Well, after 12 LONG days of no running, I was able to get six miles in today. Two in the morning and four this afternoon. I'll write a more detailed explanation of what happened, but in short, I badly strained my right hip and glute muscles and it has sidelined me for 12 days. But after way too many hours on the bike and the elliptical and five or six visits to the PT, I may actuallty be on the mend.
I did a mile around the track this morning before I started feeling the same strong pain in my glute. I wanted to cry. So I walked back to my car only to realize my keys were locked inside. I had 20 minutes until my PT appointment and about a mile to the nearest phone. So I started walking to call my wife to come get me and realized I would never make my appointment unless I at least jogged. So I did. As I did, I realized two things. First, the pain was different this time. Rather than a sharp shooting pain, it was more of an ache indicating tightness more than damage. So I hummed along at 7:45 pace or so until I reached the has station. I called my wife and she came and got me and I made my PT appointment.
If I hadn't locked my keys in the car, I would have never run this afternoon because I would not have run long enough to get a proper diagnosis.
So this afternoon felt pretty good. It's still very tight but I my PT and I were able to narrow it to just the Gluteus Medias. The good news is we've isolated it. The bad news is it's a very difficult muscle to stretch.
So my plan is to increase mileage 1 mile per day the rest of this week stretching in the middle and afterward. No doubles. If all goes well, I should have 41 miles for the week and have a much better idea how to proceed next week. | 