MON - AM: 23:15, 3 miles. Plan was to go 7 again but a shooting pain from my ass through my hamstring forced me to turn around early and start limping home. Eventually, even that became futile and I was forced to walk the last 1/2 mile, which is a first for me. Not too fucking happy right now.
TUE - OFF. After yesterday's shit show and a sore ass upon waking this morning I decided that it would probably be best not to run today. Lots of ibuprofen, ice, heat, stretching and all that core strengthening B.S. I've been foolishly neglecting.
WED - 16 minutes, 2 miles. Feeling good after a day off, icing, exercises and all that preventative junk, but once I started running my ass started hurting almost immediately and my leg locked up shortly after. Hobbled back to the car in a world of pain. Called Dr. Sjogren, who squeezed me in this afternoon, where he did some more work but was basically dumbfounded by my relative lack of progress. He referred me to Dr. Ken Harling for a second opinion, whom I will see on Monday. Joan Benoit used to drive down from Maine in the early 80's to see him on a regular basis, so hopefully he can help fix my gimpy ass.
THURS - OFF. No running, but walked four miles after dinner which didn't seem to cause any further aggravation.
FRI - OFF. Walked three miles this morning, then drove to Connecticut and joined Driscoll for a 30-minute bike ride before going to donate my money to the Indians. Biking didn't give my tail any trouble.
SAT - OFF. 30-minute bike ride with Driscoll after a long night at the reservation, a net loss of 50 bucks and a few measly hours of sleep. Backside doesn't give me any trouble on the bike but doesn't feel any better, or worse for that matter, walking around and during normal activities. Soon as I try running, however, the pain starts in my ass and makes its way down my leg in a matter of seconds. It's a cruel existance.
WEEK TOTALS: 12 miles, 3 runs. OK, I've just about hit rock bottom with this thing and any remaining specks of light are slowly escaping from my view. This blog has been a sad sight of late, so to anyone who still checks in regularly, I sincerely apologize. As of today (Monday, 7/24), I haven't run a meaningful step in 5 days and I've run the gamut on doctors/chiropractors/PT/massage with no definite answers nor any real progress to report. Cross training, whether I like it or not, starts tomorrow while I get to the bottom of this. Pissed off would be an understatement right about now.
Quote of the day:
I see that I'm dealing with a whole different animal than I originally anticipated.
- Dr. Harling, after filling him in on the specifics of my normal training routine this afternoon
3 comments:
Hey Mario,
In my soph year of HS I had a similar issue with my right leg. It was a hot knife pain - right where the hamstring meets the glute - that occurred whenever I brought my leg forward beyond a certain point. Stretching, etc. did nothing to alleviate the pain which went to 100% on the meter instantly when the point of motion was reached. For me it turned out to be a sciatic nerve issue brought on by a growth spurt (nerve needed to catch up and was pulled tight). It took about 4 months for the nerve to get in line and then there was no longer any pain.
Since you're not at a growth spurt age I wonder if you may have a pinched nerve that is manifesting itself in your sciatic nerve.
I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. Just throwing that out there as one for the punch list.
Sorry to see such pain Mario. Ain't no doctor either but have some personal experience to share. I have found that walking (anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour) really helps to "unwind" our running over-compensations which eventually turn into injury. Many of us have sedentary jobs and lives. Which means getting off our ass (after several hours of flattening it out) and using it to run at the sort of pace you run at, well commonsensically you can see where the problem might be. No intermediate dynamic stage. And my feeling is there's no stretching or ibuprofen which will balance out several hours of sitting at your computer capped by some fast 6:00 miles. So for what it is worth, I recommend taking some walking rest days, mentally tweaking your butt (sounds a little perverse I realize) to remind it that one of the main functions it was designed for - walking - has not been totally terminated by the dominant running/sitting polarity. The human body is better designed for walking and lying down, than for sitting and running. The latter are evolutionary functions. Remember: The Ass, is where Blogging and Running meet. You can quote me on it. Paisa', hope you get better, Corrado
Thanks for the comments guys, both were helpful.
Paul, my problem is a little higher on the glute and the hip than you described but some good info nonetheless.
Corrado, I agree 100% with your assessment. Unfortunately, any weight-bearing impact is causing me discomfort in the affected area, so walking, at least at this stage, is probably not advisable. I had the two words I didn't want to hear thrown around at a Dr.'s appt. yesterday, two words that sicken me to even write, but I'll abreviate them as SFX. I have a CT scan later this week to see if this is indeed the case. Hopefully not, but I'm mentally preparing for the worst, just in case.
Also, Corrado, I'd think you should start a blog. My two cents say it will be well written and widely read. Just a thought.
Thanks again guys, take it easy.
MF
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