Hip Pain

I'm sure there are countless threads on here about hip pain if I go searching, but I wanted to throw this out there since this is a new one for me.

I've posted on here with countless TMS symptoms over the years. And since I've started really getting into running, I have had a hard time distinguishing between overuse injuries and just plain old TMS pains.

Back in April, I had a bad deal with insertion Achilles tendonitis. It came on acutely, right in the middle of an attempted 14 mile run (prepping for a mini marathon). It was extremely painful to the point that I had a hard time even walking for a week or two. I tried to run and it was impossible due to the pain on every step. So I went to the PT and they gave me anti-inflammatories and told me to rest. So I just quit running for a few weeks, then walked out to run a mini-marathon and crushed it with a PR of under 2 hours amazingly lol. I never had the insertion Achilles ever again after that day strangely enough.

I took somewhat of a hiatus from running after the mini, I was only doing 3 mile runs at a time for the most part. But then over the summer I started to try to ramp up my mileage again (I want to run my first full marathon next year). I started getting soreness in the upper part of the Achilles. It was a completely different pain than with the insertion Achilles pain. That was intense pain that was impossible to run through. This was just a general soreness that I could run through, but hurt a little here and there.

So now flash forward to now, I've ramped back up to 15 miles a week (I need to get up to 20-25 a week very soon). The Achilles soreness that I felt almost every week is completely gone amazingly. Now my left hip is the problem (all of these pains and "injuries" are always on my left leg).

It is difficult the pin point where the pain is at exactly. I initially thought it was the hip flexor, so I just increased my stretching. But I think it think is a deep pain in the actually hip socket itself. I ran 4 miles this morning and I felt the pain the whole time pretty much, but it wasn't bad enough to make me want to stop. It hurts mainly when I pivot on my left leg, put pressure on the left leg, or lift it. This one is definitely a sharp pain.

Just curious if any other runners or people in general have had similar experiences. I could just lay off the running for a few weeks, but I would really hate to lose my cardio (especially over stupid TMS).

 

I'm starting to lean towards TMS, since I haven't gone for a run in 6 days to try to rest up and the hip pain has only gotten worse. Although I do referee football several times a week which does require some quick sprints and movement on the field (it really has become a nagging nuisance out there trying to keep up with plays lol).

So I don't know if running around while I'm reffing is making it worse or what or this is all TMS. I have been doing yoga and stretching on the hips which I'm not really sure if it is helping or not.

Maybe just rest the rest of the week (I don't referee again until Saturday) hit the yoga, stretching, and meditation hard and go from there. I really hate to go to the Ortho doc, but since this is a brand new symptom to me I might have to just to clear up any worries over serious injury

 

As I read your post I keep thinking about the guy here who posted recently about his loooong hike. How the pain was very bad until he was into the hike and there was no turning back.

I don't know anything about marathon-ers training so I want to be careful in how I answer anything specifically but the one thing that strikes me is the sentence you put in parenthesis. "I want to run my first full marathon next year."
It might be worth exploring how your inner self feels about that. There could be a little part of you that is super scared of that or where the word marathon is defined as impossible. If your inner self thinks it's impossible, then your body is going to act as if that is so.
Just a thought.....

Best of luck to you. My sixty year old sister in law starting running the marathon and my brother walks the marathon with her!

 

You know its funny you say that, and I think you may be on to something. Although maybe the marathon is part of it, I think the fear of failure or "not being good enough" is strongest with my new job of refereeing football. I first started trying to be a referee back in college. I did a few pee wee youth games and intramurals, but I never could "make the cut" for the sports I wanted or higher levels of football. I know this feeling of rejection and failure has been one of the strongest insecurities and fears present throughout my life (I'm sure probably due to childhood).

10 years later, I have decided to pursue this hobby again on the side and I think some past issues may be resurfacing. Funny that when I run, I can go up to 4 miles of running really no problem. I feel the hip pain throughout the run, but its never so bad that I need to quit or anything. When I'm reffing a game I feel the pain the strongest when I feel "out of position" and need to run to get caught up to the play. I feel the sharp pain which really feels like it is preventing me from catching up.

I'm sure there is all kind of metaphors to explore from that. The fear preventing me from getting where I need to be, etc. TMS can be poetic at times lol. Thanks for pointing out the fear aspect. A

Another referee told me a story this week about his first game, and how he "pulled his groin" on the first play and it took him a few weeks to recover and now he hasn't had any issues. I couldn't help but make the correlation there to myself. I think the mind can create "injuries" as excuses for not being good enough or not reaching our goals when in reality maybe its just the fear of not being good enough...