Guess whose back...

Hurts. Yup, mine. 

Background: I had nagging lower back pain in 2010, when I was casually training for a half marathon (never made it). I saw a chiropractor/sports therapist who told me all about how I had a weak core and needed to work on that before I could run long distances. So I did, I've been regularly doing Pilates and Yoga and in this training I've been doing Pilates once per week. I hadn't felt a twinge of pain until Monday, when I felt it at the end of a 3 mile run. Not good. 

I called my chiropractor on Tuesday and got an appointment that day. My regular chiro is actually heading out for vacation, so this was with her visiting chiropractor, who also happens to run marathons. I'm in good hands. I explained to her my problems, of course bursting into tears because I was so upset. I got it together, she did an exam, stretched me out, and did an adjustment. I almost instantly felt better. She gave me more stretches to integrate into my routine, and told me to ice and take Advil. She was also very encouraging, setting me at ease that I can still do this. 

I did some Pilates and the stretches she recommended on Tuesday, and felt okay on Wednesday. Good enough to go for 5-7 miles after work, of which I only finished 5. I felt great until mile 4, where the pain came back and I had to walk/hobble/limp home for the last mile. I did more stretching and icing, but this morning I'm still limping. I have another appointment with the chiropractor on Friday, but I'm not sure how good the outlook for 12 miles on Saturday is. And Tim and I were supposed to run a 5K downtown tonight. We'll see how that goes. 

Obviously I'm disappointed and hope to be able to do all of the scheduled training. I'm not going to get ahead of myself and let my mind get carried away thinking about all of the scenarios that lie ahead, I just need to focus on today and hope to be better tomorrow.