Training Update - Injury and Race Planning

Well I've not posted since the run last week, and thats partly because I've been busy, but mostly cos I've been struggling with a little niggly injury that has appeared out of 'nowhere'*

*when I say 'nowhere', I do of course mean that it has been on my radar for a while, and I was hoping that if I ignored it, it would disappear of its own accord!

Its finally got to a point where I can't ignore it!

I've had a nagging stiffness in my hip/thigh area, and it would often come and go during the course of a normal week. I put it down to lack of flexibility in my hips, or maybe a sign of overdoing the training. For the most part I wouldn't even have said it was painful, it was more like 'uncomfortable' really...

However on this run above (last Saturday), it was hard going through out the whole run, and felt harder than it should've in my opinion. When I finished, my hip definitely felt sorer than it usually is. I expect some level of discomfort after running 2-3 hours, but today felt different

The run on the following day (Sunday), should have been an easy recovery run of 6km, but I felt rubbish out there, and everything felt so laboured to.

I ended up cutting it short and after running for 15 minutes, I had had enough, so I turned and headed back home.

The pace was standard at 6:16/km, but it didn't feel right at all

For the next day (Monday) i had an easy 12km planned, which is a fairly standard distance/effort to start the week.

The same as the previous day happened, I set off at a steady pace, and the 6:03/km pace shown is probably leaning towards above average for what I would do for the distance... my legs felt fine (as in not tired or heavy), and I had plenty of energy.

There was still something niggling in my Hip, and this was the first point I realised I might have picked up an injury

I quick consultation with Dr Google resulted in a self-diagnosis of a potential sprain of my right Hip Adducter (otherwise known as a 'groin strain')

(image source - https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hip_Adductors)

Not what I wanted to see see to be honest, although I guess no one wants to see themselves get injured I guess!

I was a little confused though, because if this diagnosis is the case, then why am I seemingly able to still run on it 'ok'?

Tuesdays run (above) was at a nice easy pace, and other that stiffness in that area, i was running perfectly normally...

Wednesdays run (below) however, was quite frankly awful. I was still able to run at, and maintain, a decent pace (decent for me at least)... but after about 5km in, my hip felt worse and worse.

As I was running through Branston, and then back home along the bypass, I noticed that my running form had changed, and that my right leg wasn't doing the same action as my left.

When I tried to correct this, pain shot through my hip... so it might have taken me several days (and in fact this has been a very small but noticeable niggle for the last month or so, but I finally accepted it.

No point in denying it any longer!

Once home, i wasted no time in looking up a physiotherapist to get a proper diagnosis and hopefully advise on the treatment of it.

Its not until the 11th of November, but it was the earliest I could get. I've already taken the rest of the week as rest days, as running continuously isn't gonna do it any favours, no matter what the issue is.

And if I'm honest, this has all come at a really annoying time...

Back in the Summer we were redoing our bedroom, and ripping everything out and starting from scratch. This resulted in having a proper sort out of all out clutter (and binning most of it!).

As part of that process, I stumbled across a pile of my old medals from previous events that I took part in, and I took a brief jog down memory lane.

Its been ages since I got some of these!

Other than the Marabank race in February'24, and the Seaside Marathon in March'23 the most recent medal is from way back in 2013.... thats 11 years ago!

That 2013 medal was from the Lincoln 10k, which is of course my 'local' run and takes place a bout 3 miles down the road from where I live. I've done this event 4 times... 2013, 2008, 2006 and then 2005.

The 2005 was my very first 10km race. It is still one of my fondest running memories, I had only been running for 3 months at this point, and I was so happy to cross the line in 59:46 - sneaking just under the hour.

I think it is high time i tried it again, so for the past few weeks I've been looking up various races for next year... and as it is my local race, and its been so long since I've done it, I just had to enter it again

So I did!

While on the race website, I noticed that the organizers had listed a half-marathon event in Lincoln for later in the year.... and I just couldn't resist, so I signed up for that one too!

I'm still looking at other races, and hopefully will make a decision on those soon. I think I need one in the middle of Summer... there is both a Half Marathon and a Full Marathon in Sherwood Forest in July next year, so one of those is a possibility.

There is also a potential for a big event in September... but I need to more research on that before I commit to it... watch this space!

So yeah, I had planned to write a super exciting and positive post about some exciting plans/races for next year, and I seem to have spent most of it moaning about the injury! Hopefully I can get an answer and solution for this soon, as I'm eager to get back training as soon as I can!

Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

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