Questions that'll make me sound like a newb...Re: upper leg "injury" (Read 86 times)

My upper leg is "injured".  The pain isn't specific to one location, and it kind of feels like a sort muscle.  But after two weeks, I know it's more than that.

Pain is located in the hip flexor area and radiates down the front of the thigh.  Occasionally when I am sitting, I feel pain in the sciatic nerve....nothing dramatically noticeable.   In general, the whole upper leg seems to have something going on...except for the hamstring (knock on wood).

Two things that have changed in the past 2.5 weeks:

1) I bought new shoes for under pronators and ran 5 miles of speed work on the TM in them.  Then, I took them off and ran 2 very slow miles (will explain next) to test running at a certain pace.  Then ran my normal easy pace for a few miles.  The next day I started noticing the pain.

The shoes I normally run in have stability and arch support...and they really have been working for me.  Let's not get into the "WTH were you thinkings" when I bought the new shoes.  I don't know WTH I was thinking, and I have since returned them.  They actually felt pretty good to run in, though, if I am being honest.

2) I began pacing races.  Only 10Ks, for now.  We have had a few large 10Ks that have asked one of our local pacer groups to help out.  I picked up the slowest pacing time, because I knew I could do it without having endurance issues (that is another story altogether).

I have been told that running paces slower than you run during training can cause injury due to a change in the gait.  The pace I run as a pacer, I don't even run during recovery.

I haven't been to the doctor regarding my leg yet.  I have been waiting to see if it gets better, but I have been running....thinking it was one of those aches that eventually just go away.  Admit it....you're all runners and you have done the same thing.  I have had aches and pains in this particular area before that have gone away on their own.

I paced three days ago, and have not run since.  I have been taking Aleve, have been resting a lot (I'm so sick of sitting!) and have been icing the leg three to four times a day since....it isn't feeling any better.

Anyone have any ideas they can throw at me?  And do you think this is a combination of the new shoes incident and the slow pace pacing?  Or are the signs pointing to one or the other...or something else?

Sorry for the story...and I am sure I have left out key elements... ugh!

ETA:  My leg hurt when I bear weight on it, not when I try to lift it.  I have had a hip flexor strain before.  I remember how much it hurt to try to put on a pair of pants.

Update:  Sprained hip flexor.  No running (obviously) until the pain is gone.  Hopefully it won't hurt if I use the elliptical!

It's a known fact that we the RA community suck at diagnosing people on the internet, but fwiw when I read the description of your symptoms, the first thing that popped into my head was it sounds a bit like Desi Davilla's description of her injury before she was diagnosed with a femoral stress fracture.

Does the pain ever wake you up in the night?