Morning Stretch With Paul

I woke this morning to 26 degree weather and a stiff (though not painful) back.  I was really anxious to run since I missed the long run yesterday and since I was able to stand up straight without actual pain, I decided to go for it! 

I put on all my layers and headed downstairs to feed our cats and do some stretching.  Our cats are not currently getting along (really long story) so we have them separated with Paul in the basement and Brock on the upper floors.  I went to visit and feed Paul and decided to do my stretching.  Paul enjoyed the stretching immensely as each time I changed positions, he would figure out a different route to walk around or through me.  For instance, when I was on all fours and about to go down into child’s pose, Paul would do figure 8’s between my arms while whapping me in the face with his tail.  After Paul assisted me in stretching, I felt relatively loose and headed out into the cold morning. 

Brock and Paul when they used to get alongBrock and Paul in Cahoots!

We ran a familiar route this morning from a coffee shop called Dancing Goats that fellow instructor and GBI runner Paige put together that’s about 4.2 miles.  In contrast to Friday in which the weather was pleasant and had that Friday energy, this morning was cold and we weren’t very talkative at first.  It probably took us about ½ a mile for us to warm up and start talking about our weekend.  I shared my ironic massage story and another instructor and GBI runner Ann suggested that once you have been running for a while and your body gets used to it, it’s possible that a massage can totally throw you out of whack.  I think I will have to agree as while my back didn’t bother me to much, my legs were experiencing all sorts of little pains.  I only missed two days of running but to me it felt physically like it had been a week.  

Unfortunately, after the run my back has stiffened up again and it’s been difficult to walk or stand completely upright.  I feel like I am 97% upright but just missing that last 3%.  I have on a Icy-Hot patch and a chair massage device that I keep turning on to try to keep me loose while doing stretches when I can.  I want to run again tomorrow to try to make up for the lost day this weekend but I also don’t want to prolong the back pain.  I’ll keep working it today and hope for the best in the morning. 

My niece is getting married this weekend in Savannah so I am planning to do my weekend long run while we are there (assuming my back allows it).  It should be interesting as Savannah is very flat so it will be my first time running 9-10 miles on a completely flat course.  I’m very curious to see how different it will feel from always running hills.

I actually forgot to start my Garmin this morning but luckily had the route saved and I knew approximately how long it took us to run so I was able to manually create the activity:  GBI-Dancing Goats-4.2 Miles by eyerh66 at Garmin Connect – Details.