So, I have fallen way behind in these weekly updates, which has partly to do with screwing up my hip and, y'know, not having much to update about. It also has to do with having just been legitimately busy in the past couple of weeks. When I'm super busy but there's cool stuff to blog about, I seem to somehow carve out the time, but busy-ness + injury depression/lack of much to talk about tends to equal blogging fail.
Thankfully, things seem to be coming back together now (FINGERS CROSSED), so what the heck, have a little update!
In my KP Half race report (such as it was), I mentioned that I've been having this hip issue lately. For context, here's the timeline:
- Tuesday 1/9: Track workout; I'd had a very very minor ache in my hip, but somewhere around the middle of this workout there was a sudden, sharp WHOAH WTF WAS THAT kind of pain. It went away, but my hip still hurt after. (This was the day of my car accident, but I really do not see how that could be related.)
- Wednesday 1/10: Threw my back out & couldn't really walk comfortably for the next two days. (This very well could have been related to the accident.)
- Friday 1/12: Everything feeling fine, 10 mile tempo run w/ no problem.
- Saturday 1/13: Hip super sore with moderate+ pain if I tried to run. Skipped running.
- Sunday 1/14: 16 miles with no pain
- Monday 1/15: Super sore hip, but it was a rest day so ok.
- Tuesday 1/16-Sunday 1/21: Normal 50 mile week, completely fine with no pain.
- Tuesday 1/23: The hip thing came roaring back with a vengeance during a hotel treadmill speed workout.
- Wednesday 1/24-Saturday 1/27: Have the flu/feel awful/don't run
- Sunday 1/28: 6 easy miles, can feel the hip but not awful
- Monday 1/29: Minor soreness, not that bad
- Tuesday 1/30: Quit track workout 2 miles in with another sharp, sudden WTF pain
- Wednesday 1/31-Saturday 2/3: Don't run, hope for miracle
Pretty much as soon as the hip started feeling funny, I was back in the Church of Strength Work desperately trying to invoke the runner's version of absolution for cross training laziness (squats, lunges, clam shells, etc.). When my hip did not magically heal itself in time for KP Half in spite of five days of zero running, I decided to haul out the big guns & make a PT appointment.
The good news: My insurance doesn't require getting a dr. referral in order to see a PT. Woohoo!
The bad news: Only some places are in network (read: covered by insurance) and the ones that are have openings in mid-March at the earliest. (One place: "We could schedule you on May 16, how does that work for you?")
So. I sucked it up & went to the cheapest of the places that could see me right away & just paid the out-of-pocket rate. Good thing this is the Year of No Shopping so I've got all that extra phat cash lying around!!
(Lololol *cry*. Tell me more about how running is the cheapest exercise there is and all I need is a pair of shoes.)
I saw a new-to-me PT in San Francisco this past Monday who I like so far, and his assessment was pretty much that I'd minorly strained a hip flexor/adductor somehow & not really noticed, then made it a lot worse with the repeated motion of running until I finally started to feel it. He thought the original minor strain was probably a result of the muscle being super tight and, yes, my getting lazy about strength work through the holidays (knowing that at certain points in the past hip muscles have been my kryptonite). He spent the next hour and a half grinding the ever loving shizzle out of it with an elbow and some Graston tools, then stuck me on an e-stim machine with ice for 10 minutes.
Post-Graston. From my PT with love.
I know what you're thinking; super hot, right?
He gave me some supplementary exercises to strengthen the hip muscle and suggested I come back in as often as my wallet will allow I can to get it Graston'ed a bunch more and in the mean time continue to roll the ever loving shizzle out of it with a lacrosse ball.
There is more good news, though. I've been able to do several short-to-medium distance runs this past week (up to 8 miles) with no pain, and the PT said that as long as I continued to have no pain, I could keep running and very conservatively bump up the distance and speed. I happen to have a pretty short, easy speed workout (6 x 300m's) on the calendar yesterday so went ahead and tried it, thinking there is nowhere easier than the track to tap out of an interval should things start to feel off, but I finished the whole thing with no pain whatsoever (and bonus, no trouble hitting the paces) so we'll call that a win for now.
On Thursday we're off to Utah to ski for a week, where I may or may not be doing much skiing, and expect the footing may be a bit too treacherous for anything more than easy miles. I also obviously expect to be the envy of everyone in the apres-ski hot tub (see above). For now it just feels bruised and tender (wonder why), and hopefully it will continue to heal pain-free as I (very gradually) ramp up the mileage.
Will report back soon................
Grand Total: 17 miles, all easy
Monday 2/5: Rest
Tuesday 2/6: 1 hour strength work
- 8 sets seated row @ 55 lb. alternated w/ 8 sets push-ups (2 x 15, 2 x 12, 2 x 10, 2 x 8 for both), 8 sets weighted step-ups w/ two 15 lb dumbbells alternated w/ 8 sets prone jack knifes on the physio ball (same as above), clam shell series both legs (4 x 12 each side), + 20:00 elliptical because a girl's got to do something resembling cardio. SEE ME BEING GOOD AND DOING MY STRENGTH WORK??????
Wednesday 2/7: 1.5 hours karate
Thursday 2/8: 6 easy. No pain??????
Friday 2/9: 40:00 strength work + 3 easy to the gym & back
- 3 x 15 deadlifts @ 85 lb, 10 x pike reverse leg lifts w/ straight legs (btw: even just 10 of these are enough to reduce my transverse abs to jello right now), clam shell series both legs (4 x 12 each side), 4 x 15 dumbbell thrusters w/ two 15 lb dumbbells, 4 x 15 weighted static lunges w/ two 15 lb dumbbells.
Saturday 2/10: 8 easy, beautiful miles through Golden Gate Park in gorgeous weather (see: the photo at the top of this post). Also no pain!!!! Though, hoo boy, did my legs feel like jello halfway through.
Sunday 2/11: Rest
Next week: Pray I don't have any ill-fated encounters with ice. D:
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Boston Marathon Week 1 of 18: On your mark, Get set...
Boston Marathon Week 2 of 18: speed, snow, & vertical
Boston Marathon Week 3 of 18: Foiled By Weather & Travel
Boston Marathon Week 4 of 18: There's "hills" and then there's HILLLZZ
It sounds like you're being proactive with the injury and that it is healing! Hooray for getting in at a PT and finding one that isn't all about you coming back every week to watch you do some damn exercises like mine was (ugh). The graston doesn't look pretty but if it works, it works- and you can't beat a doctor who is aggressive and wants you back out there ASAP. Glad you are back to running again and hopefully this is a minor blib in your training that will be over with soon.
ReplyDeleteHave fun skiing! I have never been and think I'd just sit by a fire in the ski lodge the whole time- I don't like cold.
Heh, I definitely plan to do some of that as well. :)
DeleteSorry about your hip - that sucks. I've also been having some hip issues. Would you mind explaining what you do with the lacrosse ball that helps your hip? Or maybe post link? I've been trying to use the ball, following a few youtube videos, but I'm not sure I'm doing it the right way. I don't really feel like it's getting to/helping the hip, rather just my leg around the hip...if that makes sense?
ReplyDeleteI hope you're back to normal soon! Good luck!
Good point! I'll see if I can get a post together about this.
DeleteThank you!
Happy skiing! NO ICE. YAKTRAX. ICE BUGS. Also curious, like previous commenter, on a) what you're doing with the lacrosse ball to which muscles and b) how they got so tight in the first place that you strained a hip flexor.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'll try to get together a post on the lacrosse ball!
DeleteAs for b), there wasn't really one answer. I do know from a previous PT that people have different quirks in terms of how their muscles react to stress or imbalances, and apparently mine just get pathologically tight. That PT basically said, "Not all runners necessarily need to stretch that much. YOU need to stretch as much as possible." And, let's be honest, I don't. I also know that as far back as 2011 I've just had tight hip flexors.
Another thing other PTs have pointed out is that the more you sit and the more you drive, the tighter your hip flexors are going to be. And I do drive and fly a lot, and though I have a standing desk, I know I don't use it as much as I should.
So. Those may be some contributing factors.
Oh, wow, that looks painful. But sounds like it's working. I wonder if it was related to the accident a little? Perhaps a combination of regular running damage, plus tensing during an accident, then running again?
ReplyDeleteWho knows! I guess it's not impossible.
DeleteI'm glad things seem to be on the upswing. I need a PT like yours. All the PTs I've ever seen make me want to laugh whenever they do their manual therapy because my massage therapist goes far deeper than they seem willing to go. I lie there thinking, "I'm paying you for this?" And admittedly that is part of the reason I've only really graduated from PT once since I usually decide I'm wasting my money and stop going (pansy hands massage, redo all the same exercises, boo!). I'm sure you don't have to bruise to be effective, but in a way I kinda want them to get in there and do stuff I can't do to myself.
ReplyDeleteYeah, agree. Not kidding that there were a few times during that Graston business when I thought I might throw up! This place is called Soma Sport & Physio (in Soma, shockingly). They do accept insurance, but they're out of network for most plans, which was a bummer. :-/
DeleteOne thing I will say for the Human Performance Institute at UCSF (which did take my insurance) was that I DID feel like the PT was doing more for me than just massage-theater & giving me a bunch of the same old exercises. I left there with some bruising at times as well!