[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Could not run today. Left quad hurts too bad, can hardly walk. Tried 20 mins on the bike, which was pain-free at first but then my hip flexors tightened up and my quad started huritng. Pain 7/10

Rest; quad pain 5/10

Rest and massage; Therapist said my QL on the left (same side as hurt quad) was really tight and thinks the problem is with my vastus medialis muscle. Pain later in the day after massage: 2/10. The pain is going away, but at this point I think the pounding from running will lock it up. I see the PT early in the am tomorrow.

Rest and saw PT. PT said hip was out of alignment (one leg was longer than the other) from QL being tight. She gave me exercises to do before working out to realign and set the hip, and said I am okay to run.

full rest day

30 mins easy with 4x100m strides

0.28 mi in 2:42, 9:39 min/mi AP. My hip is jacked. It feels like it's not even in the socket. Need to see a chiro!
 

Chiro did a bunch of manipulations, loosened SI joint on both sides. It helped temporarily although I noticed after the session my quad felt tight again. I think my quad is just too tight and pulling things out of wack. I plan on going to Bikram yoga tomorrow. I used to go to Bikram 1x/week when training for Disney and that seemed to keep my body balanced.

Woke up with my hip finally feeling like it's in the socket. Went to Bikram and realized my glute med is super tight as well as my knees and lower back. Squatting didn't hurt and I felt quite a bit looser after class. My hip felt like it was in the socket the rest of the day, just the quad felt a bit tight.

Light core work, arms, and calves in the morning. Chiro worked more on loosening up adhesions in the left glute, did scraping on quad, and loosened SI joints. Had 90 min massage later which was useless because the guy didn't even know what the TFL is. Quad is loosening, sometimes there was no tightness.

15 mins elliptical then 15 mins treadmill @ 3.5 mph and 7% incline. This was to check where my hip/quad is at. If I couldn't do this, definitely would not be able to run. Elliptical felt fine, but my feet always go numb ~ 10 mins in so switched to treadmill, where I figured the incline would be harder cardio and also took a bit of tension off the quad muscle. Did body weight lunges and step up with 0 pain 0 tightness. Also did calves and core and threw in a few pushups. Finished up with stretching and worked the trigger point ball deep in the piriformis attachments. I'm beginning to forget about my quad, but notice tightness every once in a while especially after sitting or standing for a while.

0.25 mile walking wu, then 6x[3 mins run easy, 2 mins walk], then 0.25 mile walking cd. Paces for runs were: 9:53, 9:22, 9:50, 8:44, 9:16, 9:15. Running felt so weird! But my quad felt pretty decent. 4th interval felt completely normal, 5th interval quad felt the most tight. Stretched and foam rolled after. Then went to Bikram. I noticed a big improvement in my flexibility today. I'm starting to feel strong again. My quad and hip felt really good on the walk home, then later in the day I forgot I was injured! :)

30 mins easy with 4x100m strides; 2.7 mi at 9:12 min/mi AP then stride paces were: 6:21, 6:00, 5:59, 5:48 min/mi. 3.24 mi total in 31:32. My quad felt better as the run went on. I was scared to do strides, but the last stride felt somewhat normal. I did feel like I lost some aerobic base though. Hopped on the bike for 15 mins and focused on maintained 90 cadence. Then did minor hip strengthening work and core. Biking felt 100% good and my quad felt the most normal yet after!

30:11 running for 3.23 mi at 9:20 min/mi pace then 15 mins biking @ 125 bpm avg hr. I didn't know if I should shut the run down early my quad was feeling pretty tight. I kept going thinking the quad would loosen up - it did and felt fine on the bike

90 mins of bikram.

45 mins on the bike @ 127 bpm avg hr. My quad hurt too bad to run. Worried something is seriously wrong. Bike felt fine. Saw ortho today. He couldn't rule out a stress fracture in the femur until I get an MRI. x-rays were fine, he thinks it's muscular so we just have to see if the pain goes away before the MRI.

40 mins on the bike @ 125 bpm avg hr. Saw PT today, she's beginning to think all the problems I've been having with my hips is stemming from a weak core. My left psoas was extremely tight and she tried to release it, then showed me lower ab stability/strengthening exercises. She said my hips are rotated because I'm not activating my core which makes one leg longer than the other.

5 mins walking warm up then 7x[4 min run @ 6.5 mph, 1 min walk] @ 1% incline then 20 mins walking at 8% incline and 3.5 mph. 142 bpm avg hr. This felt pretty good!

1:40 walking on the treadmill. Intervals @ 8% incline with recoveries at -4%. This felt completely fine on my hip. 140 bpm avg hr.

5 min walking warmup then 30 mins run @ 6.5 mph then 20 mins walk @ 8% incline and 3.5 mph and 5 min walking cool down. Avg hr 149 bpm, 81% max. Quad felt fine. I think it's helping to try to activate my lower abs and lock my core in place. Will take tomorrow off running even though I think I can run just to build momentum

Flywheel spin class feeling out of shape. Avg hr 142 bpm, 77% max

41:39 running 4.54 mi outside @ 9:15 min/mi avg pace even though I was slowing down a lot to dodge the ice and try to keep my hr below 74% max (recovery). Avg hr 140 bpm (76% max - shoot!)

15 min w.u. 3 mins, 2 mins, 1 min, 1 min, 2 mins, 3 mins fartlek with equal rest. (Paces between mararthon-10k) 15 min c.d. Treadmill @ 1% incline. 3 mins @ 7 mph, 2 mins @ 7.4 mph, 1 min @ 7.8 mph. Easy was at 6 mph. Used my new treadmill, don't think it's calibrated correctly so just ran based on effort. Quad felt fine as in zero pain. It got a little wonky after 45 mins but pain was 1-2. 6.18 miles in 54:00. Avg HR 155 bpm 82% max.

40-45 mins easy

45:03 on the treadmill for 4.61 mi. Ran miles 10-14.61 of the Boston Marathon course (ifit). Tried to keep hr around 75% or less for easy pace. Spot on at 75%! Quad felt fine.

8-10 miles easy

Chicago lakefront path. 10 miles in 1:33:23, 9:20 min/mi AP. I tried to keep my hr around 74-84% max so it helped to just have my watch show hr not pace. I averaged 81% max hr, and was pretty surprised I wasn't running closer to 9:45s, which is what the effort felt like. My quad hit a level 1 pain early on, then for some reason around mile 4 it felt 100% for the rest of the run. My legs felt shaky towards the end though so I think I lost a bit of strength. I'm very happy I was able to run double digits!

35-45 mins easy with 4-6x100m strides

Run on the treadmill through Washington DC route! 47:18 to run 4.54 mi. Easy pace was 6 mph, then 4 strides were at 8, 9, 9, 9 mph. Quad pain reached a 2. Strides felt fine!

40 mins easy

40 mins on the treadmill running miles 1-4 of the Big Sur course at 6 mph. Avg hr 78% max. Quad reached a pain of 1, the run felt good! 4 miles.

50 mins easy on the bike

15 min w.u. 5-6 x 4 mins @MP effort with 1 min rest. 15 min c.d.

Treadmill in Bethesda, MD at 1% incline. Easy paces were 5.8 mph, MP effort was 6.5 mph. I think I nailed the effort. The MP efforts felt comfortably hard. I felt like I could have done more intervals, so I think I'm coming back! No pain in quad. 6.11 miles in 60 mins.