I’m hurtin’

Last Thursday I hurt myself. After warming up for 2.6 miles over to Scenic/Pecos. I had two 3.5 mile loops to complete at MPG. At the end of the first loop I felt a tightness in the front of my left thigh. On the second loop it became tighter and tighter, it burned and hurt, and I walked part of the last hill. After doing the loops I headed back to Barton Pool and had to walk. Running was too painful. Steve and Scott picked me up at Exposition on Lake Austin Blvd and drove me back. Not good, not good at all.

On Friday I wrote Steve “Reporting in… Well I’ve iced my left thigh a number of times over the past two days, kept it elevated, and did not run today. Right now it feels OK, but I know that by exercising it will tell the truth. So I’ll be there tomorrow morning and see how I do. If things get worse I’ll turn around and run a shorter distance.”

On Saturday I followed up with “Well here is the latest. I started out with a slight twinge in my left quad this morning for the long run. I didn’t feel any pain. Just the fact that it’s not up to par. If all went well I was planning on 16 miles. I started slow and did not expect to be at pace for any of the run as was expected, but just wanted to complete the distance. At 4 miles my quad was throbbing, but I kept going. Yeah, Yeah, I know, but sometimes I push through a cramp and it gets looser. Well I got to the Shoal Creek, the starting point, and headed north still going slowly. After 3/4 mile I got a sharp pain in my muscle and decided that was it and it was time to turn around. The only problem was that I now needed to get back to Rogue and it was 5 miles away and I was hurtin’. So shuffling along, and walking I finally made it back. My muscle felt tight, thick, and cramped. The last time I felt this way was years ago at Decker on the side of my knee and I ran hurt for the whole 20K. When I completed I couldn’t bend my leg it was so tight and sore. Then the next day I was bruised so I had done some damage. I don’t know what is wrong, but I’m going to have to back off and get better. Sigh. By the way it doesn’t hurt as I sit typing this. I can walk and climb stairs fine. It’s just running which aggravates it. I’m icing it as I type and will consider this week to be a recovery week. Thoughts, suggestions?”

I’m not a happy camper right now. I’m frustrated. I just didn’t need this. And I’ve been doing core weights, roller massage, and strides all to help eliminate something like this. Sheesh.

Update: I finally figured out why I got hurt today. I was putting on my running stuff this morning to attempt a slow 4 mile run. As I was getting on my underwear I realize that my new ones were downstairs in the dryer. So I got on a pair of my old ones. As I squeezed into them I realized how tight they were around my thighs. And that was it. I’ve been using them for 3-4 years and I never realized how they had affected me. The new ones are much looser and caused my thigh muscles to operate differently including getting a muscle strain. Wow! Who would have thought. Now I’ve got to figure out how to heal and adjust to these new constraints. BTW, I was only able to complete 0.3 miles before the pain in my thigh told me to stop and turn around. Hmmmm.

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