Hip and leg issue
Ok, back about 3-4 months ago I got a new bike fit. About a month after that I noticed some lower back and hip pain going into my left hamstring. Went back to the fitter and to a PT that does fittings. I was a touch twisted on the seat and between that and possibly a little hip tightness my left leg was swinging outward toward the upper end of the pedal stroke. I was given some stretches to do and that was about it. My leg/knee will still do this...but I've been really focused on keeping it in on the trainer. In the mean time I've done some re-fitting to the bike. (dropped quite a bit).
So I am entering week 4 of the advanced OS. For the most part until last week everything was ok. It was still there and a bit sore...but the stretching kept it at bay. Typically speaking my run is not impacted by this. In fact the soreness and pain until recently has not impacted life at all. It was there, I could feel it. But stretching and massage kept it down. I was hoping it would just go away doing that.
Anyway...Saturday I went and did my run. It was just a bit harder than it should have been...I've been struggling to dial it back a notch on varying terrain. Finished the run, went home and stretched. Later that day it really tightened up. Sunday i wake up and was going to go do the 20 minute run early because I was going to ride outside with some friends (55 degrees in WI)...went out and the hip was really stiff and sore. So much so I made it to the end of my driveway and stopped there. The pain was sharp enough where I wasn't willing to just let it warm up. It probably would have, but I didn't want to change my stride causing other problems.
Since then I have done a LOT of massage and stretching and it is basically back to normal. Perhaps a little worse. But now I am a bit concerned. If I lie on my right side (left leg up), bend my knees and do a butterfly lift with my knee, there is some sharp pain. Otherwise walking in a straight line is fine. If I pivot or turn I can sometimes feel it.
For the last 6 weeks or so I've been very focused on massaging my glute and hamstring where the pain is. Yesterday I really noticed that the hip flexor and top of my quad seems really tight and started massaging that as well. It seems to have helped, but it is a bit early to tell. It didn't feel like it was my IT band...but it is in the region.
Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts or little tips I can try. For the moment I plan to continue training as normal while stretching and more massage type work. I'll probably take it a bit easy on the run.
Comments
Hips can be majorly cranky if they stiffen up. hard to tell if the sharp pain is strictly muscular or if it's bone/joint related. it could be both in that what started out as muscular tightness has now tightened the joint up enough the bones/cartilage are grinding.
when's the last time you saw a doc? at the very least, a visit is worth some anti-inflamms to calm down the area and an x-ray to make sure nothing bad is going on bone/joint wise.