The Injury Cycle

I’ve been busy laying on ice pads for the past two days. It’s working, things are starting to feel better. I hopped on the treadmill last evening for a quick half mile run to test out the progress and gauge whether or not I’d be able to run this morning. Everything felt pretty good and I felt even better when I woke up this morning so I laced up my shoes and got in an easy 30 minute run on the treadmill this morning. The pain is still there but it is dull and at least now I know exactly what it is.

I can’t wait to see the chiropractor tomorrow morning.

Back when I began having hip flexor pain in May I had just come off a crazy biking month, I had 250 miles racked up for April. The reason for that was because I had some shin splints I was allowing to heal and chose to bike and stop running for a few weeks. It worked. The shins splints were gone. Then the hip flexor pain appeared. I searched online for a connection between hip flexor issues and biking and found none.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been having trouble flipping over in bed at night. This has probably been going on since the end of June/early July and is a classic symptom of SI joint syndrome. Not knowing this at the time I disregarded it, actually I would forget all about it during the day and only remember in the middle of the night when I would go to switch positions. Still, I never figured it was anything to worry about.

Then the lower back pain. A trip to the chiropractor. I learned I had SI Joint Syndrome. It’s all connected. And I can pinpoint the beginning of this to those 250 miles of biking . Turns out that SI Joint injuries are very common in the biking world. Crazy, huh?

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Sacroiliac What?

Phew! I was a little worried I was going to offend someone with parts of that post yesterday. Maybe I did and they refrained from commenting. I’m sorry about that if I did offend you.

Christina, let me add to the pet peeves you mentioned. I was trying to stay on track with running etiquette so I failed to mention cars in my post. But, speaking of cars and pet peeves, I have two big ones. The first concerns driving with cell phones attached to the ear. I’m extremely leery of drivers who are talking on a phone. I don’t even know how they can possibly concentrate on driving, much less share the roads with bikers, runners and walkers.

My second concern is with drivers who think they own the road and feel that runners do not belong there. By law we (runners) are allowed on the roads except where marked otherwise. Yet, some drivers feel we should not be there at all and will go as far as swerving to try to hit us. This has happened to me on more than one occasion, this has happened to people I know. There is this one guy I know whose name is Bob, and we call car run-ins “getting bobbed” since he has been hit or nearly hit many times. Runners have died because of run ins with cars. I’m not sure it will ever end and I am a huge advocate of pathed paths alongside roadways for people who walk, run, bike, etc. I have lived in Eugene, OR where they have over 50 miles of pathways. I’ve seen it elsewhere such as along Route 70 in Colorado, outside of Vail. Wouldn’t it be great if ALL cities and towns started building these?

Yesterday was a rest day for me and I am taking one today as well. I found a chiropractor and called first thing Monday morning, I had a 10 am appointment the same day. This guy was great and I would seriously recommend him to anyone in my area who is in need of some chiropractic care. His name is Stuart Cohen over on 19th Street. He’s a fitness guy and after a little adjustment and manipulation suggested that instead of heat I should be icing my back. He feels the issues are with my SI joint (sacroiliac) and the left hip flexor issue that I’ve been having for the past two months is also a result of this. He also said that he isn’t going to tell me not to run. I’m to use my own good judgement. Just be sure to ice afterward. I go back on Thursday morning.

Interestingly, I looked up SI joint and found a wealth of information. Yep, it’s classic SI Joint Syndrome. It can be easily mistaken with sciatica and one of the classic symptoms is trouble rolling over in bed at night. Well, it’s no surprise that when I told the chiropractor that I had been having trouble rolling over in bed at night for about 3 weeks prior to my visit to his office he kind of smiled and shook his head.

Classic symptoms are difficulty turning over in bed, struggling to put on shoes and socks and pain getting your legs in and out of the car. (copied from http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net)

The SI joint is where the tailbone and the hip bone connects. Click the image to enlarge.

I found some strengthening exercises for the SI joint which I will begin once the inflammation goes down and things start feeling better.

(click to enlarge)

My hip/back does feel a bit better than it did yesterday. More ibuprofen, more icing and more resting. I can’t wait to head back to the chiropractor on Thursday. Depending on how things feel I may try a short run tomorrow. Remember folks, listen to your body.

Oh My Aching Shins

Yes, my body is just a little sore today, especially my glutes from those squat exercises. I love that sore muscle feeling.

What I don’t love is shin splints, and I have them. Therefore, I am cutting back my mileage and adding shin splint (or MTSS – medial tibial stress syndrome) exercises every day this week, along with the usual RICE treatment. According to this article, I should be able to run through them with a lighter load and be back to normal in a week or two. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Shin splints seem to be the bane of my running existence. They have haunted me ever since high school.

Results from the doctor

I had my follow-up visit with my orthopedic doctor this afternoon. You’re dieing to find out what he said, right? As I’m typing this Cindi just emailed me and there was also one from Maria. Thanks for checking in on me guys! I really appreciate that.

He took another x-ray and said everything looks good. He’d like me to avoid any impact activities for the next couple of weeks, meaning running. Doc would rather have me do some brisk walks for the next couple of weeks and slowly add a little bit of running. I have to go back for another follow-up in a month and bring along the running plan I mentioned to him which I found by Pete Pfitzinger.

Yes, I have been sitting on my ass for the past 8 weeks. HeeHee. And I have been enjoying every minute of it! I joined the gym three weeks ago and have gone sporadically to ride the bike and lift weights. I really need to stick to my schedule more! Three days a week plus once on the weekend. So … I’ll try to stick to my schedule, ride the bike, do some brisk walking and get back into weight lifting.

Lessons Learned

I’m three weeks into my recovery from a stress fracture. (Do I consider my recovery time since the actual occurrence or since the doctor’s diagnosis?) In this entry I’m considering the time span from the actual day of the stress fracture. So, three weeks in. My leg pain started to subside in the latter half of last week. Now it just comes and goes. I can feel myself losing fitness. It seems as if my leg muscles are slowly weakening. There is this weird feeling, not pain so much, just a little ache on the inside of my knees in both legs. My poor muscles. Now I wish I hadn’t canceled my gym membership back in August. I could be lifting weights and using some of the nautilus machines. Or swimming. Oh well. That was my choice to do so and help save some unnecessary money expenditure each month. I would be too scared to jump right into running full force after I get the go ahead to run again anyway. I’m going to take things really easy.

MRI Results

So, the 6 miles that I ran this morning, those are the last miles my running shoes will see for the next 4-6 weeks. Yep, that’s right. I have a stress fracture of the right tibia. I just keep going over in my mind the conversation I had with my LRS owner’s father who fitted me a month ago. I told him I had been running in Asics 2120’s, Saucony Guide’s and Puma Magnetist’s. So, he brings me Mizuno Nirvana’s and while they feel great on my foot they are totally the wrong shoe. “Too much shoe” I’m told when I take them back 2+ weeks and 80 miles later. Too much shoe is fucking right! Shin splints, tendonitis and a stress fracture too much shoe!

So, that’s the end of that.

I will live to run another marathon. I have my sight set on Steamtown 2009.

I’m actually okay. I’m not sad. I’m not upset to miss the marathon. There will always be others. I want to heal well so that I can get back in the game come December. Start running again.

So, anyone want a bib for the Philadelphia Marathon?

MRI

Got the MRI today. I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor tomorrow afternoon. I’ll let you all know what’s going on then.