Follow Up

I went in for a follow up x-ray yesterday and got some good news. No healing stress fracture, and probably not even a healing stress reaction. All the bones looked great, although I did have a small bone spur on the outer edge of each of my hip sockets.

This allows me to put my mind at ease about the minor pains I am still having all over my right leg. The hip pain and limping is completely gone now after five weeks of cycling, pool running, and rest. However, I am still having muscle pain and tightness through my entire right thigh.

Yesterday I was able to do four miles, which is my longest pain-free run in a long time. Significant-pain-free I should say. I'm now clear to ramp the running back up, although it will take some time to build up the miles again.

Sorry for the lack of writing lately. Now that I am (hopefully) running again consistently, I'll get back to blogging a few times a week. Thanks for the supportive comments and e-mails. All much appreciated!

Less Pain, More Running

My hip is feeling pretty good the last few days. Since I last blogged, I have been able to run a bit as well. One full mile at 8:00 pace on Saturday, and two miles, one at 7:30 and another at 7:00, with no pain on either run. Again, most important in my mind is there was no pain the day after these runs. I suppose I could have gone further, which is good to know.

I'm going to continue being conservative through this week and then go back for a second x-ray next week. After four weeks, I would expect to see a bone callus if I had a stress fracture, and possibly if I had a stress reaction. A callus would mean the healing is continuing, so I'll need to be cautious for another several weeks. If I don't see a callus, I'll have to assume I had a nasty muscle strain somewhere in my hip. Either way, By next week, I'm hoping to be ready for some longer short runs.

Time to hit the bike. Later!

Bad Blogger

Can you tell I'm injured? Not a lot of ambition to blog about hour long rides on the trainer. Unfortunately, due to weather and the aforementioned lack of ambition, I didn't get out and do the ride in Wisconsin over the weekend. Hence, no pictures.

I did spend the labor day weekend taking a three day break from everything. My hip was still feeling tight and slightly sore during minor daily activities such as pants-putting-on and standing-up, so I decided to take my non-running doctor's advice and take some time off--of everything. It seems to have had some good effect, as I can now get out of bed, stand up, and put my pants on with no pain whatsoever.

I was also able to jog at 8:30 pace for two full minutes with no pain and just a bit of tightness, which was to be expected. There was no pain the following day either, which is more important in my eyes. I'm planning to continue the biking and strength exercises through next Monday, and then attempt a 1/2 mile jog on the treadmill. Depending on how that goes, I'll begin adding in pain-free jogging and hopefully progress to pain-free running over the following two week period.

Time for work! Check you later.