On the up and up

My calendar the past few weeks if full of completed workouts, and that's a good thing. One thing I like to see is the addition of a few runs. They might be short, but they are pain free, and that is a great thing. I've added in some running drills while wearing the Vibram Five Finger shoes (VFF's) and noticed a difference immediately. My calves were pretty sore the next day, too but I'm sure 1,500 single under the day before (jumping rope) had something to do with that, too.

I'm still riding and got some upgrades to my road bike, which I'm hoping will solve the jumping/skipping chain issue I've been having. I'd like to get out for some hard interval rides from time to time to help build the leg strength now that the weather is looking awesome outside.

So what's wrong with my hip? No one knows as I mentioned in my previous post. But I'm not hurting. No pain. I've been taking my NSAID's as prescribed, still using 'pain as my guide', foam rolling, and stretching. I'm not squatting or doing deadlifts at full ROM, and I'm fine with that. I'm able to do burpees, lunges, and box jumps at a pretty good clip.

The real test is this weekend. My GF and I will be helping out another training run on the MMT course, and I'll try to run a little bit on the trails. I don't know how many miles I'll get in, but it will probably decide if I do BRR in a few weeks.

Not much of an injury update

I've been to a couple different doctors and finally had an MRI done on my lumbar and pelvis, focusing on the right hip to see if there's a stress fracture.

I guess the good news is there's no fracture and my back looks fine.

The bad news, per se, is he can't see anything else wrong. So I'm still hurting, but they don't know why or the root cause of the pain.

The new prescription is "2 weeks of NSAIDs and use pain as your guide." When I asked if I could run he started to say 'no' then said yet again "use pain as your guide". Typically I'd go out and run 3-6 miles. Instead I went home and popped the meds and did some foam rolling.

There was some running this weekend as I'm heading up the Capitol Endurance running team. We did some drills and 100m repeats, which I joined in on for a few. We ended the session with a workout of the following:

5 RFT
200m run

Choice of -
20 air squats
2 laps of farmer's walk (carrying two 35# KBs)
20 double unders (or 60 single unders)
20 mtn climbers
20 ball slams (16# Dball)

They'd run 200m, then come back and do one of the five exercises. When that was complete, they'd head out again for the run, then one of the four remaining exercises. It was repeated a total of 5X since there were five exercises.

I went out for two runs and did a couple 100m runs as part of the drills and feel good today. I was focusing more on my form than speed, but it felt good to run again.

I'm not making any changes to my racing schedule just yet.I know the D Day to pull out is looming, but I'm going to see how these next couple of weeks go with the addition of running again - even if it is just 100-200m repeats.

I've continued to workout 5-6x a week even if I haven't posted my results here. Here's the basic guideline I follow when writing up workouts.

Running: 1-2x a week (just starting this)
Pull ups: 3-4x per week. Use various progressions - bands, jumping pull ups, negatives, weighted. Can be included in metcons.
Push ups: 2-3x per week. Work on form; build endurance
Deadlift: 1-2x per week
Squat: 1-2x per week
Fast lifts: 1-2x per week. Push jerks, power cleans, and snatches.
Heavy pressing: 1x per week. Strict press, bench press.
Metcon: 2x per week
Erg: 0-1x per week
Bike: 0-1x per week

So far things have been going well and I've been able to be consistent without doing any more harm to myself. I've been doing some dead lifting and squatting, but have significantly altered my ROM so I'm basically doing 1/4 of the actual movement. I'm not too concerned with the weight on the bar as I'm taking this setback as a blessing and focusing on my technique.

After two weeks.. then what? One of two things: 1. Cortisone shots to numb the back or hip. If I still hurt, numb the other and hope I don't hurt to narrow down the potential root of the problem. 2. MRI with dye injected to look for a labral tear.

Not the course of action I'd like to be taking at this point in the year, but I'm one small step closer to figuring out what's wrong and where.