Shifted pelvis. Or something.

Started the day with my new physical therapist. First visit so there was a lot of talking and diagnosing and such. It turns out that my pelvis on the left side has sort of shifted back and is out of alignment. That in turn is straining the muscles, with a lot of extra pulling there shouldn't be. She said it's hard to say whether the shift happened first and cause the pulled muscle or if the muscles were strained and the subsequent stress (not to mention the continued training) caused the shift. I'm definitely leaning towards the latter.

 Ha-this is exactly the model she showed me-

 left side shifted back....Source.

So the pink stuff in there is muscle. The greater pelvic floor muscles are mostly what you see but at the very bottom, right above the bottom of the pelvis on either side, there is a muscle called the obturator internis. And that is one of the very painful tender spots, along with the greater upper hamstrings that are very aggravated muscles. 

The plan includes rest at first, then I can start up again as I continue to work with her. So hopefully I won't lose too much fitness. I am allowed to walk...but I hate walking! It just doesn't feel efficient to me. But back to the appointment...we did a little bit of treatment...she had me do a couple exercises that I have to do a few times a day, one to strengthen and one to promote blood flow to aid in healing...and then she got out the coolest thing ever. It's this sleeve thing that combines an ice treatment with compression. You put this sleeve around the afflicted part and hook it to this machine. It fills up with ice water (totally lasted 10 minutes on the coldest setting-thank you ice baths!) and air and there's mild pressure like a blood pressure cuff, but not that hard. It.Was.Awesome. I loved it. She said she can do it every time! Yay! It felt that good.

She also did this weird thing to try to shift my pelvic bone back. She also warned me that it really engaged that obturator muscle and that I'd likely feel some pain later on. Totally did. And still do.....very sore. I was also supposed to make sure that I sat and stood completed symmetrical all day- weight evenly on both feet or 'sit bones'. Very hard to do...

We are going to be working on major strengthening of the hip muscles, which are very weak, and my core so that the pelvis is supported and doesn't shift back. Going to be doing this 1-2 times a week for 6-8 weeks. I'll be able to start back up on my training soon....so we'll just take it as we go and see what I can accomplish. Still got 59 days till PDX. Gulp.