This week was 12 miles of running and 37 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.
I was hopeful my hip thing was just a blip, but it has persisted. I intentionally took three days off of running at the start of this week to see what that did. I then jogged 2 miles on Thursday, with the first mile feeling awful and the second mile feeling better.
Slightly encouraged, I did two sets of 2 miles on Friday (I timed the team tempo workout between the two). The first 2 miles felt much better, the second set felt like Thursday.... I call that improvement. And it made me wonder if taking 3 days off had been a bad idea.
To explain - every time a muscle gets tight or I start feeling nerve, muscle, or tendon pain, I have to decide whether this is a) an emerging injury or b) Parkinsons-related pain. The latter can cause random bouts of nerve pain or tight muscles (which result in tendon pain). If it's an injury, I need to reduce load and start rehabbing. But if it's Parkinsons-related, then inactivity and rest will make it worse, and the only answer is to carefully push through. I suspect that I've got a bit of both going on right now.
Another run on Saturday actually felt decent (admittedly at a very careful pace) until an aggressive cyclist buzzed me in Rock Creek Park. I flinched, and in doing so aggravated the hip again. It was ouchy on Sunday morning, so I decided to give it a day and get in the pool.
Since I haven't really gotten my heart rate up in the past two weeks, I did some hard intervals - my old standard of 3 minutes very hard, 1 minute easy. I made it through 5 of them and decided that was enough. The normal workout is 10x3:00 hard/1:00 off, but I'm clearly out of shape right now.
As for what's going on with the hip? My best guess is a slight psoas strain combined with "ischio-femoral impingement" - basically the sciatic nerve and the quadratus femoris muscle (same muscle that gave me trouble in January) get pinched between the ischial tuberosity and the femur. I have discomfort when I really extend my right leg behind me (especially if I internally rotate my leg) or in front of me. And I also have muscle tightness that moves around, which is characteristic of sciatic involvement. It doesn't seem to have any of the characteristics of a labral tear or femoral stress fracture.
And of course, the muscle tightness from cutting back on my activity level is compounding all this...
Of course, I don't want to rely on my own diagnosis. I'm trying to get in to be seen by a PT I trust (first available appointment is the week after next) and I'm also trying to find an orthopedist I'm comfortable seeing. My concern there is that many orthopedists are going to see a 50 year old woman with Parkinsons on their list and write me off before they've even examined me. But...I'm not exactly qualified to diagnose myself, so I need to pick someone and go.
In the meantime, I'll stick with what I've been doing - careful running with the goal of increasing load while maintaining or reducing discomfort, combined with stretching and strengthening.
Monday: Off - just cheering at the track meet and travel.
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