Happy National Running Day! Do you have plans to get out and run? My family will be running at a “Seven on Seven” 7K. 7K? Instant PR! Interesting trivia fact – on National Running day in 2013 my family went for a run, and I got a boot from my Dr and spent the summer mending a stress fracture! It was a sweaty summer in that boot, but we got the BEST parking spots at Disney World!!
Speaking of the “best”, when I was looking for my boot picture I ran across this classic pic from 2014. It’s a ride photo from Cedar Point. hilarious!! but I digress…
Moving right along to Dr. news!…. In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of interesting visits to professionals about my ongoing hamstring/glute pain. I do refer to this issue as a “chronic functional injury” because it’s been a concern of mine for several years now, and I am still able to run with it. It just bothers me, causes me varying amounts of pain, and just isn’t right! It does limit my performance as it makes my running quite uncomfortable at times. It gets better and also much worse as I go through my training cycles. I’m pretty sure there was a time when I ran without pain, but honestly I can’t even remember when that was!!
After a bit of mess with strengthening attempts at PT earlier this year, I decided to go back to my sports Dr and see what he thinks. After checking me out, and telling me that I have the world’s tightest hamstrings (he always says that!), he did an ultrasound on that area. [The oddest part of that for me what that my Dr saw my underwear!! I say that because my OB/Gyn is the one that usually gets that honor, but not my sports Dr. Awkward!!!]
The ultrasound pretty much looked like a piece of steak to me, but the Dr was able to see some tendinopothy and bursitis. It wasn’t so much that he was super concerned, which was good, but enough that he saw that it would be causing me some pain. He discussed two suggestions on what to do next – one of which was super blood spinning technology (I”m not really sure what that was, but I heard “super expensive!”), and the other was PT and some super neurogel that would compounded for me. Of course it’s not covered by my insurance. I haven’t picked up the gel yet because it’s really expensive and I am wondering if it will really work. I still need to research that more. I did find the bursitis part very interesting because when I Googled that, it mentioned how bike riding is sore. SERIOUSLY, my butt hurts every time I ride my bike – for 5 miles or 19! Hmmmmmmmm
As for the PT route – by a bit of a twist of fate I got in touch with the same team I worked with last year. I enjoyed meeting with Alisha. I worked with her last year for the same issue and then ended up going to her associate, a sports massage therapist that helped me get far enough along to run the Erie Marathon. After that, my issue went way down because marathon training was over and I just let everything settle. However, the issue flared up again this year as my training increased. 🙁
Hopefully we’ll get a plan to start working on strengthening – with a slow progression, not full tilt!
In the meantime, I’ve been doing when “feels right” when it comes to my training for Mohican. I did a long run this past weekend, but didn’t get to run on the trails. It was on my plan for Sunday, but we had been at Cedar Point all day and I had zero interest in going for a run after that active day! In fact, I pretty much have zero interest in going out for any long runs this weekend too! I did put 18 miles on my plan, but I’m not sure that will get done. I’m really not motivated at all to do it.
My 5K training group started up this week so some speedwork is getting back on my calendar. Since this is the first summer in 4 years that I haven’t been training for a full marathon, hopefully I’ll have time to focus and repair some of my issues! Hopefully the speedwork won’t kill me – this will be one of those fun posts that I look back at two months from now and curse myself for not being smarter. haha!
Actually, being smarter is exactly what I’m doing this year as everyone is jumping on the marathon boat to try for a BQ (as always) but I’m just saying No. I know my body is in no shape to do that right now so why bother? There are many other fun things to do this summer, so I won’t be missing out!
Hope you can get out and enjoy a run. It’s only 54 degrees outside right now, which is incredibly chilly for this time of year. Sounds like a great running day to me!!
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Q: Did you get to run today?
Q: Have you ever had to wear a boot for a stress fracture or other injury?
Q: Have you had cooler weather this week?
Ran this morning with a friend who is much faster so what was supposed to be an easy run became my tempo run for the week. I have been in the boot twice with stress fractures. Not fun hobbling around in that thing! Weather here in Chicago has been awesome this t! Had to get up and close the windows last night because it felt chilly! Have you tried dry needling for your hamstring issue?
Ditto – had to close my windows too! I have not tried dry needling, although someone who did said that area was not very comfortable to have it done! I think I’ll keep that option a little lower on my list right now. I cringe at the thought of it. Or scraping. Eek.
I have been in the boot and it stinks! If i ever get another tibia stress fracture I will not do a boot. I had a second one and just stayed in sneakers and healed fine…the boot caused some foot issues for me toward the end of the 6 weeks.
I did run this morning, it was rare non- humid day!
My boot really rubbed against my leg which made it the most uncomfortable. Besides that I was surprised how mobile it was, and hot, but the rubbing was bad! Let’s hope neither of us have to do that again!
Hi Lisa! I woke up early today to do my run and that was a miracle. However, it was pouring rain so I decided to go back go bed and then run today in the evening. Haven’t done my run yet but I’m planning for three easy miles in a few hours. I’m looking forward to it!
I’m glad you finally got to know the possible cause for your hamstring/glute pain. In my case, after months dealing with my stomach issues I was finally relieved to receive a diagnose from a doctor. Because I finally had a start point on what I needed to do in order to heal. I really hope this is the start point for you to heal as well!
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I hope we can come up with some plan for my issues. It’s just been too long feeling this way! That would be so frustrating for your stomach pains too. I’m glad you got some direction and can hopefully keep everything feeling good!!
Its good that you got another opinion about your injury! Its so frustrating to put so much time and money into injuries. I hope you can figure out a plan that will help you recover from this for good!
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Thanks. Fingers crossed we can start moving ahead on this and get me all fixed up!
OMG Lisa your Cedar Point picture is freaking HILARIOUS!!!! I wish we lived closer and you and Alan could do game nights with me and Paul. 🙂
Way to look on the bright side of a boot… good parking spots. 🙂
So does the doctor thing that your problem can be resolved? I know how frustrating it is to always have something bothering you and holding you back. It is horrible. I feel like my WILL is always there but my body just doesn’t always cooperate. Can you talk more about what that blood spinner and neurogel is once your research it?
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Game nights would be fun!! We’ve never done that before. We do play a pretty competitive game of Really Bad Art with out kids though 🙂 that’s a pretty funny game.
Ditto on your feeling – I really feel like I could do much better, but the issues are holding me back. I will tell you more about the gel – I decided to go ahead and buy it. Waiting for the lab to make it now!