So, what’s going on with my hips and my lack of running (spoiler alert, I waited to write this after I had a successful run and knew I wouldn’t be sidelines for the foreseeable future)?
I’ve had problems with my left hip since … huh, a while. I had dry needling done on it regularly before Blue Ridge and it hadn’t bothered me since then. Huzzah, I’m cured! Not so fast. Three weeks ago, I got a little over-exuberant with my extra cross training time and did tire flips and a tire carry and felt something …give… a bit. Two days later, I ran a somewhat fast 9 miles. Two hours later, I could hardly walk. So, I did the logical thing and rested. For a day. And then tried to run 8 miles on my treadmill (made it just over 7. So stupid).
Okay, I thought, I’ll rest a bit more. Three days, this time! Look at me resting! Tried to run four miles on Saturday and felt pain with the first step but pushed on for 1.5 miles, to keep a friend company (again, stupid). I then came home and lost my shit on my running group’s message board. Thankfully, someone worked somewhere that had Saturday hours and a physical therapist could see me if I got there by noon. You can bet your ass I was sitting in the office at 11:45!
The physical therapist tried to assess me but I was so inflamed, she couldn’t do all of the motions. She did say that nothing was torn or broken (whew!) and it seemed to be a problem with my hip flexor and a lazy ass glute. I told her that I worked on that quite a bit and I showed her what I did. Which, apparently, was all wrong. I was using my back and every other muscle than what I was supposed to use. She then prescribed a regimen of clam shells, glute bridges, hip flexor stretches, and foam rolling. Thankfully, she said I could use the elliptical and swim, as long as it didn’t hurt (but no running until I was down to 0 pain – which was not a problem because I couldn’t even roll over in bed without the pain waking me up).
So, I did my exercises and learned to love the elliptical. I saw the PT a week later and she finished her assessment and confirmed that I was moving in the right direction but still no running 😦 She also had me show her my squats and they were atrocious. I mean, I was embarrassed by them! When did they get so bad?! I also learned that I can’t tell when my pelvis is square and that I keep dropping my hip and rotating and that is causing the problems. So, I now have some squats and single leg balancing to add to my list of exercises. And more elliptical.
These are all the exercises that I have been doing:
This morning, I decided to do a test run of a mile. My pain has been very moderate and I would call it more of a tight feeling than true pain. I’m also seeing my coach tonight to see if we can salvage my Marine Corps Marathon plan (I hope so, I’ve been working hard to keep my base intact!) and I wanted to be able to tell her honestly if I could run. The first mile felt good at 11:13 so I decided to pick it up just a smidge and keep going. Mile two was 11:05, still okay. Mile 3 was 10:59 and then I ran 2/10th of a mile at 8:00! Again, no pain, just a bit of tightness. I then did all of my PT exercises and declared it a win! Now to figure out what to do with my training (I’m glad I have a coach to help with this!)
Coincidentally, this was today’s post from Another Mother Runner. I plan on adding those BOSU exercises, plus some daily plank work, plus yoga once a week (because I’m as flexible as a metal rod) to my rotation. It will be a lot of work but I think it will keep me in running form!
Unexpected Runner 