Success

I’m having some interesting results with the kinesio taping.

My tape arrived just before Thanksgiving, along with so many other things I had ordered as Christmas gifts, that it took three trips to get everything up the stairs. Naturally, one of the first items of business was to tape myself up and see how it felt to run. I did 9 miles on Thursday, with no hip pain.

So today, the plan was for more tape, and more running. I picked out a 12 mile route, but went on and did 15. Still no hip pain. I think I may be on to something!

Here’s what’s interesting, though. Since I started taping (first with ordinary sport tape, and now the kinesio), I’ve had zero low back pain, but my quads are killing me! I’ve always had weak quads, an odd thing in a runner. Even at the peak of my triathlon and weightlifting obsession a few years ago, my quads remained stubbornly weak in comparison to everything else.

And now that I’m taping, my quads are really getting a workout. I can only conclude that there was something in my biomechanics that was causing me to use every other muscle but my quads, thus perhaps leading to the hip trouble.

So what am I taping? Lower back, for starters. I have some instability there that core work hasn’t seemed to help. The tape should help make my core work more effective by making it harder to inadvertently use one muscle group to the exclusion of the others, which is what is probably happening.

And I’m also taping my right IT band, all the way down my thigh to my knee. I suspect this is overkill, but until my taping manuals arrive this week, I’ll stick to what seems to be helping.

In the meantime, my new Julstro book arrived, and it’s full of new trigger point therapies that I’m looking forward to torturing myself with. I already had the e-books, but it’s really hard to read the computer screen when you’re on the floor with a tennis ball digging into your thigh.

So at this juncture, I feel like I’m back on track for the marathon in January. I’m not cured, and for the short term it looks like I’m going to be a little slower on my pace and a lot quicker to tire because of the extra work my quads are doing now. But my gait feels more efficient, and I’m optimistic.

Yeah, yeah, I should be seeing a professional. Find me one who will do more than slap electrodes on me and charge a $40 co-pay per visit for the privilege of not fixing my problem, and we’ll talk. Tonight I don’t have so much as a hint of an ache in my hip—first time in about three weeks. As long as I don’t go creating entirely new injuries for myself, I think I’m back in business!

Recent Workouts
Thursday: 9 mile run
Friday: Scheduled rest day
Saturday: 15 mile run