Archive for October, 2011

After cutting Sunday’s run a half mile in due to pain, the next day, I took a different stance.  I remembered the ART lady said it’d be unlikely that I’d hurt myself further so I decided to treat the situation like a rehab patient. I see those people in the park, one guy with a dead leg basically, and he does his daily rehab walks though it’s obviously painful, but he works through it to get better.

Now I’m not someone who’d say “run through pain!”, quite the opposite, but this particular thing, because I’d had it looked at and believed I had a clue, seemed like something I could manage.  My feeling was that as long as I took it reeeeaal slow, it wouldn’t be much different than walking anyway.

So Monday morning I went on a run, or rather…a hobble, at first.  Honestly, all I could do at the beginning were little mincing steps at over 10min/mi.  I stopped a couple times to stretch and by mile 3, things started loosening up substantially and eventually, I was able to jog like a normal person, albeit 9:xxs.  I went for 5 miles but when I was almost home, realized I was going to pass someone I’d end up having to stop and chat with and I wasn’t in the mood, so I detoured and ended up with 5.8mi.  The legs felt surprisingly good by the end and the feeling lasted the rest of the day and next morning.

Because of that, this morning I expected to feel much better at the start of my run, but ended up having another rickety slow start.  It seemed like my leg needed to be cracked somewhere but despite my preparations before the run (heating pad, light stretches, dynamic warmup) I couldn’t find release.  However, this time it worked itself out much faster and once it did, I became my old runnerly self.  What joy to glance at my Garmin and see 8:30, then 8:20, etc.  My last mile was a comfortable 8:07.  The run was 7.25mi total.

I did have a funny encounter at the start of the run with some dude who was not going to be Chicked, no way, no how.  It was in my 2nd mile,  jogging at around 9:30 pace and I pass this guy covered in sweat, who immediately passes back but stays just in front of me.  I’m speeding up a tad because I’m feeling better, so I pass him again and while I’m doing it, he speeds up so we’re running next to each other for a bit, till he finally inches in front again.  This happened a couple more times till I finally left him in the dust (at 9:15/mi pace for gods sake).  I was itching to say “I’m injured, what’s your excuse?” but held my tongue.

It also made me smile to think what a confusing sight I must be for the regulars in the park.  Going out with a mincing shuffle, a look of both consternation and concentration on my face, then on the return, happy and loose-limbed with a huge smile from ear-to-ear.

As for the injury and why it’s been such a bear, there was a helluva lot of stuff affected: my sartorius, gracilis, inner hammy (both along the length and the pes anserinus) then outer quad and IT band.  I believe this is why I’ve had those balance issues, everything surrounding my knee was whacked!  Also, I’m sure if I made another appointment with the ART lady, she’s unstick whatever is causing the rickety starts, but it’d be $75 and since work’s been slow the last few weeks, I’m fine to finish up on my own.

Unrelated but for the record, it was hugely relieving that 2 of my extremely sane friends and a new friend (blog commenter) all mentioned they’d had the same dizzying feeling with dappled light that I described in the last post, so I just wanted to announce that I’m not a hypochondriac loony tune.  Or at least, not when it comes to dappled light (which hasn’t been a problem since that one incident).

Lastly, I’m kinda sorta playing around with the possibility of doing that 5k this Saturday.  If I can get over the rickety start in the next couple days then I might.  I won’t be fast, that’s for sure, but looking at the results of the last couple races I missed…the 50 year-old first placers were 24:xx.  Hell, the winning 40 year-olds for both were 23:xx!  But Saturday’s race has a crappy prize (a medal) though they do supply a great breakfast.  The thing is, do I care about a win or do I care about my time?  Well, of course I only really care about my time, so it wouldn’t be satisfying at all in that regard.  But maybe I should do it just to do it (and since I paid for the damn thing), but maybe it’ll be too soon after the injury…  Eh, I’ll see.

Afternoon Edit: OK, I think I’m just getting overly imaginative with this thing and exhibiting hypochondriac traits.  Bottom line is I just went for a walk to the store and nothing freaky happened, my legs feel like a normal person’s legs, ditto the hip.  So I agree with my pals on FB (and ZAB below) that it’s simply a case of too much too soon.  I’m not used to being injured for real so I’ll reign it in a bit.

The day after my ART appt, I went 7.5 wonderful miles, feeling almost like my old self.  On the way back, when I got to that little downhill, I still had some trepidation so I did it a few times till I had it better (still a slowdown but at least was able to jog it).  Then yesterday, I did a double figuring 5s were easy and wouldn’t cause harm.  The 5 in the morning was fine but the 5 in the afternoon was not.

A couple hours before that run, I found an extremely tender spot on my lower back so I rolled it, which hurt like hell so obviously needed it. This spot looks to be where the sciatic nerve starts and part of my troubles seem to lie along the sciatic path so maybe it’s part of the problem, except I don’t have the classic shooting pains that often describe sciatica.

One thing I noticed on Friday and Saturday morning’s run was that the first couple toes on my left side were slightly numb, which apparently sciatica can cause.  And the bulk of my pain had been in my upper quad and when the ART lady manipulated the area around the IT band and outer quad, she didn’t find any of that crunchy scar tissue found on the inner quad and couldn’t match the hurt she gave on that side so perhaps that also points to nerve stuff.

Anyway, after rolling that spot on my lower back, I felt like a rag doll and super tired but I was determined to get out there so not long after, I went for a run.

I completed the 5 miles but like Tuesday’s weirdness, had that strange feeling of instability. At one point, I didn’t even dare check my Garmin because I felt unable to take focus off the pavement for fear of stumbling.  I also had a strange issue with the dappling of light that I have to think is me being psycho – it was dizzying to see the alternating dark and light spots on the ground so that when I was in one extended dark or light spot, I relaxed a bit.  Am I going crazy?  I’m not a hypochondriac but maybe my imagination’s getting away from me.

Today, my leg felt fine hanging out in the apartment – I mean, there are still very sore muscular spots when I roll or Stick, but moving around wasn’t anything notable – so I went for a run, albeit nervous of how it’d go.  It didn’t go well: my leg hurt and my hip felt strange, maybe just stiff, all this stuff is hard to describe.  So after ½ mile I stopped and walked home.

On the positive side, there was absolutely no discomfort when walking and that’s been an issue in varying degrees for the last 4 weeks, so that’s hopeful and heartening.  It’s just harder force on pavement that seems to be giving me trouble.

Maybe I ran too much too soon or over-rehabbed myself these last couple days (tons of stretching, rolling and Sticking, the leg exercises, finding this new spot on my back…).  I’ll try again tomorrow morning and if it’s as foreign an appendage as it felt today, I’ll either make another ART appt (I can’t argue with Friday’s great run after limping into the appt just the day before) or call a regular doctor.  It’s a shame how calling a regular doctor seems like an exercise in frustration and the last thing I want to do but that’s how much confidence I have in the system.

Stay tuned…

Cliff Notes: I do not have a stress fracture or MS though obviously, I do have an overly active imagination (MS really did pop into my head after Tuesday’s fiasco, more on that below).  All I have is some tendinosis and a ton of crunchy scar tissue in the exact spot my detective skills had predicted (sartorius), which has not even been a main source of pain for weeks.  Gratifying to know that I actually do have a clue about my own anatomy.  But let’s go back a few days to a very black cloud…

The Test Run
After resting 4 days, I went for a 5-miler on Tuesday.  Pain-wise, much improved, but my leg was extremely weak…to an alarming degree.  Unsettled, uncomfortable and extremely disheartened, I turned around at mile 1.5 to make it a 3-miler, it was clear I was not at all healed.

Heading back, I came to the tiny hill I zoom down every time I go running (at the rock climbing wall, for you locals) and as I neared the descent I had a moment of near panic, an overwhelming feeling that if I ran down the thing, I’d lose balance and topple over.  I paused, then gingerly walked down like a drunk doing an alcohol test.

At the bottom, I stopped, put my hands on my knees and thought “what just happened?”  I couldn’t decide if something psychological was going on, if I’d suddenly been struck with vertigo or if my brain was instinctively protecting my leg or what.  All I knew was that it was freaky and depressing.

I start running again towards home and after a bit, my leg feels stronger, less gimpy as it goes.  So I detour around the museum and, feeling more confident, decide to retrace my steps, return to that little hill and run down it like a normal person, just to put that moment of weirdness to bed.

I get back to the spot, run up (no problem), turn at the top expecting a normal jog down and…lose it again.  I make a “whoa” sound and have to steady myself.  Then I carefully walk to the bottom and again, stop to regain composure.  I finish the run with a ton of concern weighing on me.

Afterwards, I reasoned that my leg had likely become a wet noodle from spending 4 days binging on self-massage and trigger-point rolling (like a foam roller but harder).  I told my Facebook pals that I’d try another test run the next day and if it wasn’t better, I’d seek professional help.  But 20 minutes later, I was on the phone with the Physical Therapy place making an ART appointment (Active Release Techniques) for Thursday morning (today).  No time to waste.

I also decided that I would not run before the appointment; it would have been a stupid idea, gaining nothing, delaying the situation and likely freaking me out further. Turns out I didn’t have a choice anyway, my quad ached from the moment I woke up.

The ART session
My ART lady is Brandi, and I love her madly.

I’ve never gone to a Physical Therapist before, nor to a Chiropractor or even been professionally massaged.  I’ve always been an “unless we’re having sex, don’t be digging your paws into me” kind of person.  So I had no idea what to expect, though she did come highly recommended by my friend who’s had a lifetime of sports-related injuries so I knew I would literally be in good hands.

I won’t go into detail, but she was extraordinarily generous with her time, answered a zillion questions, manipulated and caused me exquisite pain, gave me stretches and exercises galore and most importantly, put my mind completely at ease after a month of worrying about this thing.  She finished with some kinesio tape and said I can run tomorrow!  I should plan on a short one but if it feels ok, I can extend it a bit.  She said it’s unlikely I’ll do more damage so don’t go crazy but that it ain’t no big thang.

All I know is, I went in there limping and I’m not now.  I even did my “going downstairs test” a couple times (last couple weeks, going down stairs has started with a zingy twinge and required some steadying) and it’s not zingy at all, just a touch of soreness, but no steadying or careful care required.  This is major!

So I’m a convert, I finally get the point of all this hands-on stuff now and my previous closed-mindedness about being pawed, dug into and stretched is now Bring It On!

Er…Racing?
Not this weekend.  It’s irritating to have paid for races I’m unable to do and this’ll be the second one, but the truth of the matter is…who cares?  Yeah, I’m losing some training time and my big race experiment is turning into a normal race schedule (not such a bad thing) but after the way I’ve been feeling this week, I’m good.  No, I’m great.  Everything’s going to be ok.

Took long enough but I’m thrilled to have finally ended the mystery.  It was the Sartorius, a muscle I didn’t even know I had.

The Sartorius’ claim to fame is that it’s our longest muscle.  It’s a thin strap that starts near the knee on the inside thigh and crosses diagonally to the outer hip.  It didn’t enter my consciousness when I was “shopping” for my injury, I just assumed it was a quad or possibly even nerve-related problem.  But late Friday night, I happened to land on the roller Just So and finally found the Aha! spot.

The discovery explained why the injury seemed to move around.  The muscle itself covers a lot of ground but also, once my outer quad started compensating, it developed a knot of its own, which in turn pulled my tibalis anterior, causing that weird pinching.  That bit came to light while rolling a trigger point on my outer quad with a bent leg, which reproduced the pinch.

We really are like large marionettes: pull this string which pulls this, which pulls this…

Anyway, suddenly, everything was rosy again!  I mean, I’d have to lay off running for a few days, but the relief at understanding the source and being able to treat it specifically made all the difference in my demeanor.  Bottom line, I was now dealing with 2 muscle strains, the Sartorius and outer quad, so it was a no-brainer; no running till Tuesday.

I had a fun weekend playing sickie though. I lounged on the bed with my laptop (thought it best to keep the leg straight), socialized online, fell in shameless love with a chick BBC series (Mistresses…so good!), foam rolled, iced, heating padded, took a short walk every day to test and stretch out the leg and stopped scaring myself by looking up information on stress fractures.  Was a fine way to waste the weekend away.

One thing’s for sure, every injury is an education and I always appreciate that aspect since the more you get acquainted with these things, the quicker you can stop them in their tracks.  This one lingered a while but now that my Sartorius and I have been formally introduced, that ain’t likely to happen again.

Phase II -The Plan
I can’t wait to begin this second training section of Fall 2011!  Coach Adam/A muse gave me my workouts for the next couple months which are very different from the last cycle.  They include “stroke volume” workouts inspired by this interesting article by Joe Rubio, then as the race distances grow, more tempo stuff is brought in. It’s a logical yet powerful trajectory that should leave me in excellent shape for the Vegas Half.

Notorious Sartorius Week In Review
This was the week doubles became my new BFF.  Injury aside, before I tipped the bucket, I was thrilled by how much easier it is to run the same number of miles in two rather than one run.  Granted, feeling “not right” as I did this last week, I should have cut back the mileage, but I do believe that had I done the same distance via singles, I’d have been out for the count sooner.

I’m going to write more about my observations on two-a-days vs singles after I get another week’s worth under my belt.  It’s a whole other reason I’m so excited to get back on the road, to experiment more with this new running toy.

Monday: 12@8:27
Tuesday: AM 7@8:42, PM 6@8:28
Wednesday: AM 10@8:16, PM 6@8:05 (strides)
Thursday: AM 8@8:42, PM 6@8:06
Friday: 1.4@8:47
Saturday:Off
Sunday: Off
Total: 56.4 mi

OK, I just discovered something I don’t like about doubles – it’s now a pain in the ass to write out the Week In Review.  Oh what I do for my sport…