Not looking good!!

hi
as you heard on my previous posts I have been off running for about 6 weeks till January. In January started running again and build up from 4m and did that a couple of times ok, then decided it was a good idea to do a bleep test which disagreed with me and caused me a few more niggles. Carried on running another week with niggles, till one evening when on a 5m run the last couple of miles my hip/tband started hurting and soldiered my way to the end.

Have not run for 10 days now, went to get a sport massage from a physio and like the first one said that I have a 'weakness' on my left side and now have suffered muscle strain due to overuse on both sides . Have a very tight armstring, tband, hip, all over really.

What I found strange is that I was complaining only on one side however when I got the massage my other 'good' leg actually hurt more!!

So I went to buy a Roller and using that but is so painful, Im rolling for a minute on each area twice a day. Not sure if this is correct, does anyone know.

Went spinning on Saturday and my legs dont hurt during the activity, should I still carry on cycling or not?

And my arms/shoulders/ stiff neck have started hurting me recently as well. Supposedly from swimming so should I stop swimming too now???

So bad when your mind says go and your body says no! I am so desperate for activity and am being held back, Im feeling quite depressed about it actually

Have so many events lined up and now I feel that I wont be able to meet my training deadlines
Sorry for the long post.

Rolling hurts. I hate doing it. My boyfriend says if you do it regurlarly you get more used to it.

Do you have known problems with your neck etc (sorry if you have said this before, I can't remember). Do you do coached sessions or swim on your own? There's a difference between "my muscles feel tired because I have worked them a lot" and "I have injured myself and that is causing me pain".

Hi Fimm thanks for your reply. No history on neck, it just feels a bit stiff. I swim with a Tri group, they dont coach us on an idividual basis, just do a lot of drills...
It's not a question of tired muscles, but injury due to muscles overuse.

Have you suddenly started doing a lot more swimming? Would it help to ease off the number of sessions you are doing a week and build up again?
Where exactly does it hurt? Does it hurt both sides?

Not really, I think I've been putting more effort in the last 4 weeks (approx) as I get stronger / more confident. When I roll it hurts on both sides: calf, tband, armstring, hip etc dont know every single muscle group name but you get the picture
When not rolling it hurts on certain movements like sitting down or standing up, general soreness really...
I have been seen twice with the same prognosis, going for another sport massage this week, it just feels like Im never going to get over it!
Was meant to part cycle to work all next week (20m round trip) as it's half term but now not sure is a good idea ...

Ah sorry, not clear enough. I meant, where does your upper body hurt?
Like I said, rolling hurts...
With respect to your legs - I think if cycling doesn't hurt you can probably do it - it is much lower impact than running. However I'm not a doctor or physio or whatever. It might be that you've just done too much too soon; it might be that you have an injury and should rest; it might be that you just have "normal" aches from exercising - it is very hard to tell over the internet! Have you got stretches/physio exercises to do?

Very depressing when you keep getting injured. You sound like an enthusiastic type and maybe thats got the better of you? ie you need to build up slower? Don't know what age you are but at my age (44) I have to make sure I can do each discipline in a very relaxed fashion after a break - there will be pain from tiredness but thats all. I am very wary of joint or muscle pain that may just get worse. Once I can do each discipline relaxed and easy then I increase the distance and introduce the odd session where I push hard. Keep stretching after each session also. My Tri club give us exercises to help that discipline (pressups for swimming for example) and maybe you need some specifically targetted to your areas or weakness. If so you should do them even when you are not injured.

Once I have pulled something I am out till it heals generally. A real pain so better to avoid injuries and be patient if possible.

The beauty or tri's is that I can be out of running for 6 weeks but still cycle and swim - so don't loose all fitness. If you are in pain running and cycling then you need better help than I give. Good luck !

Hi Fimm I know exactly what has gone wrong, it is not normal aches, as I said in first post I am injuried, just wondered if anyone has similar experiences and how they got over them and if they recommend stopping altogether or not...

hi 007 thanks for your comment I am very enthusiastic and impatient you hit the nail on the head with that one . Thing is Im enjoying it so much is almost become addictive! Im 37yo and never done so much activity in my life so my body must be thinking what the heck it's happening to me!

I can do each discipline already (in a Sprint) I just know that I can do so much better and am so ready for it mentally but my body is just not having it at the moment! But you are right I am stretching now more regularly and even when not exercising if I m particular tight on some areas. Now though im just a total write off

What I usually do is find something that does not hurt and use it for recuperation.
What I mean is usually the bike, being a constrained exercise allows you to tootle along without pain, so your spinning looks good. But if you find something hurts ease off.

Sometimes things like a tight calf will wear off when you run, but if it is a sharp pain or a pain that gets worse then I always stop.

Your neck and shoulders will probably tighten up if you try to swim hard. You will get used to this if you build slowly and keep it going. Don't go back to a sequence of easy session and then plow away in another. I get pain from doing hard sessions if I have not kept them up.

Left side weakness can appear because of right side tightness caused by breathing to the right while swimming. If you see the physio the day after a swim you may appear asymmetric, after two days it can sort itself out in some people. A bit of bilateral breathing will help. I only breath to the right and have had a physio spot this.

I've had bother with my hips, on the front at the top just above where my thigh joins and outer itb. I use two golf balls glued together and push in to the muscles around the joint with them. You can get much more direct pressure in to that location than with a roller and the balls are easy to hold. I get almost instant pain relief from this. They can hurt more than the roller though but you get used to it.

I don't use pain killers unless I can't sleep. Don't train on them.

Don't under estimate the value of stretching too. Since I started stretching every evening for 15 mins I have not been injured, I have odd niggles and sore muscles like everyone else but nothing that stops me training. I use the rule of 3's. If you have one leg tighter than the other, do that one first, do the other and then repeat the first one.

Training deadlines have to be re-evaluated continously. They create unnecessary pressure. Do not be worried about scrapping your current plan and starting again. I have a rough outline of what I want achieve and change it on a daily basis to suit work, family and the weather. This is not like doing a single sport, you have to juggle continously or you will get very frustrated and won't enjoy it.

Being sore/injured is about finding your limitations. The best atheletes either have few or have learned how to relieve them or work with them . In time you will know what hurts and how far you can go. This limit will keep moving as you improve and you learn more about yourself.

Good luck with your recovery, you will learn and you will be stronger.

Hi AG, thanks for taking time and writing your post.

BIG THANKS

ps also would like to add that I now swear by the roller, it was excruciating pain last week and withing a few days is already less painful!

"Are the two golf balls you refer .." These were two golf balls the kids played with in the garden I glued them together with epoxy resin. The dimples improve grip. I can't see youtube from here, I'll check later.

I reckon some of the pain from the roller is due to the way the muscle fibres line up. They start off in a bit of a tangled mess and the rollering or a physio giving you a good pounding helps line them up. Which means less friction and greater efficiency, so it becomes less painful too.

From what you describe in terms of a number of different things effecting you, I would suggest looking holistically at what you do. I mean everything from diet, strectching etc. Not a bad starting point is Phil Mafetone's book which may give you some ideas. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Book-En...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328716326&sr=1-1

thanks, I am a believer of holistic approach. I will get the book as I do like reading and educating myself especially stuff that effect me directly. Can I ask you a 'personal' question? Do you take supplements and if so what types, tablets/ energy drinks??
I hear people swearing by them and telling me that just drinking water is not doing any good and is not helping my recovering > thus even having a knock on effect to getting the injury - because of slow recovery due to lack of supplements.... I wonder if they have a point...

I think you're asking ArsenGere in particular, but I'll put in my two-penn'orth as well, because supplements etc are very personal and there are lots of different opinions out there. If I'm going out for less than an hour, (run or bike) I usually won't take anything with me, not even water. Over an hour and I'll usually have energy drink. When I'm training for a race where I expect I will need to take on nutrition during the event, I will practice that during training, using the gels (or whatever) that I will use during the race.

I use whey protein, usually as a recovery drink. We get ours in Holland and Barratt and I mix it with water. If I'm under a heavy training load I'll try and take it every day. If I'm not training so hard I probably won't bother with it at all; or I might just decide to have some if I feel I've had a particularly hard session. Other than that, I take a multivitamin, and at the minute I'm taking some fish oil supplements that my boyfriend bought me.

This is very personal, though - what works for one won't always work for another. Some people find that particular brands of sports nutrition disagree with them. Others swear by their home-made versions! (My nutrition for the Ironman did include jelly babies...)

(You can have a laugh at my expense - I've done something to my knee on my long run last night and so abandoned my bike today and came in on the bus... )

Funnily enough, especially given how personal this stuff tends to be, this is almost exactly what I do... down to getting the whey protein from H&B

Here is a mixture of stuff I eat/take and why.
About 25 years ago I was road racing, 1st cat and vegetarian. I read a book called "Your personal vitamin profile" or something like that and worked out from there what I needed to race. (Doing about 250-400 miles a week).

I take a each day 1 Boots A-Z multivit/mineral (contains vitamin A, which you can OD). 1 gram Omega 3/6 fish oil two times a day, 1 gram Vit C with Bioflavinoids twice a day, 1 BCAA (Branched Chained Amino Acid) twice a day and 1 500mg L-Glutamine in the evening.

Boots do a lot of 3 for 2 offers, but HB are much the same. The fish oils dont contain mercury.

The A-Z is a catch all, the fish oil is a brain/body support thing Vitamin D included for bone strength too (needed for the run). Vitamin C as an antioxidant and to assist with immunity which may be depleted by exercise. The BCAA is something that body builders use for repair rather than bulk and it extends the life of rats by 12% (see bbc.co.uk) so I might be racing in my 80's ! L-Glutamin, well the jury is still out on this one. I was introduced to it by a mate who was a powerlifer - british champion. It has been proven to assist in post operative recuperation. It also assists in the absorbtion of nutrients by the body. It's mostly in meat, very common, but a top up is non-toxic and worth a punt.

Training I try to do carb depleted - see Interleukin 6 piece I wrote in the health section of this forum. Post exercise I go straight for a carb drink for two reasons. It prevents depletion of the immune system and the ability to get glycogen back in to the muscles declines with time. If I have been doing a hard session, anerobic or neurological (high cadence stuff) I also go for the whey protein with milk for the calcium similarly described by fimm.

Long rides I go for natural foods, tea cakes with jam, 1 water bottle and 1 isotonic weak mix. I also have to eat/drink on runs of more than say 15 miles and a bottle of weak isotonic drink and a few jelly babies keep me going to about 22 miles.

If I am particularly knackered post race I sometimes have a Tums, digestion tablet for the magnesium.

Pre-race I usually have 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarb in water. It goes back to a myth that it used to help the prevent the build up of lactic acid, but I find it helps me stop getting cramps in the run section.

I don't use caffeine pre race or during the race. 80% of people who die in thriathlons die in the swim, probably due to some kind of heart issue. I won't risk messing with my heart. I do drink tea and coffee every day though but not pre race. I do like a drink though. I'm a light weight, I can chuck up on 3 pints so have a drop of wine instead.

The vitamins I've been taking for 25 years now with no adverse effects. The L-glutamine and BCAA I started when I started to race again about 2 years ago.

My son and Mrs Gere takes the same as me and she is a keen cyclist too, no adverse effects.

HTH

Thank you AG!

Thank you for sharing your nutrition guide.
I am a vegetarian,how do you take fish oil ?
Yours
Doug.

I'm no longer vegetarian, I was brought up on bacon sandwiches and was lured back to meat. I take the standard Boots fish oil capsules. Usually they do 3 for 2 so I stock up on whatever I need.

I kind of expected a few responses saying I was wasting my money, which is possible but I won't know for another 25 years or more so I'll take chance.

Something else for those who race may be sodium citrate, there are a lot of papers around google/scholar showing it improves performance, here is one http://www.msscentershop.info/content/37/6/485.abstract.
Then there are the odd ones that say it's no good. http://www.springerlink.com/content/lp95324rh7153322/
But if you can get 0.5grams per Kg of body weight down and keep it down, then race, I think you deserve to win.

I'm a little late to the thread, and you've probably long since corrected the issue of tightness, but I had a real problem when I ran where my hip flexors were so tight that I had a problem getting out of my car. I am very fit but it turns out that it was two issues, one was that my gait was off because my knees weren't bent enough when running. The other was that I wasn't stretching enough on a consistent basis. Good, slow, methodical stretches. Your hips are often the source for any knee or ankle problems. I couldn't believe the difference once I consistently stretched, and I'm talking eventually doing a straddle split.

The other thing that helped was using a deflated tennis ball to stretch out the fascia under the foot.

Great info on the nutrition.. and if you've already had your race, hope it was successful