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Chairs, pillows and patches didn't fix my back. Running did.

A year of lower-back pain from long days in a lab chair, four fixes that only worked for a while, and the one thing that actually helped. The numbers are below, week by week. Drag through them, or press play.

Running Back pain Habit building Strava log Apr – Oct 2026
Explore the log Jump to milestones
Dhan running past concrete bridge pillars at golden hour, wearing a hydration vest and yellow racing shoes
Running photo
assets/about/running/running.JPG
Vest on, yellow Zoom Flys on. Golden-hour miles under the bridge.
683.7km

run since April 27, 2026 — and counting.

2
Half-marathon-distance runs
10K+
Runs: lots of them
56.5
km in my biggest week
13 wk
straight weeks of 30+ km

How it started: a chair problem

Summer 2025 to summer 2026.

  1. Summer 2025

    The back pain shows up

    Grad school means long hours in the lab, and most of them sitting in a chair. By summer 2025 my lower back had started to hurt, and it kept hurting.

  2. 2025 – 2026

    I tried buying my way out of it

    Every fix helped for a little while, and then the pain came back. Hover over each one to see how it went:

    ✕ Patches ✕ Better chair ✕ Better bed ✕ Better pillow
    Four purchases, four temporary fixes.
  3. May 2026

    I started running instead

    I stopped looking for a product and tried moving more instead. I began with a few short runs in mid-May, then started running properly in the last week of the month.

  4. About one month in · late June 2026

    My lower back hurt less

    About a month after I started, I noticed my back was hurting less. That was the first thing all year that kept working, so I kept running.

The log, week by week

Hover or tap the chart, drag the slider, or press play to watch the season build. Switch to the running total to see a flag at every 100 km.

Week of
—
That week
—
Total so far
—
Weekly running distance, April 27 to October 11, 2026 Runs start in mid-May, climb to 42–57 km a week in June, stay between 30 and 52 km through August, dip to about 10 km in early September and recover to around 30 km. Running total passes 100 km on Jun 12, 200 on Jun 27, 300 on Jul 14, 400 on Jul 30, 500 on Aug 16 and 600 on Sep 9, reaching 683.7 km.

Weekly numbers are read from my Strava charts and scaled to the exact 683.7 km total, so each week is within about ±0.5 km. Milestone dates are estimated within the week.

The September dip. After a 13-week run of 30+ km weeks, the first week of September dropped to about 10 km. I eased back in over the next three weeks to around 30 km a week.

Milestones

The runs and weeks I'm proudest of.

✓
Half-marathon distance
2 ×
21.1 km in a single run, twice
✓
10 km+ runs
Plenty
Now just a normal long run
✓
Biggest week
56.5 km
Week of Jun 8, 2026
✓
Consistency
13 weeks
30+ km every week, Jun 1 – Aug 30
✓
Peak block
43.1 km/wk
Average across that streak
✓
Back pain
Less
Which is why I started in the first place

My running gear

After a year of buying things for my back, these are the only two purchases I'd make again.

My Nike Zoom Fly 6 running shoes, seen from above
👟
Shoe photo
assets/about/running/gear/zoom-fly-6.jpg
Shoes

Nike Zoom Fly 6

The yellow pair in the photo at the top. It's a light road-racing shoe with a carbon plate.

TypeMen's road-racing shoe
ColourwayCitron Pulse / Volt Ice / Hyper Violet / Indigo Burst
MidsoleZoomX foam
PlateFull-length carbon-fibre Flyplate
Drop8 mm (heel to toe)
WeightAbout 265 g per shoe (men's US 10)
Maelstrom running hydration vest with its 2 L water bladder
🎒
Vest photo
assets/about/running/gear/hydration-vest.jpg
Hydration

Maelstrom hydration vest

For the half-marathon-length runs. It carries 2 L of water on my back, with a drinking hose at my shoulder.

Bladder2 L, in an insulated, aluminium-lined sleeve
DrinkingHose runs through a port on the shoulder strap
Storage4 pockets
FitAdjustable chest straps, 22.4 – 61 in
BuildNylon, ventilated back panel, reflective strips
WeightAbout 0.5 kg (1.1 lb)

What I learned

  • Equipment can't make up for not moving. The chair, bed and pillow made sitting more comfortable. They didn't change how much I sat.
  • Give it a month. It took about a month of running before I noticed my back hurting less.
  • Consistency beats big weeks. My biggest week was 56.5 km, but I'm prouder of the 13 weeks in a row above 30 km.
  • Watching the total grow keeps me going. Logging every run and seeing the next 100 km get closer is a big part of why I keep showing up.

This is what worked for my back. It isn't medical advice. If your back hurts, have someone qualified look at it before you start running.

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