2019 Slow Start

So far this year, I've gotten a cold, then the flu, a bacterial lung infection, a kidney stone, and pulled a bone fragment off my knee in a cross country ski fall in Yosemite. It's really gotten me off to a slow start. I'm only a little behind last year on running miles and slightly behind on swim yards, but I'm WAY behind on biking. Part of that is a very wet winter that hurt commuting miles. Anyway, I have had some good moments. After being off of running for most of a month, and doing some careful rollering and psoas stretches and wake-up exercises for my glutes, I had a remarkable stretch of 76 straight miles of running w/o my psoas irritation. The last of those 76 miles was a 16 mile run up nearly to Summit Road in Fall Creek. That did seem to put me back into the usual zone of getting some irritation after 3-5 miles or so, but I got in a 10 mile run/hike in Fall Creek this past Sunday without much trouble. A good diagnostic of whether I'll have trouble, is a tightness betrayed by the snapping hip syndrome. Anyway, I'm back to health now, encouraged, and eager to test myself with the SCTC gang at the Double DipSea Race this coming Saturday.

Don't forget the Psoas Stretch

I've had a nice string of weeks without ~any hip psoas pain! Very gratifying. I think the problem with earlier this Fall was this - while I've been practicing the altered running form recommended by my PT Jeff Moreno, and strengthening my glutes, his recommendation was that I had plenty of flexibility in my psoas and it wasn't going to help with my problem.... and so I just stopped doing those one-legged psoas standing stretches, at the beach or anywhere. Big mistake! It's the total package that seems to minimize my pains. I resumed those stretches, while keeping the rest of the good advice, and have now done 4 weeks straight of long weekend hilly runs and NO hip psoas issues! Ferrell and I are now signed up for the Walnut Creek Half Marathon this coming Saturday, and the goal is to qualify for the Pikes Peak Half Marathon for 2020 (I have all of '19 to get in a qualifying half marathon, as well). So, we'll see how this Saturday goes... I did the waterfalls loop in Big Basin this past Sunday, and that went well; my longest run since the Double Dipsea this past June.

Update on post PT progress

Had a couple of visits with respected running expert physical therapist Jeff Moreno, and gave me a good exercise for strengthening my left side glutes, and also he corrected my distance/trail running form. This was back in late Spring. Since then my ability to run has improved. I still get sore psoas but not as much. Some highlights since then - the Double Dipsea 14 mile, 4,000 ft of climbing. June Lake Tri, Donner Lake Tri, White Mtn (to my right, in picture above) from the locked gate, and able to do Mt Barcroft the next day. A couple of Fall Creek Loop runs, both with minimal psoas pain. I'm not feeling FAST, energy level not great, but that may be chronic sleeplessness. Anyway, I'm hopeful given my hip pain has not gotten worse from early this year but instead gotten a bit better.

Back to Square One

Well, I'm back to frustrated soreness. I haven't run for 2 weeks. Psoas inflamed, and won't go away. Stretching, ice, ibuprofen... Talked with Dr. Gross, he thinks it's probably psoas tendon rubbing on the edge of the metal acetabular cup, from listening to my symptoms. Looked at my records and says my cup angle is 56 degrees, although I recall him saying it was 54 degrees a few years ago when I sent him that last standing AP X-ray. I may get another. Says only 50% odds that the tendon release will help. The tendon release still leaves strength for raising the leg using the muscles which are part of the illiopsoas mass. It's not all connected to that tendon. I'm less kean on that surgery after that conversation. I don't have a good strategy at the moment, but i have an appt to see PT Jeff Moreno on May 3 and hopefully will know more by then. Very tough.... I am not a happy man when I can't run or even hike.

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!