Remaining Injury Free/ Last long run snag

Its been a whileSince I last blogged here, life has gotten a hold of my energy and time, but I wanted to update people here! I am training for the marathon on our Canadian thanksgiving weekend (October 6) in Kelowna BC.

Runs have gotten to a length of 34 km last week, and I have had to squish my training because I got out to a late start in training.  So I have been adding 3 or 4 km each week for the last 3 weeks.  This may now being nipping me in the butt.  Literally.  Today I was due for my 37 km run, my last long run of the training.  all week however, my hip has been tight and a tad, a titch sore.  Stretching, foam rolling and my cruel but effective baseball rolling have all been part of the game.  Now however I sit typing when i was scheduled to go out this perfect Saturday and run my heart out.  But something doesn't feel right.  Experience has taught me not to push this too hard or I will pay.  BIGTIME!  Now I am left with a conundrum.  When to actually do my longest run?When to actually run at all again?  I have also learned that this can be feeling fine but not dealt with properly.  So I will sit and stew about it, frustrated and worried, but determined to figure something out before taper time.  I will roll and stretch and take care of my body, knowing that I will get there somehow, perhaps not the way I wanted but in one piece, hopefully not hobbling, and hopefully with a medal around my neck on the 6th.

Signed Up For A Marathon?

I have committedagain to the regiments of training for a marathon.  This will be the third for me.  It wil be Kelowna's BMO Okanagan Marathon.  This week I pushed my times to see if I could get back to my old ones and am taking a few days to rest my poor butt.  Literally!  Stretching my hip flexors and massaging will keep the injuries that come to me with speeding up away!

Its been a humid summer for running which is a hinderance to speed for me as well, but I am seeing good gains.  My goal was to amp up the mileage to over 40 km per week and keep raising it. 

Have you signed up for a fall marathon?  The serious training starts soon depending on your plan.  One rule I try to stick to is to not increase more than 10% per week in mileage for the long run and over all, as I pay for it in injury, feeling it in my glutes.  Stretching and masaging helps stave off long bouts of recovery.  Happy training everyone!

Massage and stretches for Hips, Bands, Butts, and Knees

Pulling backa bit today.  Did 5 k nice and easy.  Just felt like I needed to take it easier from the longer run on Saturday.  I bumped into my chiropractor friend, whom I know is a faithful reader of this blog ( you know who you are, GRANT)  :) .  He checked my hip and confirmed that it is still my piriformis/gluteus minimus that is the culporate, which is an overtraining issue.  My foam roller being found the other day in a box from my move, I am now working on preventing an actual injury while training.  I have been stretching as much as I possibly can, which has warded off any further injuries.  If I had not started this, I would most likely be not running right now because of the terrible piriformis syndrome.

Let me stop here and just say that I am not a massage therapist and am no expert other than what I know for my own research and experience!  Check things out for yourself and get seen by professionals when the time is right!

My Two Main Office Stretches

I am including some pictures of the stretches I use in my office and at home for the limbering up of my glutes hips and knees.  One is called the figure four.  The sketch at the top of this posting  is a "laying down" version of the same stretch. 

The ITB leaning stretch, shown here:

gets at the Illiotibital Band, but I have found helps with my hip soreness from this piriformis muscle tightness and inflammation.  Also a good one to use at the office, although it looks  a little strange when you are stretching and tlaking to someone, like a lady who has to pee. HA.

This stretch, which can be difficult to nail the appropriate glute area, has been taught by a few different professionals to me, so it is a common one for piriformis issues.  I dont do this one in the office... it looks a little strange.

Myofascial Release and Massaging Tight Muscles

FOAM ROLLER Stretches...

I have blogged about this with video

but here are a few pictures of how this might look for those with the foam rollers.

For IT band

Another great idea is the use of a tennis ball for getting to trigger points, which is more specific to the spots that get pretty trigger-ish.  Be warned, foam rollers and tennis balls are not for the faint of heart int he pain department!  Trigger points and myofascial release are quite touchy and can be acute in the pain department.  This is partially how we know it is working, but is also why many people think its just torture!

For more, check out this site, it is very helpful with great photos of these and many other stretches and strength excercises.  Thank you to Patrick Ward, MS CSCS LMT for the great post he made on the subject and where all these great instructional photos I swiped come from!

Running Good For Your Knees!!

In an article I read today I was thrilled to see that science is proving wrong the warning that somehow knees will become injured because of over use and wear and tear.  Knees isn fact through the studies cited were giving the opposite, that it will make ones knees stronger and keep them limber. 

Personally since losing weight I have had no problems with my knees, only injury to my hips, buttocks and ITB.  All not permanent.  I have had less foot pain as well, since I carry less weight around for my feet to carry.

Does this ring true to you runners out there? 

Red Faced Running Stories

Stupid is as stupid does, isn't that the saying from our favorite dufas from the 90's?  I was pondering all the private and not-so-private things I have done while running that were, well lets say, embarrassing!?  

Like there was the very first run with my friend Jeremy I ever took.  Being the "entertainer" I am, I decided it would be funny to leap into the air and turn to him and say "FREEZE FRAME!" as we ran side by side.  This made my very visual mind think it looked very funny, because I took a mental slow motion snap shot of myself leaping in the air.  It was more for me than for my friend's benefit.  Problem:  my feet didn't get back under me to keep running. with the momentum we were going.  Result:  me landing on my leg, hips,  and rolling onto my back and me having to stunt roll on gravel while keeping a smile on my face.  I looked completely insane.  I got road rash all along my legs back and body.  Stupid is as stupid does.

Then there was the time this summer that I decided in Victoria, along the beautiful ocean shore to keep running as 'ocean-side' as I could, veering off the road and heading onto the actual shore hoping to meet up with regular walkways I was accustomed to.  BIG MISTAKE.  It was a harrowing...er...HIKE over sludge, water, seaweed and eventually, I fell slipping off a rock I was leaping onto and minutely injuring myself.  Private embarrassment quotient VERY high.  Glad no one saw me, but I embarrassed myself!  How do you do THAT?  I eventually found a road again, but it slowed my run down to a crawl for a good 1/2 hour.

Then lastly, of course, any runner with distance under their belt would have some bathroom , er, issues.  When I first started running, I found my body's jarring and jostling , uh, loosened up my bathroom needs immensely.  A few emergency stops made for close calls.  One in particular didn't turn out so well.  I was needing a bathroom in the middle of a 20 k run, and a gas station seemed to be my salvation.  When asked the gas attendant, he pointed to an out house.  I could do that, no problem.  Once I sat to "go," I realized...hmm... no TP!!!  A sign indicated i could ask at the till 50 yards away, as it tends to get stolen.   But it was a little late for that.   Result?  I just ran off, uh, feeling unclean... ew...  Builds character, no?  What character?  Well at least it builds interesting stories for my blog.

2.5 weeks of a pain in the ... HEE HAW

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Well, my marathon training has now been bitten into. My muscles are continuing to give me grief, cross training is still the only way i can get out and about. I went for a trial run two days ago, but felt the discomfort growing in my injury, so I stopped it and made an appointment with my chiropractor.
Seems I have a secondary injury now in my buttock. My gluteus minimus is tight and injured. Ice rest and stretching. I will try in about a cup of coffee today to go for a run, but my guess is the injury will stop me again and I will need to grab my bike again.
With the kind of year I have had, this really does not surprise me, that I am injured, preventing me from the only outlet I have for personal time. I even got a flat tire last outing on my bike!
What this means for my marathon come October, i really don't know. I was ahead of Yasso's plan, so i will have to see.
UPDATE: 1 Hour Later: I went for another trial run. Got further than last time. It is definitely a different injury now. Right in my higher side. Dang. I had to stop since the discomfort was growing to where I couldn't maintain proper running form.
Rule followed in running: if the pain is changing your form or gait, STOP IMMEDIATELY.

POST NOTE:
A very informative podcast to refer to when injured comes from this blog called Runners Roundtable. It has the info I refer to through the resources I have found on injury assessment, treatment, and prevention. The audio is a bit sketchy, but it has experienced runners talking about their various injuries from running. Enjoy!
So..

• For Piriformis Syndrome Pain
• For Gluteus Minimus stretching

I will post more as I learn more about this new ailment. Until then, I am still a pain in the ass.
I Have a Chiro appointment today. Who, by the way, tried to kill me last week in treatment. Brandt, you know you're wonderful, but those tears were real.

The New Joy of Cross Training

With this injury, coming on two weeks now, has forced me to re-imagine my cardio. I haven't been on my bike for workout reasons before. I started this up just to keep me sane. Bingo bongo bango! Loved it. The burn was imenent, having not used my quads or calves quite as intensely. I have a lot to learn in this realm, but I can see how a triathalon might have its appeal. I have a trail bike, though but I was on a trail most of the time of my 1 hour 15 minute ride.
Funny thing, I was told to try to make it to Osoyoos lake, but it was so far, I went way farther than I ever intended. I was wiped after, but felt great. Cross training might need to be the way I get my 4-5 day per week workouts without overuse injury. We will see. Other than that I have one more chiropractor appointment, and I thinkIll be ready to hit the road again. I wonder. Will I have to start cutting my mileage at first, event hoghI have workout this last two weeks? Hmm.

This Is My Weak Time...

I hate layoffs in my running. It has now been 7 days. No running. I got some cycling in, but with each day, I feel more sluggish, like I am missing something.
I still have discomfort in my arse, it is ebbing, but still there. I will see how today goes. If I run on an injury, from experience i know it will not be good for getting back on the road regularly. Last time, I did this and could only run 4 blocks before packing it in in frustration and immense pain. It felt like a steel spike with each footfall going into my buttock.
So for now I practice patience, athough patient is not how I feel. Running has taught me patience in new ways. I usually push too fast too soon and pay for it, running has taught me to be patient with my limitations, to work diligently and keep at it. As Dory says..."just keep swiimming, swimming, swimming, just keep swimming...." :(

I found a new love for a tennis ball for self-massage. It has been great to roll my muscles on , although painful, I have felt the muscle release a lot, and icing helps too in healing the inflammation.

Man Down Man Down!

Well I did it again. Got an injury that will require some time off from running for a few days. I was on my long run on Sunday morning, pushing to 24 km, felt great, but had a bit of a tender Piriformis (now I can see clearly that this was what I was feeling, I wasn't sure if it wa because i spilled on my bike). By the time I got back, it hadn't gone away. Should not have run on it like that, now it is inflamed and painful to walk on.
I know the stretches, to apply cold and feed my body with protein and other nutrients to heal quickly. I hate this, though as it was preventable. This is the second bout of this injury I have had, both this year.
I have also developed ITB syndrome, which as not as painful, but made me back off my mileage and find new ways to contort to heal.
Injuries are now plaguing me, but I certainly need to take care when the need arises, or it will be longer term issues, which I cant afford in my running.