The Next Step

After taking off a few days to rest my sore hip I wanted to give it another go today to see how it is progressing. I did a lot of stretching and used a foom roller.  It felt better over the weekend but not sure how running would be.  It was a cool morning today (40) but no wind.  I started off easy to get good and loosened up before running normally.  I felt good and didn't have any problems.  I felt some tightness in my hip but no pain so first day back was pretty good.  I was very tempted to go further but thought I should take it easy and make sure that I don't have a set back.  I will pick it up as the week goes along if I feel good.

40:20 (8:04 avg)

I ran after work today and it was warm (73) and super windy.  This is my second day back after taking off some for a sore hip.  I started off easy again to get the hip good and loose before picking it up.  I felt really good today and the running came easy.  I just let myself fall into a natural pace and didn't try to force again.  My hip felt great with no problems so hopefully that is behind me (no pun intended).  I ran a route that tired to minimize the running into the wind and kept it mostly as a cross wind.  It has been a long time since I have had an injury so I want to be careful and make sure this doesn't come back but the rest of me is ready to start pushing the training.  I will try to stay conservative this week and if everything goes well I will kick it up next week.  By the way, I think the problem with my hip was tight hamstrings.  I talked to a PT and they suggested that I stretch the hamstrings really well because they could be pulling on the muscles around my hip causing the problem.  When I started stretching them over the weekend they were really tight and that is something that I haven't been doing regularly.

53:25 (7:38 avg)

Virginia Beach, VA:  Had a super early flight this morning so ran after meetings today.  It was really warm (88) and very windy.  I ran down along the board walk and it is always great to be able to run along the ocean.  I started off easy and felt pretty good starting out.  This lasted until around 5 1/2 miles and then started having some pain in the hip again.  I stopped and stretched it out but that didn't seem to help.  I had to run back to my car so tried some different things coming back to see how it felt.  It actually felt better running faster so I picked up the pace some coming back and messed around with my stride some to see if that is causing the problem.  Not sure what to do tomorrow.  I will probably give it a try and see how it feels then take it from there.  I hope I can get through this without having to take off a long time.  I was just starting to feel like I was coming around at Boston and then I haven't been able to do much since so feel like I am starting to go backwards.

59:12 (7:55 avg)

Virginia Beach, VA:  I got out early in the morning and it was a very nice day for running with temps in the low 50's.  After yesterday's problem with the hip I wanted to give it one more try to see if the stretching improved it.  I started off easy and felt good.  I didn't have any problems in the hip.  I was running around 7:40 pace for the first couple of miles.  After 2 miles the hip started to tighten up and then about a half mile later started to hurt.  I eased up but that didn't seem to help.  It hurt the rest of the way back and pretty much confirmed that this is worse than I thought.  I was really hoping to be able to work my way through this but I am afraid that I am going to figure out what is wrong and then start rehabing it to get better.  It was a very discouraging run this morning.  I have been very fortunate to be running injury free for several years so it is tough to come to the realization that I am going to have to take some extended time off and get this fixed.  I need to take the long term view and realize that a couple of weeks now might pay off by the fall instead of trying to work through it and make things worse.  I have a friend that might be able to help figure out what is wrong and then hopefully a plan to get better.