Lower Abdominal Injury

About a month ago, I thought I was pretty invincible.  I had completed a fifty miler, and was training for the Boston to Big Sur challenge.  Even though it was two marathons six days apart, I felt pretty undaunted – I had done two 28-mile double-summit Mount Diablo training runs in training for my 50 in December.  I decided I would use Hal Higdon’s Boston Bound training plan to get some speed work and hill intervals, but that I would do back to back weekend long runs, starting at 20 miles, then after a week off two 22’s and eventually two 24’s.  I figured this would ensure that not only would I finish the two marathons, but that I might even PR Boston.  My ultimate hero dream was to come down Boylston Street and maybe even see the time clock time with a two in the hours column. 

Then I had that bad run.  It was a Friday afternoon, and I was supposed to do an eight mile pace run, which I had decided meant trying to get as far under 7:00 miles as possible.  I had been able to do this a few other times, but on this day something felt off, and I was putting in too much effort to hit 7:10 miles.  When I finally got home and stopped, I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen.  I didn’t think much of it – I’m used to the aches and pains of running, and I was more concerned with the fact that my mile splits were off target.  That night I went out drinking beers with a buddy, and even helped him move a dresser down a few flights of stairs.  That didn’t feel great on the abdomen, but I just hoped I’d wake up the next morning and it would be gone.  Well, that didn’t happen, and when my allergies flared up on Saturday and every sneeze jarred my abdomen, I just planned to skip the Saturday run so I could just get the 22-miler in on Sunday.  No chance of that either, and I finally became resigned to the fact that I’d just have to take a couple days off.

I tried running on Tuesday, and made it about a block before feeling sharp pain which forced me to turn around.  That was enough to make me realize I was injured, and couldn’t just gut this one out.  I also had to admit to myself that I was limping throughout the day at work.  My first thought was that I had a sports hernia, and after a Google search I became pretty convinced that it was a pretty accurate diagnosis.  Then I became a little more optimistic and Googled “abdominal strain” and was pretty sure that that’s what I had.  I know that medical self-diagnosis on Google is one of the worst things you can do, but the compulsion is always too hard to resist.  Lesley told me I should go to the doctor, but I didn’t want to hear that I should take a few months off and miss Boston and Big Sur. 

I took eight days off, and my symptoms gradually improved, but when I went out for a two-mile trial run, I felt the return of the pressure on my lower abdomen again.  I decided that since there seemed to be some improvement, I didn’t need to throw in the towel yet so I signed up for a one-month gym membership.  The owner gave me a deal when I explained my situation, and I told him that all I needed was the stationary bike. 

For the past few weeks the stationary bike has been both my refuge and antagonist.  I have been able to maintain fitness, but am unsure how this will translate to running.  The tedium though, is terrible.  I try to keep my RPMs up to at least 90, and some days when I get bored, I just crank up the level for about two minutes to snap out of it.  I have done speed work outs, but again, have no idea what they translate to my Yasso repeats.  There are televisions with close captioning, so I listen to my headphones and drift in and out of daytime television shows like Katie (Couric, a talk show that I never knew existed), or four straight episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives the other day.  I did run a whole category of Literature questions in Jeopardy and nailed the final Jeopardy question, unsure whether or not I should tell the guy on the treadmill next to me (I didn’t, but more to give him a chance than out of a fear of showing off).  Sometimes I look out the window over my shoulder and see the blossoms on the tree outside, and know that spring is blooming this time largely without me.

Last weekend I was able to get out for a run, and decided that the abdominal issue would just be there, but as long as it wasn’t painful I would keep going.  I ran a twelve mile loop that finished at the gym, then rode the bike for an hour, before a dead-legged mile shuffle back home.  I ran a couple other times this week, but can’t quite get back-to-back runs.  When I do run, I cannot push the pace – it just feels like I’m lacking the strength of my lower abs – so I’ve given up on the idea of a Boston PR or Boston BQ.  I did get a twenty-miler in this morning though, and while it didn’t feel great, I think I can at least get through Boston.  I’m still unsure about Big Sur, but I’ve got three weeks to hopefully heal some, so I’ll see how it feels.

I guess injuries are a part of running, or getting older, or both.  At least it has been a reminder that I should focus more on cross training.  Just not on a stationary bike – I think on my last day at the gym I’m going to drag that thing out to the parking lot and drive over it a couple times with my car.