This week was 35 miles of running -- training log is here.
Things turned around pretty quickly once we identified the cause of my sural nerve entrapment (it was mostly a nasty knot at the top of my calf behind my knee). A visit to the podiatrist and his visual ultrasound machine gave confirmation that there was no actual injury to my foot - all referred pain. The prescription was for Graston to that back-of-knee area - which was good since that's what we were already doing.
Since there was no real damage, just pain, it meant that I could ramp things up fairly quickly once I could run without a limp (I would have been much more restrained if this was tendonitis, stress reaction, or another overuse type injury).
I started with some careful test running on Wednesday, and then built from there. Interestingly, the more I ran on it, the better it felt, and the better I felt overall. Nerve pain responds well to activity, and very poorly to rest, in my experience.
One result of this misadventure is that I'm changing up my routine some. I've really enjoyed my long walks, but it's believed that they are contributing to some of the issues I'm currently dealing with. Essentially, nearly all of my injury issues eventually trace back to the S1/L5 area or my back - either the injury has a nerve aspect, or the injury has resulted from my gait being off due to weakness from nerve issues originating from that area. (this is not a new thing - I've been told this by pretty much every PT I've ever worked with.
Running places a lot of compressive stress on my spine. So does walking. In contrast, swimming and pool-running do not. In fact, they actually unload my spine.
But....during the pandemic, swimming and pool-running are not available to me, but walking is. Hence my long walks twice a week when I would normally be pool-running, substituting unloading for compression.
So...the long walks have to end, as much as I enjoyed them. Instead, I'm going to sub in gentle yoga classes and some "unloading work" for lack of a better term during the time I would be walking (which is the time I used to be pool-running). The unloading work is stuff like bracing myself on a counter top (or the treadmill) with my hands and letting my torso and legs hang down. Or laying on my back for an extended period of time with my legs propped up on a sofa. I'll also do some more focused self-massage, to compensate for the fact I'm no longer getting a deep tissue massage every other week.
Dailies:
Things turned around pretty quickly once we identified the cause of my sural nerve entrapment (it was mostly a nasty knot at the top of my calf behind my knee). A visit to the podiatrist and his visual ultrasound machine gave confirmation that there was no actual injury to my foot - all referred pain. The prescription was for Graston to that back-of-knee area - which was good since that's what we were already doing.
Since there was no real damage, just pain, it meant that I could ramp things up fairly quickly once I could run without a limp (I would have been much more restrained if this was tendonitis, stress reaction, or another overuse type injury).
I started with some careful test running on Wednesday, and then built from there. Interestingly, the more I ran on it, the better it felt, and the better I felt overall. Nerve pain responds well to activity, and very poorly to rest, in my experience.
One result of this misadventure is that I'm changing up my routine some. I've really enjoyed my long walks, but it's believed that they are contributing to some of the issues I'm currently dealing with. Essentially, nearly all of my injury issues eventually trace back to the S1/L5 area or my back - either the injury has a nerve aspect, or the injury has resulted from my gait being off due to weakness from nerve issues originating from that area. (this is not a new thing - I've been told this by pretty much every PT I've ever worked with.
Running places a lot of compressive stress on my spine. So does walking. In contrast, swimming and pool-running do not. In fact, they actually unload my spine.
But....during the pandemic, swimming and pool-running are not available to me, but walking is. Hence my long walks twice a week when I would normally be pool-running, substituting unloading for compression.
So...the long walks have to end, as much as I enjoyed them. Instead, I'm going to sub in gentle yoga classes and some "unloading work" for lack of a better term during the time I would be walking (which is the time I used to be pool-running). The unloading work is stuff like bracing myself on a counter top (or the treadmill) with my hands and letting my torso and legs hang down. Or laying on my back for an extended period of time with my legs propped up on a sofa. I'll also do some more focused self-massage, to compensate for the fact I'm no longer getting a deep tissue massage every other week.
Dailies:
Monday: Streaming yoga and leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: Streaming yoga and upper body weights/core. Podiatrist AND PT in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 4x0.5 mile jog outside with 1 minute walk recovery, streaming yoga, 2x1 mile jog on treadmill with 1 minute walk recovery, streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.
Thursday: 4 miles easy on treadmill (9:13), 20 minute break, 3 miles easy on treadmill (8:57), and then a chiro appointment. Streaming yoga in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: Streaming yoga and upperbody weights/core, followed by extra selfcare work. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 7 miles easy on treadmill (9:01), streaming yoga, and 3 miles easy on treadmill (8:55). Foam rolling at night.
Sunday: 12 miles on the treadmill, including an imitation Iwo Jima workout - 8 repeats of the following:
-2:00 at a strong effort on a 3.0 incline (the Iwo Jima hill averages a 3% incline)
-1:30 easy effort on a 1.0 incline
-0:30 fast on a 1.0 incline
-1:00 easy effort on a 1.0 incline.
(paces for the 2 minute and 30 second intervals were 30 seconds to a minute slower than previous workouts, to play it safe.)
Followed with leg strengthwork, and then 2 miles very easy outside (9:15) to keep some feel for running on pavement. Finished with a streaming yoga class.
Your assessment makes sense - frustrating, to be sure, but no doubt it's the inability to spend time in the pool that is creating the irritation. Hopefully we will be in a place to reopen pools soon!
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