Delayed onset muscle pain

[Gkikas]

Hi Docs,

I did a longer than usual run this past Sunday, including a stretch of speed drill, and felt no real ill effects anywhere and was proud my body'd performed as well as it did. This may not've been entirely true.

24 hours after the run, I developed a painful sensation in my left quad above and to the outside of my knee. It's a different pain than familiar muscle soreness... it's like a bruised feeling with some swelling. It is sensitive to palpation and when I walk, the muscle hurts with each stride. To get a little more descriptive, in my mind it feels like a "surface" kind of pain, though not a skin condition... it's just below, and not really deep into the muscle either. The pain isn't significant, but I definitely know it's there.

I always take off Mondays and Tuesdays to recover from my Sunday runs, so being that it's Tuesday now and the pain is still there, I'm wondering if I've done some kind of muscle damage. This HAS happened to me before, and it just went away. I know this will too, given time and (maybe more) rest, but I'm curious what the Docs have to say.

Cheers!

Chris

 

[Gkikas]

Did some Googling and

Did some Googling and narrowed this down to quadriceps tendonitis, as the more self-examination I did the more I realized this wasn't a muscular pain, but rather a tendon pain. It's right above my patella, going up into the quad muscles, and fits all the descriptions I found. Guess I'll be taking a few days off until the pain subsides, icing and Ibuprofening. Thanks.

 

[Dr. Mark]

Chris , agree. if your home

Chris ,



agree. if your home anatomy have isolated the quadriceps tendon insertion the best route is caution. you have not completely torn this...you would be in a big world of hurt if that happened.



for prevention there may be some issues with hip flexor and illiacus/psoas flexibility. some lunges and single leg swings may be helpful after the pain is gone.



these injuries are also directly related to mechanical stress too so it may have been too hard an effort...but heck, have fun and sometimes you go over the edge. just be smart enough to dial back if it hurts. sounds like you are.



Best,

Dr. Mark

 

[Gkikas]

Dr. Mark -- so sorry for the

Dr. Mark -- so sorry for the super-delayed reply, but thank you for the advice!

What's funny is that when I read your post, I was just finished with my first run back after this little tendon spell. I was super sweaty and needing to shower before work and just plain forgot to reply back that with a few days' rest, the pain cleared up and I was back on the streets!

So again, thank you! I'm finding that the more I run (and overdo it, sometimes) the more I pick up these "at the time, devastating" types of issues and then a few days later, the pain has mostly gone. I'm amazed at how fast healing takes place.

 

[dunetraveller]

No kidding. Every time I

No kidding. Every time I experience something bad, I am convinced I'm going to be sidelined for a week, then the next day and I wake up and realize it wasn't as bad as I thought. Maybe I get visits from fairies during the night ;-)

John T.