Loving Larabars!!

Last week a good friend from high school came for a visit! We grew up one town apart, but now she lives on the other side of the country. I hadn't seen her since I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 7!!

It was a great visit! She is also a runner, who recently finished her first marathon and is training for her second. We even got to go for a run together, which was such fun!

While she was here, she introduced me to Larabars and I am now head-over-heels in love! I bought these flavors last week and loved them all!




The main ingredients are nuts and dates. There are VERY few ingredients in each one, but that taste delish! For example, the pb&j one has dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries and salt....and that is it!! I ate one for a quick breakfast on the go this morning and it was delish and filling. I HIGHLY recommend these....gotta get more at the store tomorrow!

Running at Night

First of all, thank you to everyone for all of your positive and encouraging comments about my back injury....they made me feel so much better and motivated and inspired me...you guys rock!!!!

I ran 5 miles on Sunday with little to no back pain....yeah!

This summer has been CRAZY trying to fit everything in. There are so many things I want to do with the kids and only so many hours in the day. Tonight by the time I was able to get for a run it was getting dark.

Luckily....I was just down in NYC to visit my sis and picked this up at a running store:

An Amphipod light! The light I had been wearing around my arm was not very bright. I got it for free at a race and knew I needed something brighter. This light looked great in the store and when I got home and compared the 2 side by side the amphipod was clearly MUCH brighter. I wore it around my ankle and it was very comfortable.

My neighborhood is very residential so I am comfortable running at night. My only issue is making myself as visible as possible to drivers. I wore the amphipod light, carried a flashlight and wore a reflective vest. My only issues with the vest is there is very little reflective surface on the back and although I run on the left side of the road, I still worry about the cars coming up behind me.

Anyone else run at night??? Any helpful tips for me???

My back

So...I have talked about having back problems before and figured I would share some details. I wonder if anyone has gone through anything similar.

About 2 years ago I was reaching forward and felt something pull in my back and all of a sudden my back was in spasm. It was really painful and difficult to walk, but resolved itself after a week or so. The same thing happened in January during training for my half, but this time took at least 2 weeks before I was back to running.

After my half I started having back pain again, but not the same kind as before. I am a PT, but currently taking a few years off to stay home with the kids. I was able to successfully treat myself the first 2 times. This time I was just not seeing enough improvement and decided to go see a friend from school work is an orthopedic specialist and works with a lot of athletes.

He evaluated me and decided my problem was currently with my SI (sacroiliac) joint. I have a lot of weakness in my back, hips and abdominals and his theory is that after running a few miles I get the pain because my muscles are fatiguing and my form gets bad. He taped me and I went for a run and it helped a lot, but I found out I was allergic to the tape. :(

Right now I am wearing a soft brace for running and activity. I am doing a LOT of strengthening work for my hips, back and abdominals. When I go for PT, once a week, the PT stretches me and does some joint mobilization.

I do see an improvement, but I still get the pain at times. Speed work is difficult to do...I have to only speed up moderately or else the pain starts. I know it will take a while, but I am so not patient!!

Anyone else ever have to deal with back pain and a running injury???