W2 R2 - not as much fun......

[sharon7211]

I decided on a different tack today, and wished I hadn't. I decided to get up especially early and go pounding round my usual route. In hindsight, as I quickly discovered, there were 2 problems with this - firstly, in the daylight, it's a lot busier traffic-wise on my route, and even with my mp3 player volume turned down, I was still distracted by cars and having to stop and start by jogging on the side of the road whilst I waited for traffic to go past. Also when I go out in the dark, although it's riskier for cars to see me, I can see and anticipate cars better, simply because I can see the headlights from further away. So that was Gripe No. 1. The second gripe was that I have issues with my lower back anyway, meaning that it does get quite painful when I walk for even brief periods of time. For some reason when I run at night, possibly because my body is warmed up from all of the previous hours' worth of activity, I don't get lower back pain. This morning I set off for my run about 20 mins after getting up, and the pain in my back was excruciating. I actually thought I'd have to stop at one stage. I didn't though - I did carry on, but I didn't enjoy this morning at all. I think I'll do my last run on Thursday at night again, just to see if the pain strikes again. If it does, that's my daytime running aspirations over with - either that or I'll have to get up at insane o'clock in the morning and spend about an hour warming up before I set off. There literally aren't enough hours in the day!

[Grammadog1947 Graduate]

Good for you on finishing, even under trying circumstances, tho. Yes, sometimes we have to "fiddle with the knobs" until we get the game board balanced to our favor. You may find your back pain improves after you have been running a while....and traffic...yes, be careful out there. I changed my course to avoid traffic on my return portion because I just didn't want the hassle when I was already so tired. Keep at it...you are doing the right things....I think we all have to make adjustments as we go along.

Good luck, and good running!