I had a lower back spasm at work this morning. I don't lift heavy objects for my job, instead I was looking though a payroll binder and had my left arm lifted for a few seconds, and this caused the injury. I have a history of lower back spasms starting from when I was 23, so this is nothing new. It will either slowly improve and be better within a week or two, or get progressively worse until I am unable to walk. I will hope for the former.
Fortunately, running has always helped the spasms, so I set out in a cool (low 50's) rain and made my way to Busey Woods. Once there I set into my usual routine of hard 1000m loops. My back had loosened up sufficiently on the 2 mile warmup to the woods, so it did not hinder my form too much. Other than the back, I felt strong - lungs were taking in air better than usual, and my legs were ready to rumble. Did 6 hard ones in mud and slop, it was a blast.
There was a group of 12-15 students studying trees on a segment of my loop, so I passed them 6 times, they must have thought I was crazy. They were under umbrellas, and each time I passed them I had more slime and mud on my legs and shorts. I even had some blood on my arm from getting ripped by a thorn bush.
1 week to Farmdale. If I can get my back in order I feel I can run a good race. Last year I averaged a 10:59 mile pace. I am hoping to run it this year in 10:00 pace, so that would give me about a 5:20 finish time. That is probably the best I could do, if anything goes wrong I will probably finish in around 5:40-50.
Next up, hard sprints on Saturday.... | 