Acute Thigh pain quick onset running -subsides within hours

[MC Bodge]

Today I was forced to drop out of a trail running race very early on. I was very disappointed....

Warming up very gently I had noticed a mild stabbing pain in the outer/front of my thigh. This was surprising as it hadn't been there beforehand. I hoped that it would be "run off".

From the start of the race I could still feel it, but was running at a comfortable pace. The pain became a 'cramping'/tightening and I was forced to pull-up and stop in a lot of pain after only about 1.5Km. I couldn't bend my leg properly and it was painful to touch, to walk or even just move my leg. I dropped out of the race and hobbled back to a marshal.

It was like this for the next 3 hours or so, but then the pain began subsiding. I went out for a walk with the children this afternoon in an attempt to get the muscles moving and blood circulating. By the end I was walking almost normally again, with some mild discomfort.

This evening, there is still soreness to touch, but I am able to bend the leg and even squat down/up with little pain.

I am quite tired, despite the very short run.



In the past few months I had a thigh pain in the inner/front of the same leg at the end of a 10K race, which stayed sore for a few days, but was then fine.

I have also had a couple of instances of extremely sharp/burning/'electric shock' pain quickly coming on (after about a minute or so) in both quads during running down steep mountain descents. This had caused me to stop to allow the pain to subside and the post-run pain again ebbed away after a few hours.

Any ideas as to what this might be?????



ps. Yes I am going to see the physio asap.

[llewop]

Hopefully a (well meaning) over reaction/nudge to encourage you to check it out fully:

Unless your physio comes out with a 'ahh... it's 'this' ' and it explains everything: I would suggest also go to your doctors.

I'm a firm believer these days of getting anything odd checked out, from personal experience, odd aches / cramp etc might just be the first sign of something that is more significant. Hopefully not in your case, but for me, what started with cramp in my legs turned out to be something with life long implications.

Best of luck, it might just be you've tweaked something and need to give it more of a rest than you have.

[MC Bodge]

Thanks. I'm hoping it is nothing as serious as that.

This morning the pain is quite localised, so it may well be a tear. I'm not sure what brought it on though.

I suspect that i am going to need regular sports massage in future.

I would like to know what causes such quick onset of pain on steep descents though

[MurderousCrow]

MC Bodge said:

Thanks. I'm hoping it is nothing as serious as that.

This morning the pain is quite localised, so it may well be a tear. I'm not sure what brought it on though.

I suspect that i am going to need regular sports massage in future.

I would like to know what causes such quick onset of pain on steep descents though

It's due to eccentric loading in the foot strike being greater (than on the flat or uphills), thanks to gravity. Eccentric muscular activity is a natural part of the running stroke: this is where the muscle activates to attenuate joint acceleration i.e. absorb force. On downhills gravity is accelerating your mass as your feet come off the floor; this acceleration increases the load on the quadriceps as you land.

[MC Bodge]

P

MurderousCrow said:

It's due to eccentric loading in the foot strike being greater (than on the flat or uphills), thanks to gravity. Eccentric muscular activity is a natural part of the running stroke: this is where the muscle activates to attenuate joint acceleration i.e. absorb force. On downhills gravity is accelerating your mass as your feet come off the floor; this acceleration increases the load on the quadriceps as you land.

I realise that, but the onset of serious pain (not discomfort) is very rapid, not typical fatigue. It subsides quickly enough to allow me to continue running when the angle eases. I never experienced this when I was younger (late 30s now).

Ps. Same in both legs, through the thighs not local soreness.

Edited by MC Bodge on Monday 28th September 11:06

[MurderousCrow]

MC Bodge said:

I realise that, but the onset of serious pain (not discomfort) is very rapid, not typical fatigue. It subsides quickly enough to allow me to continue running when the angle eases. I never experienced this when I was younger (late 30s now).

I'd imagine it's the same mechanism at work. It does sound from your description and history as if you have some tearing in the muscle belly, possibly due to presence of some myofascial adhesions +/- scar tissue. This is a reasonable conclusion, and would result in the kind of pain you've experienced. The physio can advise further though.

[gifdy]

I have similar symptoms which turned out to be my IT band. Google "Ober's test" which is what the physio did to investigate it.

[MurderousCrow]

MurderousCrow said:

I'd imagine it's the same mechanism at work. It does sound from your description and history as if you have some tearing in the muscle belly, possibly due to presence of some myofascial adhesions +/- scar tissue. This is a reasonable conclusion, and would result in the kind of pain you've experienced. The physio can advise further though.

When increased force is required, the muscles respond by either recruiting more motor units, or increasing the contraction rate of recruited fibres. In the case of the quads (which are responsible for gross, high-force movements unlike say the muscles of the forearm) force is predominantly increased by greater recruitment of motor units i.e. a set of muscle fibres and their corresponding efferent neuron. Different motor units within a muscle have different roles, and are split into types. Gross oversimplification: low-fatigue/low-force, mid-fatigue/mid-force, high-fatigue/high force. It's reasonable to suppose that were you to have an injury in a set of high-force motor units which are only recruited when force becomes high (such as running downhill), that pain would only manifest under those conditions.

Long-term you may well be right that sports massage would be appropriate. You may also require some targeted strength development in your quads and the synergist muscles of the upper leg.

[MurderousCrow]

gifdy said:

I have similar symptoms which turned out to be my IT band. Google "Ober's test" which is what the physio did to investigate it.

Interesting - I missed the bit in the OP about outer/front, yes it's a possibility. More common for ITB pain to manifest predominantly in the outer knee but it's not a huge stretch () to think it may be that. Running massively predisposes to ilio-tibial tract problems anyway, so the OP is quite likely to have tightness there. The usual cause is under-active glutes.

The answer is still 'get it assessed'. While it's an interesting talking point, as you know you aren't going to get anything definitive from a forum...

[MC Bodge]

It seems to be in the large quad muscle, rather than itb.

I have already tried to work on glute strength and form and now often feel it in my glute muscles following runs.