Back With a Capital Vengence!

2 laps walking + 2 laps running around Liberty Park with Andrea on her birthday. 

First time out after 5 solid days of inactivity. Still in the middle of cold/cough/sinus infection from he!!. Sad :(

Lil' jaunt up the City Creek trail. Although I appreciate these gorgeous, sunny, warm fall days, bring on the SNOW already!!! I am getting psyched for the Wasatch Citizen's Nordic Ski Race Series. 

Seriously still feel like crud. World's longest cold...

First Turkey Trot training run. I really want to beat my time from last year, which is going to be really tough even though it was only a week before my pretty massive hip surgery and I hadn't been running at all. Reason being I want to know that I am better off after the surgery and resultant rehabilitation marathon.

Jacked up on too much pumpkin spice coffee I decided to run a mile as fast as I could down Memory Grove with the result being a 6:52. Pretty awesome considering I've never run a mile under 7 in my life and feel like I have pneumonia or some other serious lung crap!

Not even going to talk about how wicked sore and tight I am after yesterday's stupid mile... Think the Turkey Trot will slaughter me for sure!

Run on historic route 66 in St. Louis although nothing of historic significance is left. Sad I am missing the big snow storm in SLC. Bring it on!

3.5 on the TM at varying speeds and grades. Boring.

Hooked up the bike to my newly inherited bike trainer and gave it a spin for 35 minutes. Set it up right next to the radiator and sweat my bum off while watching Friends reruns. This is going to be a fun winter!

Hip funk so nada. 

Up to 11th Ave, then up City Creek a mile or so, and then down Memory Grove in the dark - my ole A to City Creek 5-mile loop. Froze my bum off, but felt surprisingly good!  

First physical therapy appointment in over 2 months. Having more problems with the darned hip lately and have been starting to really worry that something is wrong since I am approaching the one year mark. All the kinks should have gotten worked out by now...

Long story short, my hip capsule is demonstrating some major laxity and this is something that is not going to fix itself considering I am a year out of surgery now. Basically, the ligaments holding my hip in place are too loose making it feel like the darned thing is going to pop out on me and all my other muscles and tendons surrounding the hip have tightened up to try and do the capsule's job. I guess it is one of those rare complications from this type of surgery. In the back of my mind I think I knew I was going to need some more work done and I was coping by denial and/or optimism and registering for races.

First ski of the year. Conditions up Millcreek weren't too bad. Just a few spots of asphalt, but they were easier to dodge then the bus load of snowshoers. Need to get out while I can!!!

Up to 11th, City Creek, and then down Memory Grove followed by a few spins on the home bike while listening to Garrison Keillor. Go Packers! I love Sundays :)  

9:42, 9:36 (uphill); 8:16 (1/2 uphill, 1/2 downhill); 7:40, 7:30 (downhill). Going to be really, really hard to beat last year's Turkey Trot time. Have to average below 7:38 - eek!

35 minutes on the home bike and then got so bored I had to stop. Super sore from yesterday's run and/or the cross-country skiing this weekend. Oh well, time to taper for the Turkey Trot anyway. Ha! 

Nada. Hip hasn't felt this awful since about May and now my knee and lower back are involved as well. I think now that I know there is actually something wrong with it again, I am no longer in denial of the pain.

30 minutes on the home bike and then foam rolled myself for a good 20. New favorite quote:

“Whatever you may be missing right now – a person, a place, a feeling, maybe you are injured and missing running – whatever it is, have peace and take heart – remember that any goodbye makes room for a hello.”~Kristen Armstrong

Been pretty down about my hip for the last week and had a really bad hip day yesterday so I considered not even running the Cold Turkey. Woke up this morning feeling not so horrible and downed a handful of ibuprofen with some coffee and ended up feeling pretty good.

I totally abandoned my goal of running faster than last year, but after a fast-ish first mile I decided to give it a go finishing around 28:20 and making my goal - boo yah! Set another downhill mile PR of 6:47 - holy crap! Running fast is hard, I have no idea how y'all do it. I spent the 2 miles of downhill listing all the things I am thankful for in my head to distract me from the running. Was happy to have Fritz pacing me the last half mile or I probably would have keeled over. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mile 1: 7:51

Mile 2: 8:12

Mile 3: 6:49

.83: 6:30-ish

Nice time at physical therapy this morning followed by a lovely, long walk around the Ave's. No hip pain whatsoever after the run yesterday just normal soreness in the quads, but that is it. The hip is so unpredictable it is about driving me insane. My PT had a long chat with my surgeon on Wednesday and it has been pretty much decided that I am going in for a capsular plication - doesn't that sound fun! Turns out my surgeon is now doing this alongside the FAI fix for all the female athletes he is seeing and claims to be having awesome outcomes. Grrrrrrrrrr. 

Just got a pop-up on my 'puter that told me that Squaw Peak registration opens today and I almost teared up. Truth is I am going in for hip surgery #2 two weeks from today.

Actually I don't even think I am that sad. It has been soooo long since I've been able to do the things that I once enjoyed that I don't even remember what it was like. I am more concerned with how I am going to get my own socks on for 3 weeks :)