Friday, I went and joined a fitness center so I have a place to run inside when it gets cold out. I know I can run outside in the cold, but I don't want the cold weather to end up as an excuse for not getting out to run. I haven't yet used the membership for two reasons:
1) the Indian summer we've been having
2) this nasty muscle spasm in my back.
The day I signed up for the gym was a beautiful day. My car was in the shop, so I rode my bike to the gym instead of driving. Instead of working out at the gym, I chose to get another outdoor run in. Wow. Since we've already had cold weather this fall, including freezing temperatures and below, we're in an official Indian summer. I love this part of autumn. It's not lasting long, though. Later this week, the temperature will be dropping and it will be freezing over night again. Just in time for my trip to Sacramento!
I've been running for time rather than distance lately, 30 minutes this time. I tried taking it slower, but it was hard. I think I used a 145bpm mix. It was hard at first not to walk. But, I stuck it out and still got plenty of workout. I didn't have my HRM on, but I'm sure I still had a heart rate higher than I should be at. I'm not sure what to do about that. I want to train at a lower heart rate so that I can improve, but that's just so annoying.
Saturday morning, a nasty pain in my upper back woke me from my sleep. I tried shifting position to get rid of it, but it wouldn't go away. I took some ibuprofen, and was eventually able to get some more sleep. The muscle pain stayed with me some all day and gave me problems Saturday night. During the day Sunday, it got worse and early Monday, I was almost in tears from the pain. So, I made an appointment to see the doctor (actually physician's assistant since my doc was out). My pain was being caused by a muscle spasm that was making a portion of my back cramp up. It took me forever to find someone available on short notice on a Monday, but I managed to book a 30 minute massage appointment that evening. I was a bit miffed because I didn't think the masseuse gave the problem muscle enough attention and focused too much on my lower back. However, this morning the spasm seems to be totally gone. I don't know if the massage did it or if it would have gone away on it's own. But, at least I got a massage out of the deal!
I wanted to hang low while the back pain was happening, but now that it seems like it is gone, I'm going to get back on a steady workout schedule.
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