Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Coming back from Injury into good news

My training since my last post was going extremely well.  I could tell I was gaining fitness and and improving my speed and had good hopes of running a tough mountain 100 and also running a marathon sub-3 hours.  All that came tumbling down a few days before Christmas when I did a stupid workout.  I ran really fast (5 minute mile pace or faster) DOWN Harlem Hill, then hike back up the trail and repeat 10x.  At the 8th-9th repeat, I started to feel a little tired and some soreness near my upper glute, piriformis.  It still felt a little sore the next day but I thought it was just because it was a new workout for me so I went to do a treadmill tempo run.  I felt something every step but continued on.  Eventually, I realized how stupid it was for me to continue because the soreness turned to pain and the pain would occasionally intensify.  By the time I cut my run short, it was too late.  The damage had been done.  I was severely hobbling home.

The next couple of days I was limping.  It hurt a lot when I hopped.  I researched and figured I messed up my SI Joint or something around it.  I went to PT a week later who said it was inflammation in the SI ligament, and my hips were moved out of place a little.  I went to an Orthopedist a week after that who specialized in Spine/back but he was clueless in my opinion (unfortunately, my normal Orthopedist is no longer accepting my new insurance), and finally a chiropractor a couple days later who said he has seen it before and I should be back to running in a couple weeks. 

So 4 weeks later, I was able to attempt a 10 minute run (then did 15 minutes the next day) at a very easy pace.  I felt some soreness in my glutes during my run but that was it.  No pain after running or during the course of my day and no pain hopping.  The Chiropracter said yesterday (January 21st) that I can start training again but don't jump up too fast in mileage and just pay attention to how it's feeling but thinks I should be good.  So that's where I'm at now in training.  Somewhat back to square one, but very cognizant of a recent injury and not wanting to hurt myself and be forced for more time off.  Here's why:

I was successful in one race lottery out of four and it was for the UTMB-100 in August.  The race takes place in the Alps of Switzerland, France, and Italy and the course is stunning.  Watch this video to get an idea.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWDUsvLCoE

I'm also going to be running the Great New York Running Expedition 100-miler in June which is a race around NYC hitting 4 boroughs (no Staten Island). 

And there's a possibility that I run a 100-miler in May while pacing friend during his attempt at a 200-miler, but I don't know if I'll be around to do it. 

So that's what's been going on this year.  January 19th was the first day I ran all year. . .  With the brutal weather so far, I don't feel like I've missed much, however, I know I lost a good amount of fitness and I was sore after running 10 and 15 minutes.  It should be fun getting back into shape!