Running..Why Do You Hate Me So?

We had an amazingly busy weekend this past weekend. 

We went to the NCAA regional here in STL on Friday and Sunday and I had Grad School all day Friday and Saturday.  With all that I did manage to get in two good runs but that’s where it all went wrong.

My first run on Friday was short and easy.  3 miles just to get the heart pumping.  Not a big deal.  I felt great afterwards. 

On Sunday, I went for a 7 mile run as part of my training for the GO! St. Louis half next month.  The first few miles again were great.  Then at about the 5 mile I could start to feel it..these pricking pains in my lower back (right side to be specific) and I started to get really mad. 

Back story…when I was in college I played volleyball and was a setter (imagine that, at 5’4 a setter? You were probably thinking a middle right?).  As a setter, I found myself twisting and turning to account for bad passes or to make sure the ball went where I needed it go.  All this resulted in bulging discs.  In college I had constant therapy for it and it was manageable.  As I’ve gotten older, it has really started to wreck my body. 

A few years back when I decided I wanted to do a full marathon, my back flared up again big time but being the obsessive that I am, I wasn’t about to let it get in the way of completing (what I thought was my first) a marathon.  So I trained and finished it but painfully.  So much in fact, I had to spend the entire next year in physical therapy and I haven’t been 100% since.