Saw my local physio again on Monday afternoon, after a fun-packed day with a client in Crawley. Crawley is not a natural holiday destination.
Physio prognosis was that other than a very tight left quad, everything was pretty much okay. Nothing wrong with my hip or knee. Her view was that exercise, by its nature, tightens things up. Too much tightening eventually brings on pain. Stretching reduces tightness. Therefore stretching is the answer. There was some analogy about a ruler. And a lot of chatting about a holiday cottage in Wales while she massaged my IT Band.
But I was concerned that we seem to be in "let's fix the symptoms rather than tackle root cause" territory so I availed myself of my medical insurance and a tackled Nuffield for a second opinion.
A phone consultation with them yesterday sounded reasonable. Very much focused on "Let's get the immediate residual pain sorted out but let's concentrate on getting your legs stronger and working out what's really going on here." So I'm seeing them in Tunbridge Wells on Friday and they can continue my therapy in Crawley as I move around over the next few weeks/months. The man on the phone seemed to want to get me to doing Box Jumps at some point; if I can do box jumps then that would give me enough leg strength to do anything except an ultramarathon. All the indications seemed to be that this was a relatively easy fix.
We'll see.
I'm also down for a Sports Massage tomorrow. Fun and games.
I did go for a jogette this morning. Lots of thunderstorms overnight and the temperate is right down now thankfully. A walk down the lane, a jog back, rinse and repeat. My knee didn't half moan at some point - I thought it might collapse on me. So stopped. Walked. Lots of stretches. Some foam rolling. Fine now. But alarming at the time.
3K in total and my blessed HRM wouldn't even give me its normal "Running Index" calculation because I hadn't done enough running. Never mind.
So slowly and gently is the motto here for a while. Alarming that a 500m slow jog now feels like a stretch; I might go back to C25K W1 just for some structure. As long as I'm careful. That has to be better than aimless walking/joggetting.
So I'm not out of the woods yet. But I'm feeling better about it and that's a bonus.
Let's see what the accumulated wisdom of PhysioWorld has to say for the remainder of the week.
Onwards and sideways!!
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sallenson
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It’s great you’re up and about though. Good idea about week 1. You could just do one run from each week rather than the three runs? Try building up faster if the leg holds up? Love the word ‘jogette’ BTW 👌🏽
Sounds like a sports massage will be a good idea. As my therapist tells me........ he didnt put the pain in there, he is just helping get it out. Phew its a painful road...,,but you will get there. Good use of the roller, plenty of stretching, the correct daily strengthening exercises got me through my knee pain....... along with ultrasound therapy, a raft of physio appointments and mucho patience.
Good to hear there's some positive news in the sense that it seems there is nothing serious wrong, but I know it's frustrating when it still hurts and it takes such a long time to put right. I know what you mean about the jogettes - been trying 7 x1 minute runs interspersed with 1 minute walks.
I hope your appointment on Friday is helpful and you begin to feel you are getting somewhere.
Very sensible going for the fixing the issue focus rather than the sticking plaster approach. Exactly what you need for long term strong legs. I am so lucky to have the most amazing Osteopath who I feel I know quite well having seen him for months on end for two seperate injuries. Onwards and upwards...!
Defo. I am so not beaten on this. It's a minor glitch, nothing more. And everyone's saying it's fixable and temporary. I get time to sort out playlists for every conceivable occasion too
It might mean weaning myself off LedZep for a while. That sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.
I do have at least 80 recordings of Schubert's "Winterreise" (hour-long song cycle about a jilted lover walking through a wintery landscape towards madness and death) to look forward to when the evenings get darker.
I love Winterreise! Although I only have 1 recording (Jonas Kaufman, as he is god-like). My dad used to play it all the time when I was a kid, waiting for me to “grow out of this pop stuff”. Never thought of it as running music though. I love your plot synopsis!
I think I like ‘synopsis’ as much as ‘serendipity’
Man you are seriously in the wars at the moment. Hope the new lot of medicos can help. 🏃♂️ 👨⚕️ (That’s supposed to be a doctor by the way!)
Aw, Stephen, you know this just a little glitch on your running journey, right? Have I ever told you about my litany of running injuries / aches / nigglettes? I had around 3 months of niggles after finishing C25K - like my body had an evil check list. Pulled hamstring? Check! Sore hip / arse cheek? Check! Plantar fasciitis? Check! Strained calf muscle? Check! Pffffffft!
Now I have been running 4 months with no sniff of an injury, during which I completed the 10km programme. What changed, I hear you cry? Well, I think in part I was getting injured so much because my tendons, ligaments, muscles etc were still not quite strong enough. With that in mind I stepped up my strengthening exercises, and recently brought in more cross training. But...ultimately, it was just time and persistence that got me to where I am now. At one point, I did C25K all over again, just one run from each week. It was a good way to get back to basics and build up slowly again.
You will get there. Glad you are also getting some expert advice, and a sports massage will do wonders for your tight quad! Hang on in there buddy!
I'm hanging in there. Not beaten. It's a temporary glitch. I'm a runner. I'm not down. I'm just waiting on the starting line for that whistle.
I will recycle the C25K things a bit tho, assuming that I get all clear from the assorted professionals.
Strangely ironic that I seemed to cruise thru C25K (in a non-sexual non-predatory sense) and then suddenly the wheels kinda fell off. That seems a fairly common occurrence.
But I'm mending. I'm keen. Just a bit frustrated from time to time
Glad you’re managing a ‘jogette’ despite the pain. Taking it easy is good though - and, as Tasha99 says, going back to week 1 sounds like a good plan. You’ll soon be up and running again (see what I did there!) - take it steady 🏃👍😊
You're going through what I went through two years ago and I ended up with orthotics. Strong glutes are the key to strong knees and I'm sure you'll hear this a lot from your professionals. Apparently we runners have notoriously weak glutes 😕
It'll be interesting to see what your diagnosis is.
I was going to say "enjoy your sports massage" but that's not really the right term 😩 I have one once a month and have come to look forward to it now. I don't wear mascara because I used to leave most of it on the couch. Just thought I'd pass on that advice 😂
Glad it sounds like you’re making your way along the road to recovery now, Stephen, even if things are still annoyingly frustrating! Getting second opinions etc all seems like your best longterm plan to avoid more issues. Take things as carefully and slowly as you/they feel is needed, and we’ll all be here rooting for you! 😊❤️🏃♂️
I'm fine really. hon. And it's a slow day for me today so I can mess about on here a bit.
Hopefully the assorted physio gurus can get me back on my foot properly and soon. Everyone's saying it's a relatively simple fix, so no real concerns xxx
Sorry your running journey has been temporarily halted Stephen. Sounds like you've got the right people to get it sorted though. Wishing you a speedy recovery and many successful jogettes along the way 🏃♂️😊
NIce post from you Stephen, glad your injury is almost a thing of the past. As I told you recently, I had a slight injury on my right hip, lower down at the buttock to be precise, it only got sore when I ran, nothing else. My plan is to restart running soon with run 1 of week 1 on a Wednesday (my week being Wednesday, Saturday and Monday) first run of week 2 on a Saturday and so on, hopefully doing it that way I will at last after about a month be able to run the full 5k distance, I wish you well.
Didn’t know where Crawley is so looked it up. Very surprised to see it gets its own motorway!
Went to see Mission Impossible last night. Tom Cruise did a stunt jumping from one building to another, broke his ankle doing it and got up and ran past the camera to finish the shot. And he’s not half the man you are, Stephen, so if he can do it I know darn well you will! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Hi Stephen, I’m glad things seem to be moving in the right direction for you! Keep posting and I’ll keep an eye out for you and I’ll be cheering you on 👏👏👏🏃♂️
Hey Stephen, I was wondering why I hadn't seen any posts from you. Have just noticed that for some reason (undiscovered!) I was no longer following you on HU!!!! (Imagine my shame!).
Anyway, embarrassment at my tardiness aside, I have now rectified that little problem, and have seen this post!
You seem to be on the road back, haven't read all the re?plies below (as I need to do some work today!) - Was wondering how you got on, on Friday?
Not really posting much atm, but am reading about various chums' exploits with interest and some jealousy.
Assorted hip and knee problems continue; latest estimate was 4-6 more weeks before I'm back. So pretty much 2 months in total; probably means starting pretty much from scratch. Not sure if i can deal with that with all the other assorted stuff that's going on in my life atm.
Probably another 4-6 weeks according to the physio last week. So that's 2 months on the IC and probably looking at starting the C25K journey from scratch. Which is a bit of a miserable thought tbh. Hey ho....
I can’t imagine you miserable! You’ve done it before, you can do it again. Maybe start half way through if you feel up to it. You’ll still be going further & faster than me haha. Chin up bud
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1st session of core physio -update. 
Physio appointment in two weeks 🎉
And the physio said, carry on running- only not so much 🤔
All physios are equally fantastic
