For a few days I've felt I've been making good progress with my injury. I managed to walk 8 miles on Saturday at a decent pace when I was up watch the Glen Ogle ultra, without any issues at all. I stayed away from any temptation to get involved in the country dancing at the after-race party - not a big sacrifice, I can assure you - and I've been doing my exercises religiously. So imagine my excitement yesterday morning when I did the 'raise my leg' test that my physio uses, and found that my left leg could go as high as my right. "I'm back!", I thought to myself, and despite the hideous weather decided to try a wee run at lunchtime.
I was very excited as I got myself ready. It's been about 5 weeks since I've done a proper run, and I've missed it a lot. I didn't mind the rain at all as it soaked me to the skin within seconds of leaving the office, and I headed off at an easy pace in the general direction of the canal.
At first it felt good. I managed half a mile or so, not at any great speed, but then started to feel a bit of tightness on my left calf. This was the area that had been sore the last time I had tried to run, and was not a good sign. However on I continued, running along the road where I fell and broke my shoulder a couple of years ago - how prophetic - but it was clear this tightness was not going away. So I headed back in the general direction of the office and called it a day. Two miles done at no pace at all, and it was sore. Clearly I was not back. My calf remained quite tight throughout the afternoon and evening, not so sore that I couldn't walk on it, but not right. I had probably stopped on time, before doing myself any real damage, but it was clear my self styled fitness test had failed.
I'm back at the physio on Thursday night and know what the message will be: sciatic nerve pain takes a long time to go away, and as soon as the nerves feel under threat the muscles respond negatively as a defence mechanism. I will be told that it will heal, but will take time. And time will require patience. Something of which I am in very short supply at the moment.
I suffered for 18 months with sciatica, to the point that I couldn’t stand for longer than 10 minutes. Not black-catting you, mate; just pointing out that I know how it feels. I was told that same: it will get better. I was on the cusp of investigating £7k in private treatment and things really did get better. That coincided with me retiring and no longer doing an 800 mile round trip for work and everything that (work) entailed. I’m my case the two may have been interconnected. Lee is convinced they were. So I guess my point is- if you consider my experience, it did just get better (although I’ve not got back to running- gym only), but it might be worth looking at other contributory factors.
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