Thursday, April 12, 2012

Goodbye 25K

For months I have been dealing with pain. Well closer to a year. I ran the 25k last year with Piriformis Syndrome. It hppened jumping out of a truck. Ended up walking every hill. Missed my goal time but was happy to finish. I took 3 months off running. Saw PT's, Dr.'s, Deep Tissue people, massage people, ect..... came back to running in October. Tightness in my lower back/ hip area started. I stretched. Iced. Applied heat. Saw 2 more Pt's and another massage person. Then it all started to happen. My stride shortened, walking became painful and it was 10x more work to keep up my speed. If anything  was slowing down. Rest, stretch, yoga, pilates. Nothing helped.
I have had had my gait assessed more times than I can count. Always the same thing. Relaxed, good form, fast turnover neutral....no reason for the pain. Finally I snapped. I had a really good cry and took myself to the Dr. This time ending up at a Chiro. I have Spondylolisthesis.
The pain that takes my breath away and messes up my gait is because I have a shifted vertebrae. An injury  from a fall or a hit. Like jumping out of a truck.
I have two choices. Take some time off of the pounding or end up not being able to even ride. Yes it is that bad. My strong core is what has kept me going this long. I haven't slept well in months. My memory is shot from it. And now after investing months of training  am told I can't run the race. Maybe not run ever again. I have been a mess for 24 hours. Crying, blubbering mess.
I work so fucking hard. Too hard to not see progress. Of course why should I of expected speed when I could barely swing my leg through without pain.
This isn't a little muscle issue or a tendon problem. If that was the case I would lace up and hit the ground. This is serious. I knew it the minute he put the xray up.
My hope is to run the shit out of the 10k but  knowing this is one hell of a goal at this point.
I am ignoring all talks of MRI's and surgery to this point. I don't even want to think about it.