I Hit a New Bump in the Road

If you have a Facebook account, you’ve probably seen a feature called, “Your Memories on Facebook.”  Every now and then, Facebook will show you something you posted several years ago on the same date.  At the beginning of the month, I saw this post from five years ago.

I posted that on the eve of my 55th birthday.  The previous year had indeed been a rough one.  I suffered groin injuries in both legs, but had dozens of races lined up.  I skipped a couple, but ran most of them, despite the injuries.  I often spent most of the week resting and healing, so I could limp through a race (or two) on the weekend.  By the end of 2015, I had shredded the tendons connecting to my glutes.  The muscles had become weak as a result.  I couldn’t even walk normally.  My hips were stiff and immobile, so my walking resembled the waddling of a penguin.

As if the injuries weren’t bad enough, I also developed stiffness in the muscles of both legs any time I was inactive for a while.  When I tried to get out of bed or get up out of a chair, most of the muscles in my legs would cramp up violently.  I eventually learned that it was a worsening of a circulation disorder that I’ve had since childhood.  I’ve always had issues with my hands, but it had spread to my legs.  Apparently, I was OK as long as I was doing lots of running.  As I did less and less training, my circulation wasn’t as good.

My doctor was able to prescribe a medication that helped with my legs.  The symptoms didn’t go away completely, but they were manageable.  It wasn’t until I was able to run again that the symptoms went away completely.

At the beginning of 2016, I took a break from running, so I could heal.  It only took a few weeks for the groin injuries to finish healing, but the secondary injuries took much longer.  It was two months before I could begin running again.  Even then, I still couldn’t walk normally.  It took many more months of physical therapy before I could once again run a marathon in four hours or less.

The question remains: was that year an outlying point, or was it the beginning of a trend?  I made a full recovery, but since then, I’ve hit other bumps in the road.

In December of 2016, I fell during a trail run and broke a rib.  I recovered from that.  In April of 2017, I had a disc protrusion in my lower back.  It only took a few weeks to recover from that.  At the end of May, I started to notice symptoms from a herniated disc in the middle of my back.  That injury required surgery.  It was three months before I could run at all and it took a year before I felt like I was fully recovered.

It took two more years of hard work, but by the end of 2019, I felt like I had regained my old running form.  I knew I was finally back when I ran times in the 3:20s on three straight weekends.

This year is shaping up to be another difficult year.  At the beginning of February, I took another break from running.  This time, it was to allow a nagging knee injury to finally heal.  It was taking longer than I thought it would, so in April, I started race-walking.  Until a week ago, it was going well.  In just a few weeks, I got to the point where I could walk seven miles at an average pace of 11:20.  My plan was to race-walk until I could resume running.

Then I hit another bump in the road.  Last Friday, I felt some discomfort in my lower back.  At first, I thought it might just be a pulled muscle.  By Saturday, I knew it was something worse.  I had pain in my lower back that felt similar to what I experienced the last time I had a lower back injury.  By Sunday, I was feeling pain in more areas.  I sometimes had a burning sensation in my right hip or in my glutes.  When I went for walks, I sometimes had an odd sensation along the side of my right leg.

There was no longer any doubt in my mind that I had some type of spinal injury, and it was impinging on a nerve that goes to my right leg.  I didn’t know if race-walking was aggravating it, so I temporarily stopped training.  Since then, I’ve been walking four to six miles a day, but only at a casual pace.  I’m walking enough to get circulation into my legs, but I’m not doing anything strenuous.

Reflecting on the two back injuries I had in 2016, one healed in just a few weeks, while the other required surgery and had a long recovery time.  I wasn’t sure what this one would be like, so I’m tending to err on the side of caution.  The worst thing that can happen if I’m overly cautious is that I would lose a week or two of training.  I can afford that.  My goal is to be back in marathon shape my August, and I still have plenty of time to train.  What I can’t afford is for this be an injury that would sideline me for months.

On Wednesday, I saw an orthopedist.  Without an MRI, he couldn’t say for sure if this was a protrusion or a herniation.  The treatment, at least initially, is the same in either case.  He started me on the same course of treatment that worked well for my lower back injury in 2016.  If I’m not noticing improvement within a week, then I can get an MRI.

I’ve already improved noticeably since Wednesday.  I still have some discomfort in my lower back doing certain things, such as bending down to put on socks and shoes.  I’m no longer having pain or burning sensations in my hip.  I’m also no longer having any weird sensations in my leg when I go out for a walk.

I was already doing physical therapy for my knee, but today I had my first PT appointment for my back.  Today’s appointment was very encouraging.  None of the motions I tried during my appointment caused pain.  On Wednesday, at the doctor’s office, if I bent down to try to touch my toes, my back hurt as soon as I reached down as far as my knees.  Today, I could reach within inches of my feet without experiencing any pain.  The only thing that kept me from touching my toes was my chronically tight hamstrings.

Ironically, this happened just as I was noticing improvement in my knee.  I was holding off on running until I could walk up and down stairs without discomfort.  I feel OK going up steps, but I still have a little bit of discomfort going down steps.  Before the back injury, I figured I was within a week or two of beginning to run.  Now, the doctor wants me to hold off on running until my back heals.

The doctor said it’s OK for me to try race-walking, but I should stop if it causes pain.  I’m not sure if I can trust myself to do that.  When it comes to running, I have two distinct modes.  In “training mode,” I stay within my comfort zone, and I’m pretty good about listening to my body.  In “racing mode,” I get so focused on my goals that I can be oblivious to pain.  When I race-walk, I only have one mode.  Walking fast is hard work.  To reach the kind of pace I need to finish a marathon in a reasonable amount of time, I really need to focus.  Consequently, even my training feels like I’m in “racing mode.”

I’m optimistic that this injury will heal quickly, but I’m still being cautious.  If all goes well, I’ll be perfectly healthy in time to finish training for late summer races.  I don’t want this year to be like the one I recalled in that Facebook post.