Recovery – Pulled Muscle, Muscle Relaxant, Pain Medication, 4.5 Mile Recovery Run and Cycling Class

This past week was all about pain and excitement – dealing with the unexpected pulled back muscle, followed by a recovery run, and keeping up with cardio via cycling at the gym. More recovery runs are in order now, but I am definitely not rushing it.

The last Sunday I had an episode of acute back pain. Unlike the two previous episodes (right in the center of lower back), this time the pain came in only the left side of lower back. Especially when it came, I was not doing anything physical, so the only reason why I could think of was a bit of heavy cartons and equipment lifting during the company moving a few days prior.

I took some Iboprofen and leftover Baclofen from the previous episodes, but they didn’t seem to be working. In fact, it got worse the next day when I got up. Also, I couldn’t sleep well due to the pain at night either. So, I paid the doctor a visit for stronger painkiller. The doctor prescribed Naproxen, and I took it along with Baclofen twice a day.

To my surprise, healing took longer. Almost 4 days.

But as painful as it was, by Friday afternoon, I was back pain free.

And to celebrate it, it seemed also logical to test how my left leg (with shin splint) and right foot (with plantar fasciitis) were holding up. It had been almost 3 weeks since I completely stopped running.

I got up early Saturday morning and went for a run. I wanted to run at least 1.5 miles or so, hoping though that I could run up to 3 miles. But I realized that my feet and legs were fine other than a very mild sensation of discomfort in my right foot.

4.5 miles.

I really took it easy. No pressure.

And I even had fun making frequent stops to take photos of flowers.

And then I went SUPing.

I was free of lower back pain and shin splint. Of course, based on the mild sensation of discomfort, the foot injury (plantar fasciitis) is still healing, and that is okay. The recovery can be slow, but it is healing. That’s all that matters.

And cycling.

I will slowly add short runs each week while monitoring whether or not the pain in the foot returns. I may not be recovered enough to run the Ventura Marathon or the Long Beach in early October in time, but I’d rather take time to heal completely.

How is your Labor Day weekend training going? The summer is almost over, and the days are getting shorter. How’s your daily running going? 

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