Fighting Back

I wish it were as simple as saying that I'm not taking this lying down, but unfortunately, that is exactly what I'm doing.  I don't remember if I wrote about this back in October or not, but I had a very painful episode with back spasms right after the KC Half Marathon, so painful that I pretty much laid in the fetal position in bed for three or four days, minus the times I had to drag myself to work.  Such a bizarre incident that was, but I always had been more careful about posture, stretching, and lifting things to make sure that I didn't have anymore flare-ups.  When it came to isolating an incident that led to such an incident, I traced it back to the extreme effort I put into that race, which was a lot.  Why it hit my back so badly instead of my legs, I have no idea. 

This all leads me back to Tuesday, which sucked because for the second time in six months, I was saddled with more debilitating back spasms, only this time it happened it right as I was heading down the stairs at work.  That morning, I had put in a difficult hilly run.  That night, back spasms.  KC Half Marathon...very hilly course.  Sunday after that race...back spasms.  See that pattern here?  I think I'm starting to get it.  Why this happens when I run hills, I can't explain, but the underlying symptom that occurred both of these times involved a severely rotated pelvis to the left.  Having my chiropractor beat me back into shape took about a week last time before I was up for running again.  Now, I'm going to venture out after four days and two excruciating chiro sessions to hopefully partake in the Trolley Run 4 mile race in KC on Sunday. 

So what is going to have to happen going forward?  I have got to get stronger through my core area.  That's nothing special or anything, but I have routinely neglected working on my abdominal and back area in order to just focus on running faster and/or just lifting light weights.  I'm going to have to devote the time and effort into becoming stronger throughout.  Also, I'm going to have to work on cross-training more frequently, as simply running, while fine, isn't really mixing up my workouts, and I'm getting lax in some areas.  So, let's see how it goes.  If I can't run at least close to what I normally do, I'm going to be pretty disappointed, but it's all building towards Hospital Hill 2012.  Until next time....later.