Pack to Pack

Although I enjoyed taking pictures yesterday at the Bedford 12k, I really wished I could have been out there with my friends and team mates. Looking at the pictures, you'd have to wonder why actually...not a lot of smiling faces out there. Oh well, I'll be out there eventually.

After the race yesterday I headed over to Mt Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. I needed to get my heart rate up so I decided to speed hike to the summit and back. Most of it was just that: speed hiking, but occassionally I threw in some running. Oh the horror! Not really. Running up hill doesn't seem to affect me much (from an injury point of view). I went up, over and around the backside before coming back down again. Roundtrip of 1hr. It was the closest I've come to running in weeks.

Today I woke up and nothing hurt more than usual. Usual is me spending between 30 min and and hour each night doing various core exercises. To me this was a good sign. Whatever I managed to do yesterday didn't seem to have a serious affect on my phantom injury. So with that I figured I'd try my luck again.

Off I went to Temple, NH and Pack Monadnock. I parked on one of the side roads near Pack and headed up Raymond Trail, 1.6m to the summit. On the way up I did a combo of speed hiking and slow running. Since it took me less than 30 minutes to reach the summit I decided to go down the other side to the main parking lot on RT101 (Marion Davis Trail, 1.4m,), running nearly the entire way down. Feeling inspired now, I headed back up Pack Monadnock for the second time, this time taking the Wapack Trail to the summit, another 1.4m trip. I ran the sections that were runnable. When I say I was running, think more along the lines of slow shuffle and not some guy doing a trail race. After a brief stop at the summit for the second time, I headed back down Raymond Trail to my car for an additional 1.6m. Total round trip, 6 miles and 1hr and 35 minutes of hiking/running.

All in all I felt pretty good. No real pain, a little sore once in a while but that's about it. Not quite ready to hit the roads yet but I am enjoying getting out on the trails. I probably did more than I should have today but it was worth it. Beats hanging around doing nothing!

2009 USATF-NE 12k Championships

I headed over to Bedford this morning and took a bunch of pics of the Bedford Rotary 12k Road Race. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I got everyone but I still ended up with nearly 250 pics. Sorry for those I missed.

Here's the link to the pics --> Bedford Rotary 12k Road Race Pictures

Here's the link to the results -->12k Results

Staying Positive

I've tried to stay positive and patient while dealing with my latest injury. The difficulty increases exponentially each week, especially since this is not an injury that I can run through. Most injuries at least allow you to run a little (reduced mileage) and that is why this one is so frustrating.

With that being said, I have to trust the negative results on my latest tests should be interpreted as some sort of good news (nothing seriously wrong). Still searching for answers, I followed up with my doctor yesterday to review my MRI, and she actually had a slightly different take than the radiologist. She believes I probably tore/strained my oblique muscle (MRI showed fluid buildup in my right oblique).

It doesn't really change anything. Rest is still the medicine I need and reluctantly take each day, as patiently as I can.

Yesterday I did a 10 min test run on the treadmill. I ran generally pain free and stopped after 10 minutes. Progress I suppose. My side is sore today but at least this time it didn't hurt during the run. I see signs of improvement (ever so slight), but realistically know I probably have at least another 4 weeks of rest before I can even think about running.
For now I have plan and with that I can stay a bit more positive then I've been in the past.

No Run = No Blog

4 weeks ago yesterday my right hip stiffened up during a 9 mile run. Except for one 'test' 3 mile run 2 weeks ago (which was very painful), I haven't run at all since April 14th.

I've tried several times however. Days and days of rest fooled me more than once that I was getting better but as soon as I started to run I would get a sharp pain in my side. So much for rest.

So far I've tried:

• doctor visits (3 times)
• chiropractor visits (2 times)
• x-ray of my hip (negative)
• MRI of my entire pelvis (negative)
• In my 3rd week of PT
• rest, rest and more rest

The physical therapists have found numerous issues, all of which have been worked on over the last 2-3 weeks via stretching, massage, ultrasound and muscle stim.

• rotated sacrum
• tight right Quadratus Lumborum muscle
• tight right Piriformis
• tight right Gluteus Medius
  
• tight right Hamstring
• tight right ITB
  

Here's the 'but'.......BUT when I try to run I still get a sharp pain in my right side, above my hip, in an area that seems unrelated to any of the above issues. So now PT has moved onto 'treating' this area (although not a single person can seem to identify what is actually causing the pain).

A long story short: when I don't run I really don't feel like blogging about running. Funny how that works. In fact the only activity my blog has seen lately is me deleting yet another race from my race schedule. So until I can figure out what's going on, I probably won't spend a lot of time writing about my problems (other than this time :-)).

Riddle me this Batman...

Let's start with some good news first. The vertigo is finally gone (or at least gone enough). I can't tell you how or why but but it was my chiropractor that made the single biggest improvement in my condition. He believes pretty much any ailment can be cured with chiropractic care. I'm much more of a skeptic but I still enjoy my visits. He's a runner and cyclist and understands how some of us need to get back in the game as soon as possible. If nothing else, he's very informative, more so than any doctor I see. So for vertigo he gets a thumbs up.

Onto running...and one of the strangest injuries I think I've ever had.

• I can walk pain-free, up or down stairs.
  
• I can use the Eliptical machine pain-free.
• I can ride a bike pain-free. I rode 22 miles on Friday and 41 miles on Sunday with NO issues.
• I can hike a mountain pain-free. I hiked Mt Monadnock with my kids on Saturday with NO issues.
• I can rake, I can shovel dirt, I can lift 50lb bags of fertilizer.
• I can do sit ups.
  
• I can't run more than a couple of steps without stopping.

It's been 2 weeks since I last went for a run. Other than knee surgery, I can't remember any injury that has prevented me from running longer than this one. The pain feels the same today than it did 2 weeks ago when I stopped running.

I've been to two doctors (including a sports medicine doctor), a chiropractor and a physical therapist. According to them it's a:

• hip flexor strain
• SI Joint Dysfunction
• ab strain
• tensor fascia lata strain

In other words, not a single one agrees what the problem is. Each does some test that identifies a weakness somewhere, and they all might be right. I may have all the above problems. BUT, I'm not convinced any of these are the root cause of my pain while running.

So if anyone wants to play 'name that pain' here's the summary of my symptoms:

• The pain is on my right side, either right in the middle of my side or slightly to the rear.
  
• It's right above my waistline, just above the iliac crest, sort of in the 'love handle' area.
  
• It feels deep. I have to push pretty hard to find it.
• It is somehow related to rotation. If I plant my foot and then rotate (getting up from my desk and going to the right) it hurts.
  
• When I try to run it hurts on each foot strike with my right foot.

Other than that I feel great!

April Update: HA!!!

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.

Merrimack River Trail Race - Race Report

Awful.

That's all I have to say about that.
Forrest Gump