I apologize for not posting in a while. To be honest, I’ve been really frustrated this past week about an injury situation that is threatening to derail my goals for 30 Minute Runner 2.0.
Trapezius Pain as a Running Injury?
If you’ve been following my prior posts, you know that I had originally scraped my plans during my original 30 Minute Runner experiment after I experienced some serious runner’s knee pain.
Well, the knee pain is much better after following the exercise prescriptions in the Runner’s Connect Strength Training Program. However, an old injury foe has decided to make its presence known in my training: trapezius pain caused (I think) my lack of scapular stability.
I have had trapezius pain off and on for about three years. It is certainly an odd injury for a runner to have…I am mean how much do runners really use their upper backs?
Nevertheless, about 20-30 minutes into my run, I get a stabbing pain in my upper trapezius that makes running super painful.
A Threat to the 30 Minute Runner 2.0 Experiment
I originally thought that I beat this injury a year ago my working on strengthening the trapezius muscle, but the pain is back. Due to the pain, I wasn’t able to run my scheduled fartlek workout in the Run Faster program last week and had a super painful long run on Sunday.
Over the years I have invested a lot of thought into why my trapezius sometimes hurts so much during running. I think the main culprit is my terrible posture when I’m working at my desk at work.
Whatever the cause, the injury really sucks. One real downer is that many runners have experienced common running injuries such as runner’s knee, achilles tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis, but don’t have any problems with their upper backs.
Therefore, it is really hard to get good solid advice on the best way to treat this injury. I have an appointment scheduled with a physical therapist next week and am crossing my fingers that she will be able to help me continue with the 30 Minute Runner 2.0 experiment.
Stay tuned!
Photo courtesy of Galex
