What did doing 2 a days this week get me??? Pain. So frustrating as I have felt really good this week, seeing changes that I have been wanting to see for a few weeks now, feeling strong on our runs and in workouts. In an effort to hit this week hard, I have been doing 2 a days, meaning running 3-5 miles in the a.m. on the treadmill, then doing a run later in the day with Brian. From Monday - Thursday I had logged 30 miles and 3 workouts. No major change to my schedule, just upped my daily miles in an attempt to add some cardio....in a 2 week attempt to drop those few vacation lbs. I picked up. Well, Wednesdays are our most difficult run. We do 3 laps at the Lafayette Reservoir. I push Em in the jogger (65 lbs) and Brian pushed Soph and Bub (90 lbs). Total its only an 8.75 mile run, but the hills are intense, as are the downhills while holding back that weight. Plus I did a 3 mile run that morning on the treadmill, and a mini ab/upper body workout. I am thinking the pike crunches (see #5)added to the stress I was unknowingly putting on my hip flexors. Wednesday night, went to bed, went to roll over to the right and when I lifted my left leg there was instant sharp pain in the front hip area. (see pic below) The pain would wake me up every time I would try to roll over all night long. Thursday a.m. got up, not wanting Brian to know anything was hurting, sucked it up and got on with my day. Did my workout, but wasn't able to do any lunges or Mt Climbers. Everything else was ok though and I did jumping jacks, squats, planks, crunches....nothing else hurt, and I thought at that point that it was probably just a random pain that would work itself out. I Met Brian for our lunch run and felt normal, we did it in the normal time. When I put my heels on for meeting Thursday night that was the first time I felt the sharp pain all day Thursday.(co's visit) By the time we got home after meeting I could barely lift my left leg. Brian had to help me get from the sofa to bed as I couldn't walk w/o sharp pain. Lifting my left leg more than about 3 inches off the ground induces a sharp pain. I made it in the bed till about 1, then had Brian help me out to the sofa so I couldn't roll over, as that is what was hurting most and kept waking me up. This morning, any attempt at lifting leg gets a sharp pain. Any movement that involves tightening up my core to bend forward or lift leg, gets a pain....so standing up, getting in the car, bending to pull on pants, ect...
I am pretty good about pushing through the pain usually. I hate, hate, hate going to the Dr for stuff like this as I can tell you before I go what they will say. It's either a pull or strain, rest, ice, Ibuprofen, a weeks rest....but with a half and 3 full marathons on the calendar in the coming months, the smart thing to do was get to the dr. So I did. It had been 3 years since I had been to a Dr for anything (not counting the ER for my sprained ankle). Guess what the diagnosis was???
Strained Hip Flexor, ice, Ibuprofen during the day, Vicodin at night, no exercise for a week (ya, right!), physical therapy (again, ya, right!) She said after I had explained my schedule to her, "so you already know this is an overuse injury, right?"...Yeah, I know. So I went a bit overboard this week and am now paying for it. At least I know what I did. And I know I need to spend some time in my workouts doing hip flexor specific exercises. To be clear though, this is not an injury caused by running! This is an injury caused by my own stupidity and overuse, doing more than I should have done. Lesson learned.
Game plan - rest through the weekend, see how it feels Monday. First runs will be done on the treadmill so I don't get a mile away from the car and have to hobble back....but I really think 3 days of rest, ice, Ibuprofen....should be ok by Monday. Looking forward to the Vicodin and a good nights rest!
Here is a chart to see exactly what a hip flexor area is, and a write up on what they do.
Happy running to you un injured people! Have a great weekend and run smart!!
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Your hip flexors are among the most powerful muscles and tendons in your body. They are comprised of your iliopsoas (deep set muscles at the front of your hip), your tensor fasciae latae (outer hip muscle), and your rectus femoris and sartorius (they lie over top of the iliopsoas muscles in your front, upper thigh area). Hip flexors help you lift your upper leg to your torso or flex your torso towards your thigh (like when sitting up from a lying down position), they externally rotate your spine and thigh bone, and also limit your hip extension when walking or running.
Sad thing is there was no painted line. Maybe a bump in the floor? :0. That will do in an ankle any time! (Maybe a knee and a butt muscle too) I wish my injury was from over usage! Less embarassing?
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better! Listen to the Doctor some!
Hey, after checking my stat counter and realizing 90% of hits on here are for this post, I wanted to follow up w/an update. I did rest for 3 days, slowly eased back into my runs and workouts over the following 2 weeks. I have had no pain since the 1st week in May. I have since logged over 400 training miles for our next marathon (July 25th, San Fran) injury free.
ReplyDeleteThe rest, ice, and meds worked for me.
Happy running!
Hey Beth,
ReplyDelete90% of the hits are on this link because... so many of us have this going on. Like me, which is how I found this. Mine isn't strained, just general overuse. I found a few stretches that help. Both are yoga stretches. I've found the "usual" stretches don't help at all, or seem to get to that area. You probably know what I mean: it's hard to stretch that area. And of course remember, stretch after you run, not before.
Stretch 1: kneel on both knees, but stay straight from the knees up. Now put one foot out in front (say, the right one) with the thigh parallel to the ground. Keeping the left knee on the ground, drive the right knee forward into a kind of forward lunge but with the left knee still on the ground. Raise your right hand up in the air and look up at it. This seems to get to that area. Remember to be conscious of your lower back and abs position when doing this. Repeat on left side.
#2. Similar, but a side lunge version. Put that right foot 90 degrees to the side instead of in front. Do the lunge out to the right side. Keep right hand on right knee, and left hand on left hip.