Sports Hernia or not... Needles or Knives.

Quick update here...

I had my doctor's appointment, MRI and brief follow up. The MRI showed an "irritated pelvis". Something tells me that's actually a proper medical term, but it maybe the kind way of saying that I might-could-possibly-not have a Sports Hernia. I have all the symptoms though, including some material inflammation around the attachments and bone, but no breaks and no major tears.

In other words, I have to completely rest and if I'm not better by mid-February, then I'll likely go under the knife to get treated as sports hernia. I'd have some nasty, non biodegradable mesh shoved into me to help reinforce the soft tissues that attach to the pelvis. There is no guarantee that it fixes the problem and it likely comes with side effects down the road. Fantastic! Well clearly I'm going to avoid this if at all possible.

In the mean time, in order to fix my Sports Hernia AKA so-called Irritated Pelvis, I'm into my third week of seeing a PT twice a week. The treatment has been dry needling. It's a rather intense form of acupuncture. It is one needle at a time for about 15 seconds each. Maybe a total of 10-15 needles through out my adductors, abs, hip flexors, and glute. While the needles are in, they're stimulated (ie, jabbed, stabbed, flicked, tweaked, electrified, whatever) in order to get the targeted muscles "reset". Actually this process is fucking excruciating, but a few needles are far better than a knife! The hope is this forced resetting leads the muscles to chill out and allow for this irritation to calm down.

I've also been getting a deep tissue massage every week or two. Otherwise, complete physical shut down has been ordered. I can't do anything right now. Over loading the core muscles would likely impede the healing process. And unfortunately, that makes sense as you're almost always using your core muscles. I need to limit that load. This is probably the most frustrating of all, because I'm dying to at least do something in order to not fall completely apart.... my endurance is gone, my muscles are withering away, and I've gained about 10-12 lbs since the Chicago Marathon.

It's a long, slow, and mentally agonizing process. I'm supposed to be fit and training for the Boston Marathon at the moment, and instead I'm on the brink of pulling that plug. My only glimmer of hope is that as of today, for the first time in over two months, I officially recognized that I'm feeling just a little better than I was just a few days ago. I haven't seen that up until today.

They say it's always darkest before dawn. I just maybe have passed that darkest moment. Only time will tell.

2634 or 3146? Doesn't matter, still busted.

In 2013, I hit 2,634 miles.

That was a PR in terms of total miles in any given calendar year. However, I only ran about 10 months in 2013. I've hardly gone a step since the NYC marathon in early November, which was now two months ago.

If I look back to the stretch between training from Philly '12 through Chicago '13, I peaked out at 3,146 miles in a 12 month period. I had a span of nearly 6 months where on any given day my trailing 12 month mileage was over 2,900. Now that was running!

Of course, look where I am now. Got me all banged up. All because some tiny muscle balled itself up and never let go. My problem started in my adductor and has spread like a cancer to my hip flexor and lower abdomen. Obviously training on it didn't help, and my final marathon only made it that much worse. I found my limit and exceeded it. It's probably somewhere between the numbers 2,900 and 3,146.

I'm not trying to be a drama queen and chalk my career up just yet. Don't worry. But whatever is going on with me is not pleasant. As it stands now, this is gonna my biggest break from running in over 10 years. Each passing day is like a new fat-boy PR. At least when I had my stress fracture, I knew what was wrong and how long it would take to heal. This is totally different. Whether it is sports hernia or some soft tissue tear... Two months later and any small workout or run I attempt puts me back to square one. My own self PT has not helped. It just won't heal.

Anyway, I drew a line on January 1st, and am now going to see a doctor and PT. I have a Dr appointment tomorrow with some guy that I'm sure wants to cut me for a lot of money. I've already been screened by a PT... he's given me some comfort that it might not be all that bad. He's my hope. I've also had some massages, which have offered some temporary relief.

SO, 2014 here we are! My primo condition is pretty much gone. Yet I am signed up for the Boston and Berlin Marathons. Boston is most likely a DNS at this point... a miracle would be needed to make that happen. Hopefully I'll find out in the next week if miracles are possible.