Saturday, August 6, 2011

Week 9; It All Falls Apart

Sunday:  6 mile;  Kept my friend, Karin, company during the last six miles of the San Francisco Marathon. We ended up walking more than running which was a blessing in disguise for my leg.

Tuesday:  8 miles @ 9:37 pace; My heart rate was up.  So sad that taking even a few days off does this to me.  My leg loosened up as the run went on which made me feel good.

Wednesday:  10 miles @ 9:45 pace;  My quad issue starts off at a level 5-6 pain for the first few minutes, for the majority of the run is a level 1-2, and by the last few miles is non-existent.

Friday:  16 miles @ 9:57 pace; I really, really struggled during this run.  My hip was achy for most of the run and my upper calf got really tight on me.  I had to stop and stretch it out multiple times.  I felt like I was at mile 24 of a marathon for the last 4 miles of this run.  So part of this was physical, and part of it was just a bad run day.  Not a great confidence booster for a 51K in a week.

So a quick follow-up about the chiropractor:  Verdict is that I have a slightly curvy spine which is causing imbalances in my legs.  She said it is very minor and we're being nit-picky, and that if I wasn't a runner stressing my body so much it would give me no issues.  Side note:  I have a compression fracture in one of my vertebra (I'm assuming from my horse fall; Not really sure what I paid $300 in x-rays for at UCSF after the fall if they missed that -- I still haven't forwarded my UCSF x-rays to the chiro to see if she can see the fracture in those as well).  She said I'm young with good discs so it won't give me any issues.

I'm not sure yet if it was the right choice, but I clunked down a hefty sum of $ for 30 visits with the chiropractor.  She's working on fixing my spine and also doing ART treatments on my wonky leg.  I'm going three times a week for a month and it tapers down from there.  Gah.

So far, all that has really happened is that I'm getting additional pains in new areas (see Friday's run).  I just finished up my first week of treatment, though, so it is too soon to tell if anything good long-term will come of this.  I like that she is trying to get to the root of the problem versus just managing the current fires, but at the same time I need an extinguisher stat over here!

My terrible 16 miler has me thinking of dropping down to the half distance at Half Moon Bay.  I'm sadly going to be pushing my body for another week but would love to give it some time off after the 51K.  I've got my eyes on Two Cities.  I keep hoping I'll wake up one day miraculously healed...

RG, I am at week 9 of my schedule which was set up to be trained for Half Moon Bay next month.  I may reset the week count once I know what I'm doing and tweak the schedule a bit.

5 comments:

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Good luck with the treatments. So far, my ART treatments haven't gotten me running again, but there's been a significant improvement in my hip stability, and at least one imbalance has been corrected. My ART practitioner partners with a very creative PT who gives me scads of exercises to do. The last time I went to a chiro, the exercise bit was treated as an afterthought, which may be why I didn't see any long-term improvement.

Angela @ SF Road Warrior said...

:( So frustrating. Injuries suck. I had a lot of ART for muscular imbalances in my hips earlier this year and it helped a lot (got rid of a bunch of scar tissue).

Here's hoping your chiro can get to the root of the problem. As much as it sucks now, maybe that will help prevent more trouble in the future.

Alisa said...

Oh man, feel better! Heal fast!!!!!!!! I can totally relate.

Running in Lulu said...

Sorry to hear about your injury, I've just sustained a knee one and it's horrible not being able to run. I hope the chiro can help you get back into running condition. Good luck.

Rachel said...

sorry to hear about your leg. i'm a believer in the benefits of chiro so hopefully the sessions will give you some relief and have you running pain-free soon. i'm sure the decision on hmb sucks, but a break might just be what your body needs to get back to tip top shape for your A race. sending you positive thoughts!