curb at night. It didn’t seem like something that was going to last at the time, but maybe I had strained something earlier and this was just the kicker to make it feel really sore. I am hoping it will repair itself over the next couple of days.

So with this in mind I have decided to take it easy on the old back. Instead of my usual weekly shoulder and back workout of bucketing out the bird ponds I used a trick new method of creating a siphon with a garden hose and drained it that way. I’ve been very careful about not lifting heavy things unless I use my legs. And on and on. So why when I quickly planned a solo Sunday run (my running partner wasn’t feeling well) why did I decided to do a back jarring hill run up and down Mt Tabor? No idea other than I am a blind idiot at times.

It was a pretty nice run on the way up. It was really chilly (in the 30s for the first time all fall) but it was really sunny and not windy at all. I initially was thinking I would run this pretty hard, but I backed (no pun intended) out of that plan. Still once I got to the volcano I did hit the slopes pretty hard and before long I was at the top and feeling good. Then I headed down and the jarring began. Every step on the trail from the top would compress my spine. I slowed down, but that made it worse. I had no choice but to continue down, so I did. It wasn’t as bad as I am making it sound, but it wasn’t great either. Once I gt home I decided to take it easy for awhile and just relax which I think helped out quite a bit.

Now this morning I am faced with another decision. I really should go for a run and a quality run to boot. Do I go to the track and see how things go through a straights and curves workout? Or do I just take it easy. I still haven’t decided…