run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pain in the Groin... no, not what you're thinking...

So, after the 20 miler on Saturday, Vandy-Montana and I met up with some peeps from the Nashville Striders to run 10 miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway and then indulge in some biscuits at the Loveless Cafe.


Now, I take some funky pictures... (it's a problem, I'm working on it), but this is quite possibly one of the strangest pictures of me, ever. For one... I've got some kind of weird hunchback thing going on... and two, the look on my face is pretty frightening. I'm attributing it to the fact that they had just placed a huge ass platter of biscuits on the table in front of me and at that moment, it was suddenly... "Let's get up and walk outside away from the hot biscuits to have our picture taken!" Anyway... it was a fun run and breakfast. I enjoyed meeting other runners who are just as obsessed with running as I am (and with food and booze, too! a common theme with runners, it seems...).

Anyway, on the drive home, I noticed some pain in my right inner thigh everytime I hit the brake. It wasn't anything crazy. Just a light, tender feeling in my inner thigh (I know, that sounds kind of good, right? But, it wasn't a good light, tender feeling... unfortunately). I pretty much forgot about it after the drive, though.

Monday I ran a little 5 mile recovery run and then Tuesday, I had big plans... The plan was to get up extra early (I was out the door at 5:30) and get in a good 10-12 miler before taking a rest day on Wednesday. Things started off fine, I was feeling good... but around mile 2, I felt like I had a catch in my right thigh. I figured it would just work itself out eventually... but by mile 4, it was more pronounced and was concentrated in the upper middle part of my thigh. I slowed down a bit, I tried changing my gait, and stretching my quad (where I thought the pain was coming from)... but nothing really helped.

Finally, when I hit 6 miles, I had to stop and walk. But, walking didn't really stop the pain, so I ended up half walking/half jogging/hobbling the mile back to my place, giving the commuters on Music Row quite the chuckle, I'm sure. The pain was concentrated in the upper part of my thigh, so I kept assuming it was just a sore quad. I iced it a little at work, left my high heels in the closet for a couple of days, and figured a rest day was the only other thing I needed.

This morning, I started my run and of course, the pain was on my mind, and while I definitely felt it during the entire run... it wasn't all that painful. No wincing... no need to stop. But, I did decide something... it's not my quad. It's actually my inner thigh... my groin, if you will. Which, is kind of weird... I thought hockey players were the only people who got groin injuries.

Despite being wayyy sleepy, wayyy hungover, wayyy wet and damp outside, and despite the groin injury, I had a great run this morning! I felt like I could run forever. (And... I kinda did... I was a little late for work this morning... heh heh oops).

The pain in my groin isn't constant and it isn't severe, so I really don't think it's anything to get all worked up about. I'll just ice it some over the next few days and I think the tenderness will go away. By the way... do you have any idea how awkward and uncomfortable it is to ice your groin and inner thigh? I'm pretty sure by some people's standards... I'm now in an intimate relationship with a bag of frozen peas*.

*There are about a trillion jokes I could insert here about past boyfriends, current singledom, etc... but, I'll spare you the trite comment. It's the least I can do after so many posts about poop and now groins.

6 comments:

Chic Runner said...

I used to always take pictures like that when I was little.

I got many pictures with my 'constipation face' all over my house.. even my mom used to make fun of me! :) I think you can work on it and grow out of the phase!

Spike said...

yeah running groups and awesome socializing afterwards; boo inconvenient injury.

J said...

I know how you feel icing your groin. I iced my hip flexor and it was so odd. people kept looking at me funny because i would put my hand down my pants (i had shorts on) and fix the ice or whatevs.

StangLuvr said...

Don't knock the frozen peas. They are da bomb after the big "V". Now my kids want eat peas though...hehehe.

Anonymous said...

Consider keeping the heels in the closet for the next 3 weeks. They don't do a runner's legs any good, particularly not before a marathon. I had an identical pain (right side even) and actually went to a gyn to make sure it wasn't internal. No, just a muscle. It got better quickly, and I can't say for sure wearing flats is what did it, but now it's a marathon ritual for me. One month out I switch to flats, and one week after (assuming my quads are good by then), I'm back in heels. Consider it.

Melanie said...

Dang. I hope I can get my mileage up again soon so I can start doing the Strider runs. It looks like I'm missing out. I'd love to get to meet some other runners around here. Plus, I've never been to Loveless. I'm jealous.

The groin thing sounds like a pulled muscle from the way you're describing it. But if you get a sharp wincing pain that makes your leg want to buckle, it could be worse. Speaking from experience. (Not to scare you... I'm just saying that if that happens, that'd be when you might want to be more concerned.)