Take care of yourself

Yeah, if it's affecting your leg, it's likely a true groin issue. I'm no expert, but I played footy through mild-to-moderate pain. Like, a dull ache in my groin, almost like a knot that made my leg feel funny. Then, on a non-contact play, it just snapped. I obviously had a weak point that was telling me to stop and I didn't stop. Hence my caution to you. Because once it snapped, I was walking like I'd shit myself for close to a year. Lost an entire season, when I'm pretty sure I could have rested for a few weeks, let it heal, and solved the problem.

It is crazy how much you use your groin without even thinking about it. Snapping mine affected my whole body. I can still feel where I did it every now and then, and it scares the crap out of me. I have suffered many injuries, and it's in my top-two worst.

 

Where exactly did it snap? I've never read much about the variety of groin injuries.

 

Um, the inside top of my right leg, near my nutsack. Not to overshare, but it made things that shouldn't be black, at least on a white person, very black.

 

Yeah, that would hurt more than a tad. ... I thought my left hip was gonna break three years ago. Pain would come and go whenever I walked around a lot, like at Home Depot or Costco. At times it felt like it would snap at any moment, and I'd have to sit for a while.

Finally did some InterWebs research and figured out it was Piriformis Syndrome. I'd never even heard of that muscle, but it's deep within the glutes, and hard to get at. Took me six months to overcome, mostly with the hip abduction machine at the gym and then later adding a stretch I found that isolates the piriformis. A slow process, but a big relief to know that my hip wasn't gonna snap.

 

Sounds like I’m lucky, then.

My pain started last Wednesday, but I ran 6 miles anyway. Took Thursday off for unrelated reasons, and then ran 8 miles on Friday. Later that night is when the pain became unbearable.

Funny thing is, it felt good enough while running that I maintained a 9:00 pace throughout. I’m seeing now, though, that was a huge mistake.

 

Again, I'm not expert, but I think the warmth and stretching feels good in the moment, but then comes the throb. When my snapped, it wasn't being particularly troublesome. I was running with some pain, but I was running. Then: boing. I can remember that moment so clearly. Such a gross sensation.

 

Feeling a little better, and by that, I mean the pain has moved from my groin to my hip.

Going to try some light elliptical work today and see how it feels.

 

Day 80: 26-24-19-11. With a first makeup set of 19 to fill out yesterday's 79.

Since I hit about 65 reps, I've taken more days off since then than I did getting up to 65. My shoulders have been sporadically sore, but more detrimental is I've let my nutrition go, having too many sweets, salty snacks and alcohol. I've gained back five of the pounds I lost, which has made me a little depressed. And, hence, all the days off.

But I'm getting back on eating better, so I'm hopeful about the last 20 days.

My goal is to get my day's total done in just three sets, but that means I need to hit or exceed my high-water mark of 33 consecutive pushups on the first set and get high 20s on the second, leaving me with 20 plus or minus on the last set. We'll see how it goes, I reckon.

 

6 more days in the book: 415 minutes (lifting, cardio), 3,709 cardio calories, 20.74 miles.

Last 13 weeks: 4,544 minutes, 101, 912 cardio calories, 358.46 miles.

 

Let us know.

But if the pain has moved and not diminished, you probably need to think about a doctor visit.

 

Another 6 days begins with 40 minutes on the elliptical. Just what I needed.

 

Let us know about your next marathon?