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May 22, 2007
That darn hamstring
I got a good night's sleep last night so I was definitely feeling more energetic and awake this morning. I felt good on the elliptical--although higher resistance bothers me a bit--and I felt like I finally got a decent workout in on it. I biked for a bit after that but it was pretty leisurely as I read my latest book. (Pounding the Pavement by Jennifer Van Kwast, a silly chick-lit one.) I seem to get to work pretty reliably between 9:15 and 9:20, whether I am coming from the gym (a five minute walk) or from home, so I guess that my body--or wait, my mind--knows how to stick to a schedule.
The exciting part of my day was going to see Barb. I hadn't been to see her since January or thereabouts. Although I was pretty sure that my latest knee thing was bone/cartilage-related, I figured it couldn't hurt to pay her a visit since she's certainly seen her share of running injuries.
When I pointed at the spot on my knee that hurts and mentioned my theory, she said it was not related to my chrondomalacia/cartilage problem because there is no bone where I am having pain--it is actually where several tendons (and muscles?) come together. It's pes anserine bursitis, which I have heard of but wasn't too clear about--an inflammation of the bursa sac which is right around there. Barb said the root of the inflammation is usually either in the hamstring or the adductor. Guess where mine is? Yup! My good, old hamstring. I don't know why I am surprised.
My adductor is tight, but she said not tighter than is normally the case in runners. Then she started digging into my hamstring and boy, was that painful. She reminded me that months ago when we were discussing my eventual return to running, she suggested getting a massage every month or even more often. Because of my awful biomechanics, it is apparently a neccesity that I get my legs worked on; she thinks tightness in both my hamstring and my quad caused this injury. I know I need to do this, it's just when my legs are feeling okay, I don't think about all this injury-prevention stuff!
I am supposed to keep icing and stretching and foam rolling and she said eventually it will start to feel better walking up stairs and I can get back to running when it calms down. I really hope she is right. After her ART work, it definitely felt better, but I still can't walk up the stairs normally. Still, I am happy to have a plausible diagnosis and just doing something proactive about my pain made me feel a little better today.
I lifted tonight and felt good. I am still enjoying the emptiness of the gym, especially since even the graduates are gone now. I think it will start to fill up again with summer students soon, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!
Posted by becky at May 22, 2007 9:32 PM