I’ve been having pain in the right hip since ~10 days. It keeps coming back during/after slow runs mostly, causes pain the whole night and next day, and then goes away again. Cycling is fine. Physio suspects hip bursitis, and suggests to keep moving (with proper warmup, icing afterwards etc) to improve healing and avoid getting stiff. He says I should be ok in two weeks when I do my first 70.3.
But I did an Oly this weekend and it got increasingly painful again during the second half of the run. If it gets painful like this again after 5 km in the HIM run, I’m sure I won’t finish.
Can see the doctor only mid next week… What would be the best thing to do in the coming two weeks; just stop running and hope for the best, or continue to do regular, short runs?
My hip started hurting two weeks from my first HIM also. I diagnosed my hip pain as my IT band being irritated. I scaled back on my runs and iced it, and within that two weeks, stopped running. I finsihed my HIM in 6 hrs with a half marathon time of 2:08.
Two weeks out from your race, you should be tappering now so your fitness is as good as it’s going to get. I would rest and ice the hip so you can finish the run, and continue your swim/bike taper.
I had some nasty bursitis in my hip last year. Make sure you are stretching your IT band out a ton, but slow, easy stretches and make sure you ease out of it as well. Don’t rush the run, you aren’t going to improve any more before the race so just take it easy and try to get as healthy as you can. Take Ibuprophen to reduce the swelling (which in turn reduces swelling) pretty regularly in the next two weeks, and you might want to consider taking 2 pills near the middle of the bike during the race. I usually wouldn’t condone taking medicine in a race, but if it is going to help you get through, it might be worth it(if you have medical conditions that could cause the ib to react differently, then obviously don’t). Otherwise, just push through it in the race and then afterwards take lots of time off. It will go away after a few weeks off.
Think about it, is the pain for 10 miles worth not finishing? Just something to think about.
I’ve had hip bursitis and stretching was the way I dealt with it. As another poster mentioned, IT band stretches are important, but you really need to get at as many muscles around your hips and butt as possible. I went to yoga classes for a few months and learned how to stretch from the instructor and other long term students. I would do a web search for hip and butt related yoga poses. Runners and cyclists really do not know how to stretch.
One of the most important things that I learned is that your gluteal muscles need to be loose before stretching your hamstrings. If your glutes are tight and you loosen your hamstrings they will, so to speak, pull in the slack that you just created. Having a loose midsection is critical to loosening the muscles that related to the IT band.
I can’t speak to the 2 weeks issue. I took over 6 months to get rid of my hip bursitis and I still do maintenance stretching to make sure it does not come back. Yours might not be as bad as mine, so you might loosen up more quickly.
I got cortisone shots in both trochanteric (hip) bursa sacs one week before my first IM - ironically, it was the first time I ran pain-free all season.