Running Log: Saturday, January 23 2010

Notes: I jinxed myself by commenting on how last year I was on the cusp of injury. It turns out that I was this year as well, even though I had no indication of it - not the slightest niggle, not at any point during last night's run. I felt some muscle fatigue (and a back ache from holding a baby all day!), but nothing indicative of injury. Upon waking up in the middle of the night, however, I stepped out of bed to the distinctive grab and sting of tendon pain in my right hip - precisely the same pain that took me out of the game for a good chunk of last year. When I felt this twinge last year, I proceeded to go out for an easy morning run anyway, thinking it would just loosen up. It didn't. So this year, even though I had scheduled a two hour morning run with Athole, I am resting for a minimum of three days, perhaps a week, before attempting to run. Possible causes of the injury, which I believe to be gluteus medius tendinopathy, are a strained and tight lower back and/or a tight IT band that is referring pain to the gluteus medius - both of these physical conditions possibly exacerbated by an absence of warming up, cooling down, and stretching - though in the past, these activities didn't seem to make much difference. Ultimately, I must have a biomechanical imbalance somewhere that leads to the recurrence of tightness and tendon pain in my right leg, whether it be the plantar fascia, achilles, it band, piriformis, or gluteus medius. Let us hope this already dull running blog doesn't become an even more dull injury status report.