Friday, January 7, 2011

Bad-Ass, and Not in the Good Way

Interesting feedback from my last post about my posterior pain from Piriformis Syndrome.  Apparently I’m one of the few runners who haven’t either dealt with this in the past, or aren’t currently dealing with some form of this issue.  It’s the Voldemort of the running world.  The injury-that-shall-not-be-named.  I’m now part of the secret society.  I even learned the secret ass-shake.
Had my first PT session yesterday to try to get the buns working again.  The therapist said it doesn’t present itself as decidedly as some cases of Piriformis he’s seen, but I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.  God forbid I ever came up with an easy to diagnose and easy to correct ailment.  Hip strength on my right side was decidedly less than my left side, which is not surprising based on my issues.  Did a little electrical stim, and went through a series of stretches I’ll be doing 2x daily for a week, at which time I’ll do another PT session and hopefully add some strengthening to the stretching.  I got his blessing to do some low-impact work at the gym (bike, elliptical, etc.) as long as it’s not hurting, so I’m going to drag my sedentary self to the gym this weekend and test out the leg.  Hopefully the gym is still there. It’s been a long time.

Assuming I get my assorted ailments sorted out, I’m debating what to do over the next few months when I’m not marathon training.  I’ll pick back up with heavier weightlifting, which I tend to greatly reduce during a training cycle, especially in the last 2 months of the cycle.  Having lifted pretty regularly for about 25 years, with some periods of pseudo-bodybuilding, I can put on muscle pretty quickly, which adds to the general unhappiness of my legs when I’m training and they have to haul around the extra weight.  At the very least I’ll focus on more core and lower-body weight training, to try and get some balance back between the major leg muscles.  Glutes and quads are way behind the hamstrings these days is terms of strength.  I’m giving P90X some pretty serious thought, but I’ve heard from several people how brutal it is, so I’ll need to get my legs fairly healed before I dive into that.  Maybe I’ll just find a monastery in the side of a hill and train to be a superhero.  Maybe just become a Ninja.  So many possibilities.

Run swiftly my friends.

18 comments:

  1. good luck sorting through this pain-in-the-butt through PT :-)

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  2. What kind of cross training do you do?

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  3. I say go with the Ninja training. If you hare like most runners you already have all the dark clothing!

    Seriously, I have had injuries most of my time running. I had to switch it up and cross-trian to be healthy. And I must always lift. The minute I stop lifting is the minute I get injured!

    Heal sooN!

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  4. Sounds like they'll get you on the right track...of course, the ninja training doesn't sound like a bad idea.

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  5. Ninja Warrior training is intense too........ Good luck!

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  6. I tried lifting weights, they were too heavy.

    I know that YOU will now start lifting more and gettting all bad a@@, so don't get mad when I tell you this and come kick my skinny a@@, but it's kinda hard to read your post with that honeycomb background.

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  7. I don't know... The ninja training I did was even more hard core than P90X.

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  8. the joys of XT (cross training) when injured - don't know 'em, haven't been there (knock on wood).

    My two cents on bulking up while lifting weights: more and faster reps (with less weight). Have fun!

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  9. I vote the ninja thing. And if we've learned one thing this fall is to heed my advice... so there's that..

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  10. definitely be a ninja. with a sore ass. oh and that thing danny says is right as well - faster reps, less weight. so high rep ninja.

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  11. Good luck cross training! You'll be back out there running in no time! Hang in there.

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  12. Good luck with your cross training - several great options!

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  13. hope you find the right thing to keep you occupied while healing, I know it's a pain in the butt to deal with. Ha! I'm a poet and didn't even know it.

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  14. go ninja. then you'll be ready for ninja running when it rolls around again.

    roll the bones.

    Seriously. your comments are always the best. I know I've told you that before but . . . .

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  15. I am a graduate of the P90X workout, Got the T-shirt to prove it. The first week I could not lift my arms or steer my car. But who needs to get dressed or drive.. It is a great cross training workout if you can't run. But I think Ninja Training sounds fun! Where do I sign up?

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  16. I got a Ninja for Christmas...as in the blender on the infomercials...it's awesome - we make the best smoothies with it - that would make for some good ninja training!!!

    And I think the hardest thing about P90X is the eating plan - it's ridiculous. If you can do that, which you probably can being a bodybuilder, you rock.

    With all the crosstraining your running will be amazing when you're healed up! Good luck friend... :)

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  17. Good luck with the PT! Hope you are healed and ready to run again soon! :0)

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