Saturday, June 6, 2009

Injury Update

By Monday I was pretty convinced the problem was not actually w/ my back.  From all the research I did, it seemed what I had was more a problem w/ the SI joint between the sacrum and the hip.  The main issue was simply that the joint was unstable (not good for a weight bearing joint), however it was improving every day.

I x-trained on Monday and Tuesday, but I also did some stretching on Tuesday which inadvertently irritated the issue and set me back.  On Wednesday I did see a Chiropractor, who suggested that the problem may have been caused by a tight adductor muscle on the right side that may have had a spasm while sitting in the ice water - this spasm tugged at the sacrum which got it out of alignment and caused the issue in the SI joint.  (he stated that my spine was in good shape and he was actually surprised it was aligned so well w/ all the pounding my body has been taking w/ all the training)  

Long story short - the stability of this joint is improving every day.  On Thursday I x-trained again only this time I was good enough to do a great spinner bike session after my 40-minutes on the elliptical.

On Friday I hit the elliptical again, and then got onto the treadmill for 3-miles.  I started about 7:30 pace and ramped down to 5:56 - no issues.  

Today I went to the track to run 4-miles (I want to avoid the trails right now as I don't feel an uneven surface is best) However, I can only run so slow on a track and after a 6:20 opening mile and a 5:54 second mile I decided to take a 3-minute break before continuing.  (coach said I should not put myself into a position where my body experienced any fatigue at all - didn't want to compromise form at all until we were sure the SI joint would hold)  After the 3-min break I did 2 x 400m at 78 and then 72 w/ a 1-min break.  

Everything went OK, however I believe the joint is currently robbing me of some power.  I don't feel I'm covering as much ground per stride as before.  But as long as I'm improving every day, if a slight loss of power is my only issue right now considering I could barely walk a week ago - well, I'll just have to accept that.  

The plan is another easy day tomorrow and if everything is good, some in and out 200s (w/o the watch!) on Monday just to get up on the toes a bit and see how that goes.  I have a CMT appt on Tuesday where the focus will be the adductors and hips - just loosen the whole area up.

If all's good there then it will be time to hopefully start back up again.  However, I obviously have several dots to connect between now and then, so nothing is guaranteed. 

Training:

Mon, 6/1:  x-train - elliptical and spinner bike

Tues, 6/2:  x-train - elliptical (did some stretching which aggravated the area)

Wed, 6/3:  x-train - elliptical

Thurs, 6/4:  x-train - elliptical, tough spinner bike session

Fri, 6/5:  x-train - elliptical, 3-miles on treadmill

Sat, 6/6:  2-miles (6:20, 5:54), 2 x 400m (78, 72) 

5 comments:

Grellan said...

Glad to hear things are going in the right direction - who'd have thought sticking you legs in a ice could result in such an injury.

RICK'S RUNNING said...

CHECK THIS OUT;
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16625

bricey said...

good to see that things seems to be sorting themselves out. Keeping going with the x-training etc will certainly have minimised any impact on your season.

Ewen said...

I hope things continue to improve Mike. Looks like you might have had a close escape. The power will come straight back once it settles.

Have a good week!

Unknown said...

Found my over from Michael's blog. Very cool blog!

It sounds like whatever it is, it is getting progressivly better. I'm going to have to remember to be careful when taking ice baths in the future.