Pain In The Back

Some days are full of energy and some are down days. This one was in the middle. I felt good enough to run comfortably for another six miles at a pace better than 9:00 minutes per mile, but didn’t feel like pushing it any faster.

Yesterday I did a set of resistance exercises which included pushups and assisted pullups. Somewhere in there I injured my back just a little. It feels like a muscle but is very close to the spine, so it could be in a vertebra. A year ago, a PET scan showed a lesion caused by myeloma in the "T10 Spinous Process," which is pretty close to where I feel this pain, generally behind the belly button and slightly to the left. I don’t know how to count my own vertebrae exactly. The spinous process is a bony part of the vertebra that sticks out behind and down, attaching to the muscles of the back. Happily, that part of the vertebra does not support the weight of the body, nor does it enclose the spinal cord.

I’ve done that set of exercises many times in the past year, so it’s a little surprising that it would cause a problem now. I felt it just a little during the run - it bothers more during stretches and when bending over to pick things up. I’ll be at Mayo again soon and we will have a discussion about it. Let’s hope it’s just a muscle.

Splits: 8:56, 8:44, 8:43, 8:48, 8:53, 8:46, total 52:52, pace 8:49.


Tonight's dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon with yogurt, a little cheese, and spices, organic beet pickles, organic peas, organic sweet pickle relish.