My Sciatic Nerve

Are you tired of the running posts yet? Don't worry, only two more weeks and then I will be done with this long-distance running stuff.

On my runs that last longer than 8 miles I am discovering that my sciatic nerve is not my friend. Evidently it gets compressed somewhere around mile 8 and it hounds me for the rest of my run. Not fun. I generally recover within 12 hours of my run.

I have had problems with this nerve before – namely whenever I use an elliptical machine and that nerve gets pinched which results in my feet going numb after 30 minutes of exercise. 

So, what's a girl to do? I went to my yoga teacher for advice {she also happens to teach Phys Ed at a community college and has done so for the last couple of decades}. I described my pain to her and she said that it was likely that my sciatic nerve was getting pinched. She gave me some suggestions for stretching afterward to relieve the pain and also gave me pointers on what I could do during my longer runs including varying my stride, focusing on my posture, relaxing my entire body while running and doing a one mile warm up run then stopping to do some exercises to loosen my hips. 

I have one more long run scheduled before the race. I hope her tips help.