Today’s training day almost didn’t happen. Did you know it’s possible to injure yourself with a foam roller? I didn’t.
One week till marathon training
Apparently, there’s a fairly prominent nerve that runs all throughout your lower body; weaving in and out of muscle groups. Turns out, with the right amount of pressure, time and placement it’s possible to really tick off this nerve which tends to connect to other nerves further away from the source and cause all sorts of havoc in your body.
In my case, I’d been experiencing a tight hamstring muscle after a particularly long and hard run a couple of weeks prior. So, I found the spot in my hamstring where I thought I had a muscle knot. Using my Orb ball (a firm, foam ball that’s a little larger than a softball), I decided I was really going get this spot. So, I just sat on it, trying to exhaust the knot into relaxing submission. Finally, I thought the muscle had had enough so I moved off of the spot but my calf and peroneal muscle felt weird. When I touched my leg, it was as if it had fallen completely asleep.
I got up, walked around, massaged the area, shook my leg, did some calf raises on a step. Nothing. No change. I figured it would let up after a little while so I went about my morning. The feeling in my lower leg never came back that day. It remained equally numb from 7am till 1pm. Thankfully, I could walk and I wasn’t in pain. However, by this time my lower back was in a solid state of pinching and was radiating across my entire lower back. I was already starting to panic about my impending marathon training the following week.
The plan
It’s hard to know where to turn when you’re in this kind of pain and the numbness in my lower leg was something I had never experienced before. I recently started visiting an acupuncturist as recommended by my physical therapist (another story for another time), so I decided to call her for an emergency appointment. I also messaged my physical therapist but I already knew she could not help much because this injury was outside of the original doctor’s order she’d been treating me for. Good old HMO’s!
By 3pm I was in the acupuncturist’s office and embarrassingly describing my foam rolling folly. She was very kind. Although, I don’t know if I fully believed her when she said that I’m not the first one to do this.
Following the treatment I was still numb but the pinch in my back was already somewhat lessened. By the next morning, I’d developed soreness in my ankle and peroneal muscle (the muscle that runs along the lower, outside part of the calf and ankle). It felt like I’d done a hard workout and my muscles were sore. It was an odd sensation to be numb to the touch and sore at the same time. I began to wonder if I hadn’t overdone my calf raises immediately following the injury. Or, I suppose it could have been the TENS machine I put on the trigger spots earlier in the day, hoping to “wake up” the leg. Whatever it was, my leg was really sore now, as well as numb.
Knowing that my marathon training start date was less than a week away I decided to play it safe and not run until my leg and back improved. I continued to move gently for the rest of the week. I did as my acupuncturist recommended and let the nerve calm down. I didn’t touch my percussion massager, TENS machine or foam roller. I stuck to easy movements like walking, low cadence spin bike ride, gentle massage with Arnica and Peppermint essential oils and heat in hopes that I would be healthy enough to start marathon training on time.
Day 1
That brings me to today. My official day 1 of marathon training. I’m exactly 18 weeks out from my very first marathon: The Surf City Marathon in beautiful Huntington Beach, California. Today’s workout? Three easy, conversational pace miles followed by kettlebell strength training and…I did it!
I’m still experiencing some numbness in my ankle and heel area but it has been improving daily. The soreness I experienced the first couple of days is completely gone and my mobility is as if I never experienced an injury at all. The pinch in my back is greatly improved but still flares up occasionally. I’ve found a couple of exercises that seem to help with this type of pinch and movement helps a lot. I noticed that sitting exacerbates the pinch and achiness more than anything, so I try to get up and move around a lot during the day.
I’m now exactly three miles into my marathon training. After so much rest last week, I found it difficult to stay at my easy, conversational pace. By the end, I averaged a few seconds faster than my goal easy pace but given the amount of running I’ll be doing over the next several weeks and months, I imagine that will work itself out as fatigue sets in.
Strength training for me consists of one day of kettlebells and another day of running specific exercises. Monday is kettlebells so that’s what I did today for about a half an hour after my run. On to day 2!
Workout
- 3 mile conversational pace run
- 30-40 minute kettlebell strength program