Heading to the Glue Factory
Not blogging as regular as I once was. Not running as regular either. 11 on Tuesday, 7.5 on Wednesday, two days off, and then 10.5 today.
Its too early to say if this is a long-term thing, but the fire isn't there right now. I got up on Thursday knowing that I was due for a long run and also that there was a bunch of work on my plate that day. I chose to get an early jump on the latter. I went back and forth, and the fact that it was under 20 out with snowy/icy streets tilted things towards that as well. Still, the difference is that a year or two or three ago I would have been out there on a morning with the same circumstances. Similarly, that I have a marathon looming two months away doesn't have the urgency that it once did. I'll definitely run it, and shoot to better my last Boston time, but I've dropped any notion of ramping it up and going for a really fast marathon.
Its hard to explain. Its not a choice as much as a feeling. Things change, time passes and I'm feeling other priorities. I see myself running, but not as competitively. It's too early to tell if that is something long-term, its too early to tell if I'm actually having a harder time with this transition than I'm letting myself think. But for right now, I'm allowing myself to just run and see what happens.
That was the spirit of this morning's run. I just felt like going out and running. I made a new route over familiar terrain, heading out to Wynnefield and then into Overbrook and back around through West Philly. 10.5 miles. No watch, no iPod. In contrast to recent runs, I looked forward to this one and felt relaxed. And it helped that the recent cold weather has thawed a bit.
And then there is the last reason for my lackadaisical running of late. I have written about some groin pain that I suspected was adductor problems. That hasn't gone away and has manifested itself, in the form of a very low-grade pain, during non-running times for no specific reason. This concerned me enough to see my doc, who couldn't see anything wrong but nonetheless referred me for a testicular ultrasound. Yeah, not a lot of fun but ruled out the scary problems. That was yesterday. Today the pain was back, but much more like an overuse injury, appearing just as I was heading towards Market St. on 63rd, about 8 miles into my run. The pain came from the right perineal area, but again there wasn't any apparent muscle actions associated with the pain.
So before I started that last paragraph I did another round of googling for diagnoses. This change of perception in my symptomology gave me more focus on my search, and I descended into the world of sports injuries in the groin area. The best overview I found was in an article from American Family Physician. The gist of the article is that groin pains like I have are difficult to diagnose and differentiate, and its not unusual for multiple conditions to co-occur. They describe the "big three" injuries - adductor strain, osteitis pubis, and sports hernias, and I read through descriptions of all three and thought that sounds like what I have. But then each of them is not an exact fit either. But its encouraging, in the sense that I'm on the right track to a diagnosis, to read that symptoms are radial pain around the perineal and testicular area.
So what to do? This is one more of a line of problems I've had since last summer, which are low-grade but nagging. I can say that this is because I identify and address them early, but it also leaves me feeling wimpy because it puts me in a position where I can run through them but choose to ease up. If I had, say, a fracture or something then the choice not to run would be clear. But while I feel the pain, it is nowhere near bad enough to limit my movement or exercise. In fact, it may be a good thing to let it get a little worse so that the symptoms will be a bit clearer. So I imagine I'll take the middle path and run some, follow up with my doc and see if I can get a referral to a good sports medicine guy to help me figure out what exactly I'm looking at.
So this has turned out to be quite the long, meandering post. From loss of focus to medical maladies. All which point to that it's a good thing I'm not a horse, or I'd be heading to the glue factory.
Its too early to say if this is a long-term thing, but the fire isn't there right now. I got up on Thursday knowing that I was due for a long run and also that there was a bunch of work on my plate that day. I chose to get an early jump on the latter. I went back and forth, and the fact that it was under 20 out with snowy/icy streets tilted things towards that as well. Still, the difference is that a year or two or three ago I would have been out there on a morning with the same circumstances. Similarly, that I have a marathon looming two months away doesn't have the urgency that it once did. I'll definitely run it, and shoot to better my last Boston time, but I've dropped any notion of ramping it up and going for a really fast marathon.
Its hard to explain. Its not a choice as much as a feeling. Things change, time passes and I'm feeling other priorities. I see myself running, but not as competitively. It's too early to tell if that is something long-term, its too early to tell if I'm actually having a harder time with this transition than I'm letting myself think. But for right now, I'm allowing myself to just run and see what happens.
That was the spirit of this morning's run. I just felt like going out and running. I made a new route over familiar terrain, heading out to Wynnefield and then into Overbrook and back around through West Philly. 10.5 miles. No watch, no iPod. In contrast to recent runs, I looked forward to this one and felt relaxed. And it helped that the recent cold weather has thawed a bit.
And then there is the last reason for my lackadaisical running of late. I have written about some groin pain that I suspected was adductor problems. That hasn't gone away and has manifested itself, in the form of a very low-grade pain, during non-running times for no specific reason. This concerned me enough to see my doc, who couldn't see anything wrong but nonetheless referred me for a testicular ultrasound. Yeah, not a lot of fun but ruled out the scary problems. That was yesterday. Today the pain was back, but much more like an overuse injury, appearing just as I was heading towards Market St. on 63rd, about 8 miles into my run. The pain came from the right perineal area, but again there wasn't any apparent muscle actions associated with the pain.
So before I started that last paragraph I did another round of googling for diagnoses. This change of perception in my symptomology gave me more focus on my search, and I descended into the world of sports injuries in the groin area. The best overview I found was in an article from American Family Physician. The gist of the article is that groin pains like I have are difficult to diagnose and differentiate, and its not unusual for multiple conditions to co-occur. They describe the "big three" injuries - adductor strain, osteitis pubis, and sports hernias, and I read through descriptions of all three and thought that sounds like what I have. But then each of them is not an exact fit either. But its encouraging, in the sense that I'm on the right track to a diagnosis, to read that symptoms are radial pain around the perineal and testicular area.
So what to do? This is one more of a line of problems I've had since last summer, which are low-grade but nagging. I can say that this is because I identify and address them early, but it also leaves me feeling wimpy because it puts me in a position where I can run through them but choose to ease up. If I had, say, a fracture or something then the choice not to run would be clear. But while I feel the pain, it is nowhere near bad enough to limit my movement or exercise. In fact, it may be a good thing to let it get a little worse so that the symptoms will be a bit clearer. So I imagine I'll take the middle path and run some, follow up with my doc and see if I can get a referral to a good sports medicine guy to help me figure out what exactly I'm looking at.
So this has turned out to be quite the long, meandering post. From loss of focus to medical maladies. All which point to that it's a good thing I'm not a horse, or I'd be heading to the glue factory.
posted by seebo | 4:31 PM
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