Back pain/My stride

Question
Help please, I'm 32 and I've been running atlest 3 times a week for 1.5 miles each day, but it seems like I can't keep my time under 13 mins and I really need to because of my job. One reason is that I stop cause my lower back starts hurting and I'm only 5'10 weight about 195-200 pretty good shape good tone. I 'm not tired it's that my back tightens up(spasm). Is it my stride or something serious.

Answer
Kareem,

Sorry it took a few days..I had an extremely busy weekend and wanted to take the time to answer your question properly. The lower back pain could be due to a few different reasons. The first and least likely is a shoe problem. When shoes get worn or a person wears a shoe that isn't proper for their foot, the body usually ends up hurt. Examples would be if you pronate and wear a shoe made for suppination or vice versa. Something like this will lead you to run inefficiently and compensate, likely throwing your alignment out of whack. Get your shoes checked by a reputable running store.

A second reason may be a piched nerve or a tightened tendon in your back that pulls as you run. I had a back nerve in my back once and it hurt very bad. The correction ended up being a good re-adjustment and a temporary orthotic in my shoe.

A third reason may be this: it is common for one's hips to rotate slightly forward over time and this may lead to lower back pain. A way to correct this is to work on abdomen strength. The strong abdomen will then pull the hips back in balance. I had this problem once also. Doing situps, and exercises like bicycles ( laying on your back and moving your legs as if riding a bike for a few minutes a day will help), also leg lifts, where you lay on your back and lift your legs straight off the ground and hold them out for 10 seconds, then back down. Repeating this 10 times.

As far staying under 13 minutes, you should incorporate one run a week where jog a few minutes to warm up and then run 1 minute, gradually getting faster, then jog 1 minute, run 1 minute getting faster, then jog 1 minute.Repeating this 5 or 6 times with a few minutes warm up and cooldown should help you a little as far as increasing your stride, efficiency, and anaerobic threshold.

Hope this helps.