Pain in the......

....back. Gotcha. You thought I was going to say ass. The pain is definitely a little higher than that. Curious thing is that I'm not sure why. It's right between the shoulder blades and it feels like someone slammed me on my back in the wrestling ring. I'm trying to figure out where the pain came from. These are the most likely culprits in order of likelihood:

1. Intense pulling on the aerobars during Sunday's race.
2. Using the manual hedge trimmers Sunday afternoon in the garden.
3. Bad running posture during the race, tight upper body, high arms, etc.

I'm going with the first culprit. This was the first race I did on the Cervelo and I probably haven't pulled so much during training. I stayed in the aero position each lap, including the uphills. I know my arm position is a little narrower than on the Elite so a small change like that can have a major impact.

Yesterday was definitely the worst as far as the pain. I managed my recovery swim in the morning but the tightness increased during the day. Overnight I think it got better. Mentally I was letting the soreness get the best of me. I didn't feel like doing anything because of the pain. I forced myself to run this morning. I wasn't going to push it to the point of injuring myself but I needed to do something.

You know what....I had a great run. Forty-two minutes in Zone 2 as I make my way through a recovery week. I can still feel some soreness in the back but it's better than yesterday.

Amazing how little aches and pains can affect your training. Next week will be the beginning of another training cycle, back to intensity and hard efforts. Next up is the Bolder Boulder 10k. Can't wait to get out to Colorado.

Game On.