sever upper abdominal pain during running

Question
Hi,

I am a university soccer player in off season training right now. I have been running about 3-4 times a week on the treadmill or outside usually at a pace of 4.30min/km. About 7 minutes into my run I start to get a really severe pain in my upper abdominal area usually on my left side, but it has happened on both sides. I've tried to run through it but it can get so bad that I have to stop completely. I can walk it off after about 10 minutes or so. Can you help me figure out what is going on? I know that this isn't a stitch, it's a totally different pain and in a different area.
Thanks for the help.!

Answer
Hi Holly
Knowing you are probably in really great shape the one thing that really stands out to me is i have the feeling it could very likely be a slight strain of the intercostal muscles in the rib cage.Can you remember falling recently since you can trace back all injuries with 98% accuracy.I have copied a link for you which gives a good layout of the situation,but do google it for more articles.I had that situation years ago and it was hard to take a deep breath at times.You can do a lot of icing in the areas it bothers you since that will reduce imflammation.Keep me informed if you have more questions Holly.

All the best

John


http://healthandnutritiontips.net/intercostal_muscle_strain/intercostal_muscle_s...