I have been MIA for a few days. Thursday I got my four miler in and then Scarlett and I hit the road for about 10 hours. Then yesterday I decided to delay my long run until today so I could just unpack, hang out and relax with Casey.
Then I woke up this morning and started reading my book and pretty much decided I wasn’t going. About an hour after that decision I changed my mind, threw my gear on and headed out before I could change my mind again. I headed out with no direction and ended up quite a few places I have never been. The view was beautiful and I enjoyed the run a lot.
Because I hadn’t planned out my run at all, I ended up back at home covering 17 miles. I had had enough and had gone way further than the 0 miles I had planned on in the morning. 7 hours post run, I am so glad I stopped when I did. My legs are in pain, like tons of ice, ibuprofen, achy, miserable pain.
I think my body is finally saying for real that it needs a break. I am fairly certain that I have Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS). Ironically, I did my final research paper on diagnosis and management of PFPS in physical therapy.
Symptoms:
1. Pain with ascending stairs
2. Pain with descending stairs
3. Pain with squatting/jumping
4. Pain while running
5. Pain after sitting for prolonged periods
Right now I am mostly having the pain up and down stairs and after getting up from sitting. Luckily I don’t have it while I am running (knock on wood). The bad part about this is that it doesn’t have a quick fix solution. I need to work on strengthening my quadriceps, hip external rotators and hip abductors which will be a long process to do it right. As of now, I will run this race take a little rest to relieve my sore muscles and then dive into strengthening my legs and hips.
So my post race work outs now have a direction, lets just hope the body can hold out three more weeks!
