I suffer from chronic back pain (about 8 years now) that gets worse during the school year because of frequent and prolonged sitting. When I was in Lethbridge, biking and/or walking every day helped alleviate the pain. Despite fairly regular strength training during the school year, I found myself in a lot of pain again in April and decided I'd try to get back into running.
My theory was that more upright movement = happier back. I took 3 years off after injuring my knees due to over-training for a half marathon, and I wanted to be really careful getting back into it. I started a 14-week 'couch to half marathon' training plan that I found online and am delighted to say that, for a few weeks in a row now, I've been able to comfortably run 8k on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 16k on Saturdays - a routine I hope to maintain at least until September. After reaching 16k, I didn't feel the need to be able to run longer than that, as I'm not training to compete but rather to increase my strength and endurance, and to decrease my pain.
I've learned many things the hard way (I ran regularly for 5 years before my 3 year break), and in my next post, I'm going to share tips and tricks for enjoyable, pain-free running.