"go to your happy place"

and the diagnosis is...acute quad strain.

so the bad news is that i am officially injured, but the good news is that i can still run - there are just things i have to avoid, namely the super strenuous workouts and lots of hills. quad strains are usually caused by a sudden twist, over-stretcher an over contraction of the muscle. Or inefficiency due to fatigue or the cold. my guess would be that i pushed a little too hard w/o being warmed up in the cold.

so after asking me a bunch of where/when does it hurt questions, michael (the pt) made me do a bunch of contortions with my leg asking what hurt where and when. at the beginning, nothing really hurt very much, but then he busted out a towel and some massage gel, and started poking around and massaging towards the top of my thigh.

he hit the muscle right in the center on the top and pressed down, and i sucked in my breath with pain.

"a little tender there?" he said
"yeah..." usually i'm good at masking/being tough/downplaying pain, but this was too sharp for me to be anything but frank. "that. hurts."
he leaned in and shifted downwards. "yeah...go to your happy place."

ooof. i did not cry, but i thought for one moment that i might. i have been beat up by many cheapy massage places, and those ladies are *strong!!* but that was nothing compared to having my quad worked on. it hurt like a...well, i won't swear but you can finish the sentence however you like.

i'm glad i decided to be all responsible and adult-like and go have it looked at. the course of action is to be smart and take it easy - focus on my miles vs. intervals. michael said if i want to do a interval work out i could do a spin class but i should stay seated. ps, not only is michael a tnt coach but he also does ironman triathons.

what's an ironman? aside from complete insanity, an ironman is:

a 2.4 mile swim

THEN

a 112 mi bike ride

THEN

a marathon (26.2 miles).

yes all in one day. crrrrrrazy.

anyway my point is that he's an athlete so in addition to being a pt he knows what he's talking about from experience too. this makes me feel better.

he also suggested a roller, so i got one. before and after my runs, i will lay my thigh down on this rolling pin looking thing, and find the spots that are tight/tender, let them loosen up for a few breaths, then bend my knee and deal with the "discomfort" for another few breaths. and try not to cry. i'll do this on the front muscle and the outer (lateral) muscle as well.

and hopefully, this will render me well sooner than later. i will run the race tomorrow, but not race the race, and then michael said to let him know how i'm feeling, so we'll take it from there.

i will keep you posted, but i'm feeling much better. of course, i always do when i know how to fix things...