Woke up this morning with my back pinching again on the left side. It wasn’t too bad so I decided to go ahead and try a run. I’m so glad I did because it went away quickly as I began to move.
I find it notable that the pain usually goes away or lessens with movement but when I stop it comes back.
My workout today was three easy miles and my runner’s strength program with bands. Normally, I do my strength workout on Sunday but I did not have time to complete it that day, so I moved it to a short run day during the week.
For the sake of time, I ran the three miles on my treadmill instead of outside. To keep it interesting, I programmed three miles of my eventual marathon course into the map feature on my machine and ran it while watching the Google Maps view on the screen. Turns out there is a slight bit of elevation change on this course but it’s really minor. I thought the course was entirely flat.
After my run I moved to the living room for my strength workout. I used the alternative version of this workout that tends to take a little less time and incorporates different bands. I put a little of everything into this workout including single leg bridges, plyometrics, banded squats, balance moves and MOBO board exercises.
MOBO Board
I love the versatility of the MOBO board but I wish there were even more videos available. I may need to get creative and start making up some of my own moves. For now, I found a knee strength workout on YouTube and I’ve incorporated those exercises into this routine. Hips and knees tend to be my weakest areas so anything I can do to strengthen them can only be beneficial to my long term running health.
The strength workout took about 40 minutes so I was not successful in creating a “short on time” workout as I had originally set out to do. There are just so many excellent and helpful exercises for runners that it’s hard to pair it down to just a few.
Looking forward to tomorrow when I get to test my marathon pace again.
Workout
- 3 miles at conversational pace on the treadmill
- 40 minutes runner’s strength workout