More Clues

Time to update notes on my psoas issue. A month or so ago, I went through a wonderful period of being able to run 3,4,5 miles every day for over a week, with no psoas pain. It followed a week of almost no running, so rest is part of the story, but more... I believe it was a particular way in which I stretched my psoas. Now, I've been doing a standing stretch for years; stand on right leg, pull left foot all the way up to my left glute and push outward my hip. For some time now, I've actually had much more flexibility on my metal LEFT hip than my right! So more stretching in this way wasn't the answer. Now recently, I've been doing something more subtle - standing on both legs and echoing the running moment when my left leg is behind me just a little, and focusing intensely on tightening my glute while simultaneously pulling up my abdominal muscles, getting a stretch in the hip flexors and psoas. I tried this a bit absent mindedly yesterday morning early, and felt pain in my psoas and disappointed irritation that I would not be able to go for a trail run which I'd very much wanted to do. But then, going about fixing breakfast, I felt a relaxation and ease and lack of any irritation that I've learned to interpret as a "yes" to the running question. Encouraged, I packed my CamelBak and drove up to Big Basin State Park 20 miles north, and ran the Sunset Trail / Skyline-to-the-Sea loop from the HQ. I ran w/o pain for most of this 12 miles, but the last 4 did irritate my psoas bursa - but heck! That's a huge gain over what I expected!   Also, I'll say I have done ankle-over-knee stretches of left hip a few times over the past week (a habit lost and re-gained). May be helping as well.

Tioga Pass Run 2017

Really enjoyed this spectacular run, from Lee Vining in the Eastern Sierra at Mono Lake, to the crest of the Sierra at Tioga Pass (10,000 ft) at the entrance to Yosemite National Park. Has a nice, small-town local feel to it, not the cold corporate ambience that so many events have these days. Hip psoas did act up some, in the 12.4 miles, but I was able to keep running anyway. Love to come back and do this one again, this time with friends.

Soft is out, Hard is in!

After struggling for 3 months with an inflammed left psoas and inability to run more than a mile or two at a time, and after stretching and strengthening religiously - to no effect whatsoever - and after X-rays and blood work - with no problemo.... I think I may have solved my problem. It's the roller! Yes, I've been using my roller at least twice a week for a long time, but it was the blue softer version, not the hard styrofoam version. Before last Wednesday's swim workout I came to the gym an hour early and did a long hard session with their black styrofoam roller and hit every square inch of both legs and glutes, hips.... everything below the waist. It worked! I was able the next day to do what had been my standard 3 and a half mile daily run to/along the beach, and then Saturday I did my standard 10 mile Fall Creek run, with just some discomfort in the last 3 miles. Entirely not-alarming given my low run mileage this year. I'm encouraged!