And my next injury is.... Ribs

Saturday I was out running some local single track. It was a beautiful day out there and I was feeling good so I decided to run for about two hours. An hour and a half in, I tried on a root and before I knew it, I slammed to the ground landing on a root with my right rib cage. Ouch! It knocked the wind out of me and left me a little stunned. After feeling around to see if I broke anything I decided to continue my run. As I ran, my ribs hurt pretty bad and felt like something was loose in there. I walked a little poking at them and found a spot that really hurt. Tried to run again holding my ribs with my left hand, but it wasn't happening. Walked the half mile back to my car holding my ribs deciding whether or not I should drive to the ER or go home and shower first. I'm a guy, so yea, I drove home.

My view from the ground

 

After showering I decided to consult Dr. Google. The good doc said I bruised or broke a rib and the treatment was the same. Rest, anti-inflammatory and pain meds. I don't like taking drugs so I just went about my business. Sunday after having my morning coffee I started thinking that flying on Monday might not be a good idea if I had something worse than what I self diagnosed. Once I started looking at how late the urgent care place was open I figured that meant I just need to go get it over with. After a few X-rays and some painful probing, the doc said he didn't see anything broken but cartalidge doesn't show up on x-ray so something could be broken. He said I would know in a week, if it's bruised ribs, it will be better. If something is broken, it will still hurt pretty bad. He said I could resume normal activity, including running, if I could stand the pain. After lunch I decided to give running a try. Made it five steps and walked home holding my ribs. My pain level went from a three to an eight on the first step.

Tuesday my ribs were still about a three on the pain scale until dinner. Sitting through a three and a half hour business dinner, my ribs started barking. I didn't tell our customers about it, or my co-workers except for a couple guys that work for me. I was getting close to telling our customers and excusing myself early, but I stuck through it. That night in the hotel, I woke up about midnight and couldn't find a position I was comfortable enough to sleep. Eventually, I got up at 4 am and went to the front desk and bought a couple Aleve, which helped. Wednesday I had my pain med prescription faxed to Cleveland and I picked that up along with a bottle of Aleve on my way to another business dinner. Wednesday evening I took Aleve, but felt good enough to skip the pain pills. So far so good on avoiding taking the pain pills.

I'm five days in and still hurting. We'll know for sure Saturday when I try to run. Hope I'm better before my fishing trip in a few weeks. I'm the motor man in out boat and the thought of pull starting the engine a hundred times a day hurts. My best friend just might have to learn to drive a boat :-)

 

Soon to be view while fishing

 

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Call Me Crazy

I'm still cracking up about the nurse that I saw before the nurse practitioner saw me yesterday. I go to a small doctors office in a rural town in the middle of cornfields, so I doubt they see many middle aged men since farmers are way tougher than me. Even more unlikely is middle aged triathletes. Anyway, the conversation went something like this.

Nurse: What brings you in today?

Me: Lower back and hip pain.

Nurse: What happened?

Me: Well, I've had lower back pain off and on over the years since I hurt it diving for a frisbee in college. It flares up if I carry something heavy the wrong way or if I'm under a lot of stress. Work is stressful right now and my back was bothering for a couple weeks keeping me from running much, but it felt better Saturday, so I ran six miles in the woods in 6 inches of snow.

Nurse: You did what ?!?!!!! Your crazy!!!!

Me: i got into endurance sports a few years ago and I run that far all the time, just not in six inches of snow. Probably over did it.

Nurse: What else do you do besides run?

Me: Swim, bike, triathlons, half marathons, half Ironmans, that type of stuff.

Nurse: You are crazy!!!! How does your wife keep up with you?

Me: She doesn't. She just puts up with me :-).

Then the nurse practitioner came in and we went over everything again, how I could barely walk Monday and Tuesday after running, how my right hip felt like bone on bone if i moved it a certain way. How it was actually feeling better, just a little tightness in the lower back. He didn't call me crazy like the nurse, but I could tell he was thinking it. I think he wanted to say "Are you surprised you hurt yourself running that far in deep snow at your age? I'm not."

Anyway, after he did some tests, he ordered an X-ray just to be safe, but said he didn't see any reason I couldn't run. Woohoo! On the way out of the office the nurse said "you're crazy, I'll pray for you" :-). Cracks me up!

So today I ran six miles in the woods :-). The snow was no deeper than an inch or two and had melted on about half of my route. Here are a couple pics.

 

Saw a beautiful wood pecker out there, but he didn't want his picture taken.

Oh, I almost forgot. After running last weekend, I used my foam roller for the first time and may have overdone it. I rolled both hips, outer thighs, glutes and calves for about a half hour. Could I have loosed my IT bands up enough to hurt my hip and lower back? Anyone ever injure yourself with a foam roller? My hips and outer thighs were sore to the touch for a couple days.

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What I know

Here are the things I know 9 days into my injury;

1. I'm a dumb ass
 - People told me not to do too much intense running and I didn't listen
 - My knees told me they needed ice and rest and I didn't listen
2. This is frustrating
 - and causes stress in other areas of my life
3. My injury was caused by one or a combination of the following
 - Too much volume
 - Too much intensity
 - Too many jump squats or burpees at fitness class
 - Pushing too hard on the bike
 - Pushing too hard on the run
 - Pushing too hard for my fitness level
 - Bike fit
 - Cleats worn out or needing adjusting
 - Weak hips

My knees have improved to a point.  I no longer have any sharp pain and I can walk without limping, but I do have a dull pain when I walk and when I push even a little on the bike.  I'll be out of town next week without access to my bike, so I'll add some light running and see if the situation changes.

What is my plan?
1. I started doing these hip exercises to strengthen my hips and glutes.  I've known they are weak because they get very fatigued just doing 50 yard kick drills.
2. I had been saving for an IPad, but never pulled the trigger.  I decided to spend the money on triathlon stuff instead.  I made an appointment for a two hour bike fit and will buy new pedals and shoes at the same time.  
3. I'm going to call the doc and schedule an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to make sure I'm not doing an irreparable damage.  Do they give discounts for getting a double MRI?
4. I'm going to keep things in perspective.  This is just a hobby and four years ago I would go months without running.  It hasn't even been two weeks.
5. When I get back at it, I'm not going to worry about run speed until after my half iron race in July.

And the next injury is..............

Knees :-(.  My knees have been aching more and more the last few weeks and while the intentions to ice every night have been there, the follow through certainly hasn't been.  Saturday I had a great hour and forty minute run in the woods and felt great.  In fact, I was thinking of the words of a song "somethings gotta go wrong cuz I'm feelin' way too damn good".  So true....

Saturday I had an awesome 40 mile ride and my knees did ache quite a bit during the ride.  I was stupid and just kept pushing and held 20+ mph for a significant portion of the ride and even raced a guy (I won, I don't think he knew it was a race :-)).  Afterwards, no ice.  Monday night was another 15 mile ride during which I tried to hold 20+ mph as much as possible (and did).  Afterward? Yep, no ice.  Tuesday morning was a hard 12x400 at the track.  Yep, no ice afterward.  Wednesday morning at work I was walking down the hall and started having sharp pain in my right knee.  The pain was severe enough I was hobbling around and wincing the rest of the day.  Guess what?  I bought zip lock bags at lunch and started icing.  The sharp pain now comes and goes while walking seemingly at random times though the frequency is reducing.

The pain is just below my knee cap on both legs with the right being worse than the left (outside leg on the track) but they both ache all the time kind of like my shoulder's ache when I swim too much.  After some self diagnosis I have patellar tendinitis (jumper's knees).  So, I'm going to back off for a couple days then see what happens.

Set backs are bummers but when you are in your mid forties trying to be an endurance athlete, things happen.  I've been really happy with my training volume so far this year too.  Except for when I was traveling, my weekly time and mileage has been decent.

The dip the first week in March I was in China

Oh well.  This wasn't the first injury getting into triathlon's and probably won't be the last.  Kind of puts some  doubt in thoughts of trying to do a late season full IM.  We'll see.

Oh, anyone use straps below their knees? If so, is it for this symptom?