Just when it seems I am completely recovered from those nasty shin splints I had a couple months ago, something new crops up.
This morning when I was at the track doing my weekly speed work, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my front, upper, right thigh. Strange, I thought, I've never felt any pain previously in my thigh from running. I've certainly felt a lot of other aches, pains, strains and bruises during my running "career" but never in this spot. I continued on my trip around the track but first at a brisk walk, then a slow jog. My thigh was feeling okay so I picked it up and attempted to continue my workout. (I usually do eight trips around the track, sprinting half of the oval and jogging/recovering the other half). As soon as I picked up my pace again though, the pain started again.
Double ARG.
I cut my workout short and headed back home. I am the queen of researching all my running-related issues on the Internet so I figured I would take a few minutes at work to do just that.
What I found was that it is most likely nothing serious. What it probably is is a strength imbalance between my quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups. This is a common muscular imbalance in runners because running tends to use the hamstrings more than the quadriceps. It goes on to suggest a treatment of R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression and elevation) until the pain goes away. Then they highly recommend cross-training in the form of cycling, stair climbing and squats to help balance out the muscle groups. (Didn't I just talk about cross-training in my last blog??).So tonite, if my leg feels okay, I will head to the gym for a session on the stairs and maybe some light weight lifting. I'm not ready to give up on my running yet!
