Trouble with bending over backwards

Why? The answer, my friend, is running. Running is causing stiffness in my back. Anyone who's watched me put socks on or untie my shoes recently have noticed that I have a lot of difficulty bending forward and backwards. This isn't an injury per se, and I can still run, but it hurts!

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Yesterday, we mapped out a new route to take for our 18-miler that involved doing a mile on four tracks on the way home:

1. Franklin Field
   
2. Penn Charter
3. Germantown Friends
4. Chestnut Hill Academy

This track tour thing sounded like a good idea at the time, and still does. But running was not much fun. As we embarck on the first lap around the Franklin Field, with each step NOT taking us any closer to home, I realized this is going to be a long day. My god, track is boring, even in such a magestic stadium.

I am thankful to have Noah's company, or else, I would've hopped on the R8 home, a thought I entertained privately in several points during the run. We made it home without much more drama, other than getting soaked from head to toe from the thunderstorms. We also had to skip the mile at CHA because of lightning, but we were okay with that. For the record, here's the route we took: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1376215

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Noah and I have decided to change our long run days from weekends to Tuesday nights so that we can play more outdoors in the Fall. It makes a lot of sense -- I want to run trails or 5Ks on Sundays, Noah wants to bike, and neither of us want to be so wiped out after an epic run that we can't do any work. We had to give up having daylight for the long runs, but it didn't sound like a big deal. So far, it's working out well. 15 last Tues, 17 this Tues.