Injury Screening

Well, things are progressing as well as I have a right to hope. I woke up this morning with no pain at all, even when I lifted my knee to a 90-degree angle (what has been hurting the most). As I went throughout the day climbing stairs and whatnot, I felt twinges a couple of times, but nothing that I even would have thought twice about if it weren't for the injury.

So, I decided to jog the couple miles to the store for the injury screening tonight. I was a little afraid of what I would feel, but I figured if it still hurt a lot to run at an easy pace, that I was something I should be able to tell the injury screener.

I went very slow, probably at an 11 minute pace or less. By the time I got there, I was still only feeling tiny twinges, and only when I lifted my knee up.

When I described the pain to the screener, she grimaced and said it sounded like a stress fracture. (Ugh.) But then after she moved me around and put pressure on things and whatnot, she was less convinced, and said it may be a strain of one of my groin muscles (the psoas). It's the muscle responsible for lifting the leg, which would make sense because on my run on Monday, it hurt the most when I was running up curbs.

She gave me some exercises to do to strengthen my glutes, which apparently will make me less dependent on the psoas. She wasn't completely convinced it wasn't a stress fracture, though, so she told me to contact her in a week or two if it didn't stop hurting by then.

She also said I should pay attention to when my foot struck the ground, and try to focus on striking underneath my body and pushing backward with my glutes. Right now, I apparently I focus more on pulling my leg up and tend to strike in front of my body, which is why so my psoas are overworked. More glute, less psoas. Easier said than done, but at least it's something to work on.

(Go ahead and laugh at how many times I've said groin and glutes. I know you're dying to do so.)

I asked if I should rest more from running, and she said that she never tells people not to run. She just tells them to be smart. Translation: you can run as long as it doesn't hurt. She said that basically, the less I run now, the faster it should get better, which is really nothing I didn't already know.

I did the same slow jog on the way back home, and I'm still feeling pretty good. It hurts a little more than it did when I got to the store, but not much, and still only when I lift my knee really high.

I think the smartest plan for me this week would be to take tomorrow off (I'm not really going to have time anyway), and then try another easy run on Wednesday. I hate to skip another speed workout, but those entail a lot of hard running and I think I'd be pushing my luck. I won't have time to run Thursday or Friday, either, so my next chance will be Saturday. Hopefully, I'll be feeling really good by then.

So, everyone root for the psoas and not a stress fracture.

Also, note to self: actually do the prescribed glute exercises. (Again, ugh.)