The Chances

How a 250+ Pound Couch Potato Got Healthy

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sprint Intervals + Doctor Visit

Today I decided that I'd go ahead and do the scheduled sprint intervals, but rather than outside, do it on the treadmill at the gym.

And you know, they actually went pretty well. I did feel some pain in my leg afterwards, but not near as much as in the past. Not only that, but it went away a lot quicker than before. It was about 4.5 miles total: 10 min warmup, 4x800m (1:30 RI), 10 min cooldown.

Then this afternoon, I went to see my doctor. I told him the history of my problem, reminded him I'd been in earlier, and what was going on now. I haven't been in there in about 6 months, and they've implemented something new. In each examination room they have a computer with access to the group database. When I told the doctor I'd been to Urgent Care about 6 months ago for an x-ray of my leg, he looked it up, saw the visit, and bam, he had the x-rays at his fingertips.

He examined my leg and it wasn't as sensitive as I expected it to be this close to running. He then looked at the x-ray from 6 months ago, and basically said it was a simple irritation that likely was irritated by something that was wrong with my gait. I mentioned the fact that I had the wrong shoes for a period, then showed him the insoles I was wearing.

So his thoughts were the same as mine, which was basically, having the wrong shoes irritated my leg to the point of creating pain. Getting the new shoes was the likely solution to the problem, but sicne I already had the irritation, it was hard to see the improvement.

He told me to do what I was already doing: judicious icing of my leg after a run, take a pain reliever if necessary, and if it got too bad, take a rest. Most importantly, he specifically told me he wouldn't tell me to stop running! He doesn't see any chance of injuring myself further by running.

Things are certainly looking up. My training will continue!