Injury Report - Part Two

A stubborn head cold has kept me off the roads for the past several days, so I have decided that I might as well continue my self-diagnosis of the myriad of injuries plaguing me since last month's Run Like Hell. The foot is much better, but my hip - that's a different story. I still am not sure what is going on there.

During the race, the hip would be fine until I stepped funny - striding out too much, I think - and then a stabbing pain would race up my groin and out of my mouth in the form of an expletive. It started out happening only every mile or so, but by the end of the race, it was in almost every step. Prior to the race, I had felt this particular pain a couple of times during the week's runs, but not for a long time before. I have had this occasional stabbing pain a few times over the years.

After several weeks of rest, I am not noticing the pain very often. Only once in awhile if I shift my weight back on the hip with my knee extended do I feel a slight grind. The pain feels like something is grinding deep within the hip.

The chiro thought that it was probably just a combination of tight muscles in the hip flexors, TFL, SI and psoas. He was able to create all kinds of pain right after the race just by pushing on the various parts. What worries me though is that it does feel like a grinding sensation, though it could just be tendons snapping over bone. My worst fear is that it could be cartilage related - all the years of soccer could definitely have taken their toll.

So I'm in a wait and see mode. I haven't done enough running in the past month to know if it's feeling better or not. If the problem continues, I'll probably be off to see an orthopedic specialist just to make sure that I'm not on the fast train to hip replacement. I've always had the tendency to expect the worst, so I figure if I'm worried about it now, it probably isn't that bad.

Update:
Had an adjustment yesterday that I didn't have the week before the race (which I had been getting regularly). The hip feels like it is back in the right place, if that makes sense. I had been feeling a little twisted or something, and that feeling is gone now. There is still loads of tightness through all of the muscles, but when you decide not to stretch, I guess you get what you deserve. My hip is probably not falling off anytime soon : )