A Minor (hopefully) Setback

Since January 22nd, the recovery has been going well. I am slowly building back up to normal mileage, hitting 47 last week. I have not been doing workouts, but have been keeping about 75% of my miles faster than 7:00 pace. There was a tight hamstring early on, but other than that, no aches or pains. That is until last night. I was running down East Boulevard when I started to feel a little pain in my butt. Since it wasn't my job causing the pain, I knew this was unusual. I was just shy of five miles into a planned seven miler, so I continued on up the hill and through some of the Dilworth neighborhoods thinking I could probably shake it.

By the time I got back onto East Boulevard, I could tell my gait was being altered by the pain. It had now spread into my lower back. I stopped and walked hoping to work out whatever the kink was. When I started running again, it hurt even worse. As I settled back into the pace, the pain alleviated but was definitely still present. Instead of tacking on to get to seven miles, I went straight home and called it a day at a hair over six. At this point, each foot fall sent a radiating pain through the left side of my body whether I was walking or running.

My preliminary investigation finds that this is either sciatica or piriformis. I have never had issues with either of these, so it comes as a bit of a surprise. Treatment options range from ice, heat, massage and PT to surgery. I am hoping this is just a minor tweak and the PT and massage I have scheduled for the next 48 hours do the trick. As I write this, I am lying on a bag of ice. I told my co-workers that normally I would just ice at my desk, but this injury requires me to take my pants off. Not that I am above taking my pants off at work, I just don't prefer it.

As another way to expedite the healing, I am taking today completely off. I have bailed on my scheduled track workout with Paul and Aaron. No pool. No bike. No elliptical. This is something I haven't done since January 28th. It didn't kill me then and it won't kill me today.

Before the pain hit last night, I had planned on writing a blog entry with a review of all the books I have read this winter. It's a solid list, but it will have to wait until next time.