Week 4: 3 miles/5 miles/3 miles/8 miles

So, today's my long run (8 miles) of Week 4 and then I've completed 25% of my journey to Antwerp. I got up early Thursday for my third run of the week although I much prefer running in the afternoon when it's generally warmer (plus I get to sleep longer, a big plus). But the forecast was calling for snow starting late morning. Boy am I glad I got up early. Temp wasn't too bad. Even though the thermometer was reading in the low 30s (0.4 C) the cloud cover and the fact that there was no breeze contributed to a pleasant run of 3 miles.

Well, after I ran and saw a couple of clients it was snowing and accumulating pretty quickly. I shoveled off the walkway to my office, walked down to the road to check on the condition of the turnpike, toted the garbage can up the driveway and made the bottom third of a snowman. Came in and sat for another hour with a client and by the end of the hour my right lower back was killing me. I have no idea what I did but I was hobbling around like an 80-year-old. A couple of ibuprofen later along with a heating pad and still not a whole lot better. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with any running and everything to do with shoveling that stupid snow. It's now Saturday morning and it's a little better (I'll go upstairs to get something without thinking that I don't want to because of the pain and I can move around more easily) -- at least enough better that I'm still planning on running. We'll see how it goes.

Planning on running down east a bit with my niece (who, by the way, runs a slow mile in less than 8-1/2 minutes -- I'd feel like an Olympic athlete at that speed). The roads here that I typically run on are all unpaved and with the snow melting they're likely to be a muddy mess. Given the choice I'll run down east. Don't want to completely trash my new shoes!