Oy!
I went down for my run today feeling good. My food was relatively in check, running the past 2 days got me feeling better and more prepared for the 3.1 mile attempt today, and I've been able to get a decent amount of sleep over the past few days as well. I was ready to take on this run!
Lucky for me, Superbad happened to be on, and if you're going to be watching TV while running, comedy is definitely the way to go. I did the first mile at a slower pace and came in at 10:54. Not too happy about that so I bumped my speed up a little bit so as to be faster but not wear myself out too soon. At about 1.5 or 1.6 miles I started noticing some cramping & pain going from my lower back into my right glute and hip. "Not again!" I thought to myself. After my last injury, which I discovered was to a hip flexor, I started doing exercises to strengthen my flexor muscles so that I don't strain/pull/whatever them again. And as I ran tonight I realized that this was different; while I felt a little bit of strain in my hip, the pain was mostly in my lower back & glute.
I started to worry if I was even going to be able to make it to 2 miles, let alone 3.1! But I hit 2 miles at 21:28. Better, but still not great. I didn't want to push it too hard right now and hurt myself further, but I also didn't want to give up too early, so I pushed on. The whole last 1.1 mile I was wondering if I should stop or not, was I doing more harm than good, will I have to take off more days for rest now and throw a wrench into everything? Ugh, it was so frustrating!
So the good news is that I finished at 32:50, which isn't too shabby for being lazy for a while. Also, after the run I got to stretch and I stretched quite a bit. I even looked up stretches for the glutes and lower back and added those in as well. I also had wifey rub some of the kinks out and there will be another massage session with ET later too. After all of that and some time relaxing, I am happy to report that most of the pain has subsided. Something has definitely been strained though and I am not 100% out of the woods. Since tomorrow is Monday I am resting. If I have to rest again on Tuesday I will, but I HAVE TO be able to go on Wednesday & Thursday for me to feel even remotely ready for Saturday. So I'm taking it one day at a time & keeping my fingers crossed!
Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?
Good job hanging in there! As Lizzie mentioned on FB, I am all about the foam roller. It seriously solves every problem I have! You also should spend some time figuring out the pain, how it feels, etc and then use google to narrow down what it may be. Some running "injuries" are more a case of bad form, not being warmed-up, or just tweaking something the wrong way and not something you have to be overly concerned about. Others are a signal that something is wrong and will get wronger if you do not address it! So be a detective and try to nail down what it is, then take care of it. You got this!
ReplyDeleteAs always, thank you for your support! The "ouchies" are tough, especially when dealing with online diagnoses. This time around I think it's just a strain and I'm starting to think it's from when I do the really fast sprints. While I feel I am getting better at them, my body is just not used to it since I've been doing slower runs this whole time. Also, since it felt better with massage and rest I'm even more inclined to go with just a strain. Who knew that running would expand my knowledge of so many other things?! Core strengthening exercises, the human body, how muscles work...fascinating what opening one little door does!
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