Recovery and Rehabilitation from Athletic Pubalgia (Sports Hernia) Surgery - Part 3: 3 - 4.5 months

The two previous post-surgery recovery blogs are located here and here. At three months post-surgery I really started seeing some results. I spent most of August running about 30 miles per week and then was able to increase my mileage up to 40 mpw for the month of September. What a huge relief to be able to run regularly again!

Here is a general summary -

August: The first week of August I got roped into the Corporate Games 5K for work. The grass was significantly harder for me to run on than the road because of the uneven terrain and my weakness with lifting my leg.

Corporate Games 5K

Throughout the rest of the month, I increased my longer runs from 5 to 7.5 miles. I was able to run outside of a one mile radius of home since I was gaining confidence in my ability to run further without pain. I did get overly excited and tried to do a few faster workouts, but it was too soon. My physical therapy was similar to what it had been but with a few adjustments/modifications.

- Psoas inhibition
- Psoas activate then heel slide
- Step downs (2x more on right side)
- Lateral step up/step down
- Clam shells
- Hip abduction (while laying and side step monster walks)
- Hip adduction
- Glute activations

The second week of August, I started having a lot of upper abdominal cramping when running. It would slowly build until it was a very painful cramp and would remain until I finished running. I was told that this is common for people whose psoas muscle is not functioning, so there was still a lot of work to do there.

September: Over Labor Day weekend, some friends and I went to Silverton, CO for fun in the San Juans Mountains. I was able to do some long hikes and felt great. I even went on a 9 mile (hard) trail run up at Molas Pass!

Hiking Highland Mary Lakes Loop

I jumped into two races the next couple weekends - the Alta Peruvian 8K as a fun run and then the Flat as a Pancake 5K, which I ran in 19:13. This was a 2.5 minute improvement over Draper Days 8 weeks before - a great indication that I am in fact coming back. I began running one mini-workout and one longer run a week while keeping my mileage steady. I started getting some compensation in my IT band/hamstring so I really need to work on strengthening my hips more before I try to increase my workload any more. I found that going to the hot tub every day really reduces the amount of discomfort I had in my groin the following day.

I think this graph of my weekly running mileage pretty much sums up the level of activity I was able to handle since surgery on May 8th.

I definitely am not completely healed yet and have a few more months of limitations, but I can see the end of the tunnel now. I WILL GET BETTER! I can only hope that I have enough time to train and get fit enough to go after that Olympic Trials time standard in 2014-2015! :-)