Too Much Too Soon

I’m currently on day two of another two days off from running. After doing nothing but trying to heal my back on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, I ran on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I felt pretty good and ended up overdoing it on Sunday. On Saturday I read an article here regarding tall vs. short runners. I was thinking about the article when I ran later that day and was paying particular attention to my form. I started concentrating on stride length and pushing forward as my foot came off the ground, and my pace picked up noticeable without much increase in effort (approximately 7:50 down to 7:35 pace). When I ran on Sunday, I ran an easy mile to get loose and then began to resume the form I had started on Saturday. Again, my pace increased, and I felt really good. In fact, I felt so good that I threw in a couple of miles at goal marathon pace. I ended up running ten miles total without any back pain or stiffness. The problem came on Monday. I woke up and could hardly move. I made it to work because I had a couple of things I wanted to get done, but I was back home before lunch. I spent the afternoon and evening laid out stretching and heating my back.

The question now is what caused the back pain this week. It could have been the increase to ten miles, the different form I used while running this weekend, the miles at goal marathon pace, or the fact that once I started running again I stopped caring for my back (no heat, stretching, or ibuprofen). I think it’s probably a combination of the marathon pace miles and the fact that I stopped heating, stretching, and taking meds. The ten miles didn’t feel like I was stressed my body, and the form I was using felt better than how I was running before. I felt like I was running tall and smooth. The marathon pace miles got tough at the end, and I was probably pounding pretty hard as it got tough and the form started to suffer. And of course not taking proper care of myself is obviously part of the problem. I’m not totally healed, but I feel pretty good. I’m going to run tomorrow and will take it a day at a time from there.