Oh, My Aching Back

I hit the ground so quickly I barely knew what happened.  One moment I was running along taking in the neighborhood.  The next, I was staring at the concrete sidewalk, thankful I was able to break my sudden fall with my hands rather than my nose.  My favorite running gloves didn't fare as well.  And my skinned knees were screaming.  But as I looked around, it seemed noone witnessed my mishap, and there was really nothing to do but get back up and keep going. 

I was just running along on an easy 4 miler Sunday.  Just keeping the legs going after a pretty difficult 17 miler the day before in Barrington.  Back pain, however, made running a little precarious.  My lower back has been killing me for about a week.  I've been getting my runs in, but it's been difficult and painful.  It feels like my lower and upper body are meeting at one point in my back, and every time I make a wrong move, the points dislodge, and I clutch my knees in pain to avoid falling completely to the ground.  It happened at least a dozen times during the 17 miler.  Believe me, that was a long morning!

For some reason, perhaps overconfidence, I had one of those 'dislodging' moments on the Sunday run, and was on the ground before I was able to catch myself.  I'm used to seeing my 3 and 4 year old daughters have crashes like these all the time.  They look around, start crying, and ask Daddy to kiss their boo-boo.  Unfortunately, there was noone around to take care of mine.

In any case, it makes me appreciate even more the good health I've been blessed with.  Just a couple weeks ago, during a run, a friend told me about his recent back troubles.  I thought, "thank goodness I haven't had any problems with my back for a few years".  Well, I thought too quickly. 

I don't have any idea how I developed this problem.  It could have been related to running, but more likely, running just aggravates it.  I've gotten careless lately, picking up kids and other things using poor form, and putting a strain on my back.  I have poor posture generally.  And I don't do nearly enough to strengthen my core muscles, even though I know how important that is. 

A number of friends on Facebook offered suggestions on how to help heal my back.  Some were very helpful.  It's amazing how common back problems seem to be.  I vow to be better at strengthening my back and core once it gets better.  Really, I promise.  Now, get better!

Now, on to another subject.  A running friend of mine, Amy Sanders, recently suggested a good book on running, and I thought I'd pass it along to you.  It's called "What I talk About, When I Talk About Running".  It's written by novelist Haruki Murakami, who is a veteran of more than 20 marathons.  He's been running for 30 years, and the book reads a little like his running journal.  In one section he writes about training, and breaks it down in a way I haven't heard before.

“As long as you explain your expectations to them by actually showing them examples of the amount of work they have to endure, your muscles will comply and gradually get stronger,” he says. “If, however, the load halts for a few days, the muscles automatically assume they don't have to work that hard anymore.”  

Finally, congratulations to Jeremy Borling!  The 28 year old former North Central College runner can add the title 'Austin Marathon Champion' to his resume.  He won the race last weekend in 2:30:05.  Jeremy is Web Manager for the Bank of American Chicago Marathon.  According to the Austin American Statesman newspaper (which gets credit for the photo as well), Jeremy saw a pack of runners taking it out fast early in the race and decided not to go with them.  That was a good decision because that pack was apparently only running the half-marathon!  He was actually leading the marathon, and he led the entire way, finishing more than a minute ahead of second place. 

I never have had that problem in a race.  Of course it's been many, many, years since I was close enough to the front of a race to see the leaders! 

I'll see you on the roads....

Comments

[jodie Cleveland]

Hey John. You seemed like you were getting SO much advice about your back that I have hesitated to give any, but your story makes me feel like I should, both as a therapist and as a "back injury survivor!" First, I urge you to seek medical advice ASAP. Yes, back injuries are VERY common, and can be caused by a host of things, but your described symptoms are quite severe and debilitating and you don't want to be harming yourself further. Six years ago I started having back pain brought on by stress and vacuuming, of all things! I ignored it for about six weeks and by the time I finally went in I was diagnosed with a stress fracture, two herniated discs, and a condition called spondylolisthesis. Treatment for all those conditions required accurate diagnosis and specific, skilled intervention so I cringe when I see everyone giving you advice without a diagnosis because it can do more harm than good! I can go into more specifics about my story as you like, but in those six years I have only had one reoccurance and have gone on to run my first two marathons and first three half-Ironmans. Please take the time to find out what is wrong as maybe it will spare you the long arduous recovery that I had to go through.