Coming into this weekend I have been dealing with several injuries.  Yet, I chose to race in a 10 hour adventure race in the Blue Ridge Mountains, even so.  Wise?  Probably not, but I made some changes to my usual race plan to reduce the risk of injury (taped the shoulder real well, purchased a new pair of pedals that are really easy to un-clip to  reduce the risk from a fall, and simply planned to not be in a position of too much risk).
The interesting thing, is that not only did my shoulder feel OK in spite of a separation just 18 days prior, but I have also been rehabilitating a hip injury, and that felt good.  So I want to discuss the hip.  It really started in September of 2010, when I was doing some yoga as a warm-up for a workout.  I was pushing to gain a position that looked really easy to the instructor, and ended up being painful for me.  Over the ensuing week, it got worse and worse.
Since then, I have been able to get it to a good state at times, usually followed by a re-injury from something I would think would have little effect on it. Â I bet you have all experienced something like that. Â A nagging back ache, that seems to follow no pattern of well, or ill. Â You do something so small that you would have never expected it to hurt you, Â but it results in weeks of pain. Â Well, that has been my hip. Â Annoying for someone who doesn’t like to rest.
Recently, my hip has gotten to a point of full on aggravation, primarily because I was doing something that would aggravate it. Â You know, I can teach a lot better than I can follow. Â Anyways, in the last five weeks, I have had pretty significant pain at times. Â Then, I hurt my shoulder, and would you believe in an attempt to perform a workout that would not hurt my shoulder, I over aggravated my hip, and brought the pain level up another notch (this probably looks like a lesson in stupidity by now).
So now we arrive at the real point of my writing. Â How do you heal a hip? Â How do you make a separated shoulder feel better? Â The very unlikely choice of racing on it for 10 hours, might just be the answer. Â When you do an adventure race, you never know exactly what to expect, which is why they call it an adventure. Â We canoed and ran and biked (mountain) as we expected, but we had some unexpected terrain along the way.
When I run, I tend to run more on my forefoot and toes than I do on my calves. Â This style of running is called pose, or chi, or primal, etc. Â The idea is that we were made to strike on the front of our feet, because we naturally do that when barefoot. Â If you add a fat heel pad to a shoe, then we alter our stride to strike the heel. Â BAD. Â So the motion of running could actually be therapeutic to a bad hip, if running correctly.
So here is the outcome. Â At 6:00am, I was stretching my hip aggressively, trying to loosen the muscles along the front of it, so that it wouldn’t bother me. Â At 8:00am the race started, my hip was tight, and I was shivering in the cold morning. Â While my teammate ran up a mountain for the race prelude, I leisurely set up our canoe for his return. Â We jumped in the canoe, and my last memory was hip tight (my shoulder was aching a little at this point, but nothing unusual for my injury).
At 8:45am, we were swimming for our first of three times. Â This happens when you canoe down a river full of small rapids, without knowing the river perfectly. Â We had just commented on how well we were doing for not having any issues yet, and boom. Â We later commented on how we probably should have been “thankful” for not having hit anything to big, vs. the self praise that we used. Â Oh well. Â The water was freezing, but on the first two we only went in thigh high.
Our third swim was a little more significant. Â We both went head under for a bit (life jackets on), and had to fight the current in order to get ourselves to the side of the river to right the canoe, and re-secure our belongings. Â When we finished the canoe leg, we had to run several (5-6) miles of trails and woods to collect six checkpoints. Â At some point during this run, I realized my hip wasn’t hurting. Â Later on, as we biked up incredible hills, I noticed my hip wasn’t hurting. Â As we pushed our bikes up even more ridiculous hills (we probably pushed about 5 miles total in this race), I realized my hip wasn’t hurting.
Running the correct way, following an ice bath, had a significant therapeutic effect on my hip.  It has felt fine ever since the time before getting in the canoe.  Will it stay that way?  We’ll see.  But it proves a point to me… activity will always be more beneficial than you can expect.  Their is a time to rest, and a time to move.  Too many times we find ourselves in a place where we are stuck not moving out of fear.  Be sure you don’t spend too much time doing that.
So. Â My shoulder did well. Â I never fell, though the new pedals and shoes did allow me to get out of the clips really easily, the shoes tore up my heels, so I will be wearing flip flops and walking funny for a bit. Â All in all, I gained a lot of value out of the race. Â I pray that my hip continues to be well, and that you will learn something from my experience. Â Be well and blessed, Dr. E
PS – if you are interested in the correct footwear to run the way I described and looking into Chi running, check out Natural Strides in downtown Woodstock. Â They have shoes that are good for walking correct too. Â And if you want to look at Paleo Running or Pose Running, be sure to check out The Garage.