Monday run - 6km (run after a visit to the physio)

dannewton just finished a 6.34km run, that lasted for 39 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 501.0 calories.

Description from Strava:
So today is the first week of my holiday, and I had planned to spend a decent portion of it out running, but that went out the window, when the hip pain appeared 2 weeks ago. I wasn't sure if it was an actual injury or just a niggle that just need rest, so I booked in with a local Sports Massage Clinic

She is actually based right here in the village, so I didn't need to travel miles for once!

At 11:30 I set off, so I could get there in time for my appointment:

I was lead into a small room off to one side, where the Sports Therapist asked me about my sports history (running on and off for 20 years), any previous injury concerns (right Calf Strain from last year). Then she asked my about my current injury, and explained in more detail about the pain that appeared 2 weeks ago, and that it had actually first appeared a few months ago, but had been manageable and almost unnoticeable until recently.

I guessed that it was an hip Adducter issue, but wanted confirmation of this and also a way of treating it.She asked me to stand up while we ran through a couple of 'tests', by moving the leg and seeing when pain appeared, and then she asked me to lay on the table

To cut a long story short, she gave me a full sports massage on my legs, starting from the bottom (Calf) to the top (hips). While systematically working through it, she asked further questions, and also asked me to advise when there was discomfort or pain.

She acknowledged that my right calf was especially tight (a result of last years strain) and that following that 'chain' up my leg, she found tightness all the way up to where the hip adducter attaches to the bone (ie at the top of my thigh, on the inside)

The paid was only at a specific point, and there appeare to be no other soreness arising from this, so she is very confident that it is a tightness issue, and that massage and some targeted stretching should be enough to resolve this.

which I'm really pleased to hear by the way!

She also advised that instead of 'rest' it would be more sensible to keep running, just at a lower workload than normal. There is no actual damage, just that the muscles are super stiff and tense and stopping the full range of motion.

Feeling much better (both mentally and physically), I set off home with a literal spring in my step... injury concerns asside, the massage actually felt really good.

I had been thinking about finding a local massage person, just for maintenance purposes and to keep on top off any soreness, and I think I've found one. The next session is already booked for 3 weeks time!

I felt so good in fact, that I decided to treat myself to a little run:

It was just up the bypass and back, but it just felt good to be moving again. My legs felt loose and energised, and the pain which was still present, felt much reduced... or perhaps that was just the positive vibes taking over lol!

It also helped to get a 2nd opinion that basically confirmed what I was hoping... that it is just a mobility/tightness issue, and should be a an easy fix, if not necessarily a quick fix.

One I arrived back home, the Therapist had sent me links to 2 youtube videos

The first one shows several different ways to stretch the groin muscles

the second one shows how to do a stretch on my calf muscles (as the tightness has originated in my right calf muscle, and it is this that has caused the issues further up the chain as the body compensates for it

When I tried this, the left calf felt fine, but the right calf felt very tight indeed, deffo something that needs sorting!

I've tried a couple of those groin stretches today, and I will be incorporating all of these in to the cool downs after all my runs for the immediate future. My next physio session is in 3 weeks, so hopefully I can make some progress before then!

Tomorrow, I will not be running (as I'm still taking it easy remember). Instead I am off for a walk to visit my brother for a rare opportunity to catch up. There's gonna be another walk on Wednesday morning with my Dad, and I 'might' go for a run on Wednesday afternoon, but we shall see...!

If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/12876870534

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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