Friday, September 3 — While following up on my broken finger, I mentioned to my doctor that I had the Durolane injection last week.
“Do you want me to spoil it for you?”
Spoil what?
“It doesn’t last as long the second time.”
Seriously?
He smiled. I still don’t know if he was serious.
The hip is still just a tiny bit stiff today so I’m going to back off a little until Sunday. Did a short run and had no problems with the hip. Some of my other aches on the other hand…
Sunday, September 5 — My hip was a bit sore before heading out this morning. We went to a block party yesterday and wouldn’t you know it, a road hockey game broke out and I couldn’t resist jumping in and mixing it up a bit. I got through it unscathed, but I did a lot more sudden starts and stops and lateral movement than I’m used to now that I’ve given up sports that don’t involve running straight ahead for hours at a time.
The hip remained stiff into the run, never really loosened up and got worse over the second half of the 23k run with the clinic. I had some pain in the right groin early, but by the end of the run the front and outer side of the hip caused me the most trouble. It was a slightly different pain than what I had prior to the injection, but it was pretty severe and did include that jammed and locked-up feeling I used to get. I ran the second half of the run with Alan Yu, one of the fast guys in the clinic so we didn’t exactly dog it out there and the back half of today’s route included a substantial climb and descent. The joint didn’t seem to have full range of motion and was fairly painful at times. I hobbled around afterwards and could feel the throbbing across the front of the joint for several hours.
I sure hope this isn’t what my doctor meant when he said the second Durolane injection won’t last as long as the first. It’s only been ten days!
Monday, September 6 — Labour Day. Took it easy. One thing that seems to be different after the injection is how quickly my hip recovers. I was tight all over today, but my hip doesn’t feel too bad. Speedwork tomorrow will be a big test.
Tuesday, September 7 — No soreness or much stiffness beyond the usual, general stiffness this 41 year-old carcass feels in the morning. Went for a short run after dropping the girls off for their first day of school and did feel the hip a little. It warmed up and felt better toward the end so maybe I was just working out some rust after yesterday’s lazy day. So I told myself.
Tough workout at the track. Hip was a bit tight on the run up with Brian and Tim. Aaron had Jerry Ziak’s 2000-1600-1200-800-400 with declining rest breaks on the menu for the evening. He and Steve led the way with Henry hot on their heels for the first two reps. I ran consistently but never felt like I could maintain anything close to their pace for long — at least until the 400 metre rep at the end when I somehow managed to finish a second behind them.
The hip wasn’t a huge issue during the reps but I could feel it during our recovery laps and it stiffened up almost immediately afterwards. As much as I would have liked a proper cool-down, just watching Aaron and Henry doing cariocas afterwards made me cringe. The hip was having none of that action.
It didn’t feel like it was the hip as much as the groin that was the cause of the pain tonight. I could feel a sharp pain at times in the groin and the inner part of the hip joint. The cool-down run back to Broadway was laboured at first and never really felt comfortable. I walked home with a bit of a limp.
Wednesday, September 8 — Maybe my hip performs better when my expectations are really low. Or maybe I’m starting to turn the corner. Either way, the hip had calmed down from last night, but I wasn’t expecting much out of it at tonight’s run out of the Running Room.
As often happens on Wednesdays, what started out as a nice, relaxed 10k run around the West Side, turned into a battle of machismo over the last half as Jerry K and I played Last Man Standing in pursuit of the quick-starting Mathew and his pocketful of Light Luck (my Garmin showed we stopped for nine lights; Mathew said he didn’t hit a single one!) I averaged 3:30-3:40 kms over the second half and we finally passed Mathew with about 2.5k to go. I attacked the Cypress hill — Cypress Hill? — with more vigor than I have in a long time so that was really encouraging.
My hip felt good and I felt generally more fluid than I have in a long time. Also promising was that my hip didn’t feel too stiff or sore afterwards. The groin was only a little tight, but it was worlds different from how it felt last night after speedwork. I wish I could say the same for my right achilles and upper left hamstring!