Hip Flexor Woes

Ok, I'm sure a few of you have wondered what's happening with my leg since last week.  Here's the update.  After the run I did last Wednesday night that seemed to start this whole mess, I took from Thursday of last week til Monday off with zero running, so about 4-5 days.  I had been scheduled for a 12 mile long run, but didn't do it at the risk of making things worse.  While on the trip to Houston I could still feel some pain around my "leg socket" in the upper front part of my left leg.  Nothing too major, but I could feel it at times throughout the weekend. 

Upon landing in Charlotte on a glorious 50ish degree day on Monday afternoon, I had one thought on my mind:  I wanted to run.  I got home, laced up, and headed out for a really fun and lovely 5 mile run.  No real pain or problems and I enjoyed every minute.  Later, I didn't really feel any worse than I did before the run so that was good news. 

Tuesday I had my appointment with Greenapple (my sports chiropractor).  It went pretty well.  I was informed my injury seemed to be in the hip-flexor area.

I told him about running in my hilly neighborhood and showed him where the pain was and it seemed to add up, as hills tend to put added strain on that area.  He did a series of what I think is called A.R.T. on my leg, which stands for active release techniques.  Basically the doctor kind of pushes down on the affected area while moving your leg around.  It looks like this:

(source)

Actually, I'm pretty sure he did this exact technique on me.  I also had electric stimulation.  I felt pretty good after treatment- definitely warmed up, if that makes sense.  My doc suggested doing a run on Wednesday night, but avoiding hills.

Avoiding hills was going to be a tough one.  That basically meant my neighborhood was out and I don't like to run in the dark alone too far from my house, so I came up with a plan.  I decided to run on the treadmill in my gym at work at the end of the day, but keep it relatively short so I could get home to Clyde without making him wait much longer than usual. 

I hopped on the treadmill and did 4 miles with zero incline in 38 minutes.  I felt pretty good the whole time I was on it, and stretched appropriately after the run before heading home.  Later last night I could feel my upper leg bothering me again.  Boooooooooo....  It was pretty uncomfortable and even bothered me as I was trying to fall asleep.  Not good.

Today I got up and the leg did not feel good.  At all.  I even felt like I had a slight limp while walking because the area was so messed up.  The good news is I had another appointment today.  I went in and explained the new developments to my doc.  He did mostly the same treatment as last time and advised me I probably should back off running for the weekend (AGAIN :( !).  I'm disappointed, but think this is the right thing and had already been leaning towards backing off before I saw my doc. 

I feel like at this stage of training I'm confident in what I've done, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if the lack of running in the past week, and in the next week potentially, will affect me in the marathon.  I dislike that I'm not getting to do either of my final "long" runs.  It really, really sucks.  My doc said I can walk, stretch, and possibly bike (if it feels ok).  Mostly I'm supposed to rest though.  I go back to Greenapple on Monday and we'll see where we go from there.

I am pretty sure I can run this marathon with this issue.  Really, this injury hurts more after running than it does during running.  That's the good news.  I might be jacked up after the marathon, but I think I can do it.  I still think it's a good idea to back off for a few days though in case hurting after running turns into hurting while running.  I'm hoping I can do some short runs next week before the big day.

So that's the update on that.  Wish me luck and recovery!  I need it!