I wish I had an update.....concerning running anyways. I do not unfortunately.
I started the month with a sub-par run at the Great Bay Half followed by an injury below my right knee. I then followed that up with another sub-par run at the Merrimack Trail race and you guessed it, followed that up with another injury. This time I hurt something between my outside right hip and my butt.
I've been running long enough to know most injuries are not always what they appear to be. So what do these seemingly unrelated injuries have in common. Well, they happen to be opposite ends of my VERY tight hamstring. In fact, I suspect my problems started months ago during the Boston Prep 16 miler when my back spasmed on the same side. My guess is I compensated or made slight changes to my gait each time something happened (back, shin, hip, etc..). In addition I put a LOT of miles on running flats (Boston Prep 16 miler, Jones 10 miler, New Bedford Half, Eastern States 20 miler and finally the Great Bay Half).
Slowly but surely I've managed to get myself all out of alignment and in the process managed to give myself quite a bit of pain and discomfort. I've seen 2 doctors and a chiropractor so far this week. One doctor thought it was related to my hip flexors. I didn't agree so I got a second opinion from a sports medicine doctor (who I liked a lot). She was very thorough and diagnosed something called Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction and explained how all of my problems were probably related. In fact my SI joint may have been the original problem with my injuries cascading from there.
So I rest again. In a strange coincidence, I also managed to get vertigo this week, so even if I was healthy I probably couldn't run anyways. I'm not really sure if you get vertigo, but I do know I have vertigo (5 days and counting). My doctor suspects its from some sort of inner ear infection and should go away on its own. In the meantime I am nauseous most of the time and dizzy every time I move my head too fast (getting up, sitting down, etc..).
The good news is I'm not stressing about being injured. I know I'll be running again soon enough so I guess the timing was pretty good. No races planned until early May.
