Aches in my back from running?

Whenever I get out of shape to run and then I get back to it, like now after the winter ice hiatus, I find myself getting all tight and knotted in my back between the shoulder blades. I’m never quite sure what to do about it. I’m also not sure if it’s just me with this problem or if other people have similar experiences. I can’t decide if it means I have a weak core or what. Sometimes I’ve just thought it was coincidental along with some other stress I might be having. I don’t usually stop doing crunches or pushups or other core work just because I’m not ready to run on the ice or because my mileage has been slack. I don’t know what causes it but I do know it coincides with getting back into running and it happens to me in the spring or fall when I pick up my mileage.

            So you would think that if you were going to get sore after a run following a winter hiatus that your legs would be the muscles that were sore, wouldn’t you? That doesn’t usually seem to be the case with me. I get all sore and tight between my shoulders. It slips up on me and more often than not I don’t associate it with my running. I start scanning all my activities in my head. What is causing me stress? It seems a huge irony that any stress build-up during my lay off didn’t cause aches in my back and shoulders. Sometimes it has taken me a couple of weeks to even realize that the center back tension is actually being caused by my reintroduction to running. Sometimes the ache creeps up and down my spine causing me to be stiff and to have tension headaches. I usually take ibuprofen or Tylenol at first.

            If the aching continues I build up to a heating pad and icy hot. Generally it doesn’t last any longer than soreness from any other activity but it just takes it awhile to click in my head that it really is from running. I also wonder why that’s where I get tight and achy instead of my legs.  My conjecture is that I always do enough cross training activities that my legs don’t drop off too much—that and the fact that when I go back to the trails I don’t ever overdo it anymore. I start up with a few (3 or 4) miles and then a day off. But I don’t do enough cross training for my upper body, especially my back, to keep that part of my body in shape. It’s either not enough shoveling of snow or that’s just not the same kind of work out I do with my back when I run. If you have any thoughts, drop me a comment.