This time, I have two issues. The first, is pain and swelling on the bottom of my right foot that started on my "birthday run" and came back again during the Tecumseh Trail Marathon.
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| The Spot |
I got several x-rays of my foot and thankfully no stress fracture was found. I haven't been taking any ibuprofen, etc. (except during Tecumseh) so the doctor recommended I start on a regular regimen of one 15mg Mobic (meloxicam is the generic) every day until the issue is gone. I actually haven't felt any pain in my foot since yesterday so this may be working already.
My second issue was with my hip / pelvis. After a little twinge of pain at Tecumseh, the tightening began after 8 or 9 miles and eventually made it difficult to run. After some examination the only exercise that is painful when still for me is pushing out sideways against pressure with my right leg. The entire area around my hip and IT band is extremely tight, so much so that when testing flexibility my left leg can hang down off of a table I am lying on a whole two inches lower than my right leg. I had a similar issue in 2005 so this is nothing extremely new.
I have about five physical therapy appointments planned between now and January, with a focus on lots of graston to hopefully loosen up the muscles and my IT band. Graston definitely hurts, and always appears a little foreboding when the physical therapist opens a black bag of tools that looks like this:
After yesterday, the whole area is a little sore. I also have a twice daily regimen of stretching that takes close to 40 minutes to complete. I'm willing to do pretty much anything to get back to running so I'm okay with this since at least gives me something to do to make progress.
They physical therapist at Bloomington Bone and Joint came up with these stretching exercises for me:
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| Pretty easy |
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| This one really hurts |
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| These two hurt even more |
So for the time being, the above are pretty much my "training" every day. I also am doing more massage of my IT band and muscles around my hip using a few great tools I've had for a while and got from Indiana Running Company.
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| The Stick: Flexible and great way to massage muscles with some force |
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| Foam Roller: Pressure created from foam rolling hopefully leads to muscle relaxing and lengthening |
Overall, the doctor was optimistic that I would be back to putting in plenty of miles by the beginning of January so I'm optimistic too I think. I'm hoping to start racing next year in February at the Lovin The Hills 50k near Louisville, KY.
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