Let's Get Physio!

After the half marathon in Wrexham, I felt sore for the rest of the week, so no running took place. Then Friday came and my appointment with Kerry at the Studley Physiotherapy Centre (but located in Redditch rather than Studley!).

The main thing was that wearing shorts was the correct attire, so I was off to a good start! I described my running - how long I had been running, number of miles per week etc etc. She asked whether I had bought new trainers recently, changed running surface and so on. There's been no change really, so not much information. Then came the physical assessment - first the gait, then a few stretches and then to the hip problem itself. Onto the couch and my leg was moved into different positions with does this hurt? 'no' and then one was 'Does this hurt? 'OMG YES! That is excruciating!' The conclusion quickly arrived at is my hip-flexor is the problem.

The good news is that it is not damaged, the issue is more that all of my leg muscles are too tight and this is leading to this kind of problem. So the remainder of the 40 minute session was to establish the initial stretching regime I am to follow - three main stretches to start with, including one for my forever sore shin which is that way because the muscle in front of the leg is overdeveloped for the muscle behind it.

I left fully reassured that recovery is on the way - it would take a few weeks and proper running is out of the question (a few gentle cheeky 2 miles here and there are allowed).

Armed with this information I decided to go ahead with the Hotelympia 10k in London Docklands featuring Steve Cram. This is a flat as a pancake course and the second fastest 10k I have ever run (57:51 in 2010), but my 2012 time would be 1hr 31 - a PW because I did a jog/walk, but I felt OK after 2 miles and brilliant afterwards. A worthwhile day and the next morning I saw Jedward at breakfast in the hotel.

The following weekend was the Centurion Grand Prix. I'm not ready for that yet and the uneven surface may not be a good idea at this time, so I gave it a miss - favouring a cheeky 2 mile run near home. I started off at a steady pace, but after one mile the hip was giving me a few reminders why I had not been running properly for the last 8 weeks, so from 1.5 miles I did a walk/run. I'm pleased with that, progress is being made and more importantly, a few hours after the run, I am not in pain. Next physio appointment is on Wednesday.