Seriously, what the heck did I do to my back?!

Bump in the road. I seem to have strained something in my lower back. It's been aching for about a week now, and I've been ignoring it. Yesterday I had a good workout and spent 30 minutes on the treadmill doing an alternating speed/incline workout. As soon as I stopped, I realized I only aggravated my back more. I now have a huge Bengay patch on my lower back and it seems to be helping. But I will unfortunately have to skip my boot camp class tonight = (

Here is my "Turn up the Burn" treadmill workout that I did yesterday. I got it from Fitness magazine. It's really great and challenging:

MINUTES SPEED INCLINE PLAN

2 4.0 mph 0-2 Warm-up

5 4.5-6.0 0-2 Increase speed by 0.5 mph each minute until you reach

6.0 mph; maintain for 2 minutes.

7 4.0-4.5 2-10.0 Increase incline by 2.0 each minute until you reach

10.0; stay there for 3 minutes.

1 6.0 mph 2.0 Descend

4 Varied 2.0 Sprint (your best effort) for 1 min., then jog (4.5 mph);

repeat combo, trying to sprint faster second time.

1 5.0-6.0 4.0 Climb

4 6.0-7.0 4.0

1 4.0-4.5 0 Recover

1 5.0-6.0 0 Jog

2 Sprint 0 Best effort

2 2.o-3.0 0 Cooldown

It's been awhile since I last did this workout, and I made it through the whole thing exactly as written out and felt great (besides my back, of course). It really showed me how much improvement I've made by going to the gym regularly for the last few weeks. Cardio-wise, I'm stronger than before and able to handle more in my workouts.

My body feels more toned and even though the scale isn't showing a huge loss, several people are telling me I look thinner. I feel stronger when doing weight lifting too; I'm now at 25 lbs. for the overhead press - started that one at just 15 lbs.!!!

I will have to make my workouts lighter this week while my back gets better. A friend told me I should rest for a full week, but there is no way I could stand missing the gym for an entire week. Sorry, just not happening!

That's another thing I've noticed - I'm really into a routine now. I read somewhere that it takes 30 days to form a habit. While I'm not quite at 30 days, but I can tell things are already sticking. I generally go to the gym Sunday - Wednesday and then throw in a 5th day somewhere. I feel awful if I don't make it to the gym. I've also noticed that I've stopped thinking about food so much - the first week, it was all I could think about and kept thinking about how I felt hungry or wanted some junk food. After forcing myself to stick with eating healthier overall, it's become a lot easier.

I'm happy with my progress thus far and am sure I'll be where I want to by summer! : )