September 1, 2010
Run: Union Reservoir (9.71 mi)
So after over a week off, it was time to test this hip out. Felt it right away but thought it might be OK. After the first small hill, my right hip flexors flared up. Damn it. I stopped and stretched a bit then moved on. Ran OK with a dull pain until mile 7 when it went sharp. Felt my kneecap being ripped off. Didn't want to run for fear of injuring something else. Alternated walking and running every 100 steps for 3 miles home. The walk of shame. No fun.
The good news is that my feet are better! I have been sanding them nearly every night and am breaking through thick layers of skin to expose nice pink stuff down below. Trying to get to a place where I have a good baseline of healthy (read not dead) skin down there. Evidence of the sanding by the holes in my feet.
I went to acupuncture last night for the first time. Didn't hurt at all. I had visions of big sewing needles stuck in my legs. Half the time I couldn't feel them even go in. She worked 3 areas on my right side: hip flexors, IT band, right butt cheek. The needles produces some very large twitches. That was cool. Weird sensation of pain but not pain...kind of like relief. She pointed out a variety of trigger points where you could feel knots in the muscles. The consensus is that the Piriformis Syndrome, which now feels dull and seems mostly resolved, pulled on my leg in such a way that it rotated my leg outward causing all this inner groin strain. So now I am dealing with the after effects of the original problem. So on one hand, I got better but on the other hand, its just moving the problem around. Not sure where to go from here. Probably just keep at it but lower the running again for a week because there is no use in walking it in.
I went 9.71 miles with an elevation gain of 213 feet in 01:29:23, which is an average pace of 09:12. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.
