| injured and frustrated |
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I'm a 22 year old semi-elite distance guy (~100mpw, ~65 min half marathoner) who ran a competitive downhill 10k last week. After the race I felt fine, and even on the recovery run the next day I didn't feel anything too bad, but about halfway through that easy run, I felt something weird in my lower back. It didn't seem too serious, so I finished the run with out thinking much of it. About an hour after the run, I was really in pain. Walking for long periods of time was difficult, and if I tried to run even just few steps I had a heavy shooting pain in my lower back. I visited a physiotherapist, and it turned out my pelvis had to be realigned. He did that, and worked on my psoas, glutes, and hamstrings. He said that if I massage those areas using a baseball and do lots of hamstring stretches and lunges, eventually, the SI joint will free up and I will be able to run again. I am a bit worried, since it has been a week, and I haven't gotten any better. I am worried that doing the massage with baseball might actually be making things worse, and starting to fear this could something more serious. I got invited to run a race in Colorado, but now I am afriad I may lose that opportunity. Has anybody out there experienced something like this? Can you explain how long the recovery was and give any advice/input? |
| college runner |
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THis exact thing happened to me last year. I was doing a tempo run over a really hilly course, and when I finished up, I felt sore but nothing too bad. Decided to roll my lower back (for me it was on the lower right side) on a tennis ball while watching TV, and after about 20 minutes of that, I could barely walk upon standing up. Next couple days walked with a very heavy limp, and running was as you describe it--pretty much impossible. I went to a sports doc and he just thought it was muscle tightness, but he was definitely wrong. For me I was worried about it being a hip stress fracture or something of the sort, as it felt like a very deep, sharp pain. I still don't know what it was, and I hate to tell you this, but for me I had to take about a month off from running completely. I wasn't able to bike, aqua-jog, or swim, as all of those bothered it. I did some weight lifting, but pretty much all upper body stuff that didn't hurt it, which pretty much ended up being arm exercises and push ups. I remember tried to run after 4 weeks, wasn't able to, then tried the next week and it didn't hurt anymore, so that is how I figured out I was OK. Hopefully you find some sort of cross training that works for you/aren't out for too long. I have been training injury free for over a year since this happened, and every once in a while (maybe 1 every other month) on hilly runs I still feel a slight, much duller pain in the area, so maybe I have some lingering issue there. Long, kind of rambling post, but hopefully that helps. Good luck |