Being Irregular

The appointment with the doctor was encouraging and informative. he finished the appointment by telling me "If you were a regular person and all you wanted was to be pain free and able to walk again you'd be done." If I want to run races again I need to continue to add strength excercises to the strerching ones I've been doing. Overall he was very pleased and sees no reason why I can't get back to running....eventually.

He was also able to explain to me what happened. My non-existent stretching routine did nothing to hel my tight hamstrings and weak glutes. This understandably affected my gait and footfalls and put extra stress on my hip flexors. As I tried to increase my weekly mileage - even using the 10% rule - my hip flexors continued to be stressed to the point of giving in. This left me without the strength to carry my leg under its own power. Rest, the PT and my obsessive dedication to doing the excercises (now) has restored enough that I can walk without pain or limp. If I want to run any distance without pain or discomfort I have to build up the strength and continue to stretch. The 5k plan turns out to be a good one. As long as I add the strength excercises while slowly building the running segments I should be ok. Consistency with the excercises and slow build up are key.

Meanwhile the xray revealed a cam impingement in my hip. This means that the ball of my hip is not perfectly round so the ball and socket bump eachother when they should slide. This causes pain in the groin/hip area. While not normal it's not that uncommon. It explains why I get pain in the groin/hip area frequently. It is not what caused the hip flexor weakness...at least not by itself. It does explain why I went too far with the hip flexor weakness. I get pain in that area a lot on long runs and it will go away once I'm warmed up. But this time the pain was not all from the same source.

The cam impingement requires a commitment to maintaining hip strength which in turn stems from keeping the muscles in my legs strong- something I'm going to have to do anyway if I want to run.

Lastly the xray did not show any significant arthritis which surpised but pleased both of us.