Last week got off to a good start, but soon went downhill.

I did okay if you just look at the numbers. I ran four out of the five times I had set for myself and lifted dumbbells two out of three times.

But it wasn’t easy. Not because my Week 1 goal of a mile was too rough. But because I somehow screwed up my back, giving further evidence for a new group of friends to call me “Grandpa.” And I can’t pinpoint when it happened.

One of the Metamora Martial Arts students tested for black belt last week. I went to support him by being a body to beat on. A likely candidate that triggered the tightness in my back and the knot that throbbed for days could’ve been escaping Adair’s scarfhold pin he had latched on.

Another candidate could be the next morning lifting incorrectly, though I’m not sure exactly which exercise spurred on the pain.

Instead of getting more fit, as I thought I would, I ended up spending several sessions laying on my bed – which, considering its large dip, probably isn’t helping my situation – with a heating pad underneath.

My back still hurts today, so I decided to lift my lightest dumbbells – 10 and 15 pounds – in the hopes that I would have more control over the amount my spine moves. Luckily, I only had a few wincing moments in which my back told me no-no, while still forging ahead with the extra half mile.

I’m worried I’ve started doing too much too soon. After several weeks of virtual no physical activity, except a bike ride or a short run here and there, perhaps training five days a week with my heaviest dumbbells and barely stretching before squirming underneath a sweaty ikkyu wasn’t the best way to “ease” back into training.

Hopefully, this week will get better.

School is basically done. And that means it’s time for two things: blogging and working out. For this post, I’ll combine the two.

In six weeks, I’ll be doing the Warrior Dash for the first time. The concept is one of the damndest things I’ve ever heard of – a 5K obstacle course where you climb over hay bales, run through tires and crawl through the mud under all kinds of barbed wire.

Since I’ve been so busy with school – and you’ll get to see the results soon, I promise – I haven’t had much time to work out. And I thought because of my lapse of staying in shape, and because of the ridiculousness of this race, I should put together a plan.

It’s simple, really. I’ll start out running a mile five days a week, incrementing a half mile each week to 3.5 the week before the race. I’ll alternate my running from around the track at the high school, the streets of town and the trails in a park on the north side. Three days a week, I’ll grab my dumbbells from the wooden rack downstairs and use those so as not to neglect my arms. Each run will be preceded or followed up by crunches.

Iron Man crosses in front of The Punisher, Captain America and Thor

I’ve never set myself on any type of a workout plan before. I don’t have any lofty goals to lose weight or increase my time – I just want to be able to finish the race without blowing up after the first mile. The only other race I’ve been in was the Jingle Bell Run in 2009 with a bunch of friends from high school. Because we sprinted out of the gate, I was completely gassed by the time we hit the first mile and I slumped to even finish – though I’m still excited I crossed the finish line under the 30-minute mark.

Apparently the Warrior Dash is also a costumed affair. This race, though, will be run with black belts from Metamora Martial Arts. We haven’t decided on a theme yet, though two that have been tossed around are 80s wrestlers (!) and Bravehart warriors.

And so begins my first week. Maybe next week, I’ll be back to deliver a progress report.