Most of last year I was running pain free, it was great! The class I am taking at the gym (Joey's Chaos Class of Fitness/was TC24 before we moved to Ironside Athletics) had helped all my IT Band go away. I felt great. I felt strong. It was awesome. Then in October, on a 16 mile run, at mile 10, it hit me. Knee pain, which means IT Band pain. That was about 10 days before I was headed to run the Cunningham 30k in Omaha, Nebraska. I spent the next 10 days trying to do everything I could to help it settle down. Went to Omaha anyway, and I had a great time. Frustrated, yes, but I really love the race director and the other people we have met there. The first 10.5 miles was awesome, but I walked most of the next 10.5 mile loop. At mile 21, I made the decision to stop. I knew I could walk the next 10.5 mile loop, but that's not how I imagined my first Ultra Marathon to be. The race Director, Scott was super nice, and he kept me from crying by taking me over to the Sports Massage therapist they had at the race. Yes, that's how nice they are. Then I waited for Tom to finish the last loop and become an Ultra Marathoner. I was sad about it, but I made a good decision. No regrets.
I searched for answers for my IT Band pain, and I ended up finding a set of exercises (that I still do every other day) that seemed to help me slowly get better. IT Band pain usually means that you have weak glutes, which is odd because of all the squats I do at the gym, not to mention everything else I do. I was signed up to run the Back Country Trail Half Marathon in a few weeks, so I decided to go to my PT, Ron Adams and see what he thought about my injury. He said it looked like I was doing great, and told me to keep doing what I as doing, take some Ibuprofen and Tylenol, and do it. The Half went great, and it was even a PR. I kept healing.
Then I started to get piriformis pain. It was awful, and one day when I sat sown on the toilet, my piriformis started to spasm. It was horrible. I went back to the PT, and he did some deep tissue needling, which seemed to help. I went for the next couple of months, about every 10 days. He needled my piriformis as well as my lower back. It was extremely painful, but it helped.
After a couple of months I felt like I needed something else. So, yesterday I had an appointment with Shara at the gym. She does MAT. What is MAT? Muscle Activation Therapy, which is a technique of manipulations that helps to restore the muscles ability to work more efficiently. MAT believes that the lack of range of motion is due to the muscles inability to shorten into a motion. I went to her for an assessment to see if she could help me. The session was good, and she thought she could definitely help me. After some of the soreness of the session worked its way out during gym class, I felt good. I still felt good in the evening. But this morning I had a lot of pain. Definitely sore from class, and sore from the manipulations, and of course the usual soreness. Shara told me I would be sore, so as usual, I worked through it.
I worked through it enough to get going to run up the Monster Hill again today, more Horsetooth Half training. The weather turned out to be hotter then I planned, so shedded my jacket after a mile, and wished I had shorts on or a running skirt. Its always a good day when you can go on a run. My pain is always better when I work through it. I am thankful that I can still run, work out, and live.
I've been through a lot of pain in my life. I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 1996, which was extremely painful. I had two laparoscopies, and two abdominal surgeries done in order to diagnose and remove my uterus and ovaries to take away the disease and the pain. I also had five surgeries on my hands to relieve the Carpal Tunnel pain in my hands. On top of that, I had my gallbladder removed so that it wasn't painful to eat normal food. I have also had a lot of emotional pain during my life, and some days feel really down and depressed. There are lots of different kinds of pain. Emotional pain and physical pain. I found in both instances that exercise helps take the pain away. It's important to keep moving forward. One step at a time. You'll get there. I know that the pain I am having now will eventually go away. I just have to keep searching for the solution that will take it away, just like all the pains we encounter in life. We were never promised an easy life, or any life at all. However, I do know that I will keep my faith, and keep moving forward.
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| Top of the Monster Hill today |
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