Patience; the new endurance sport.

I've been trading some running days for stationary bike, and skiing.  The stationary bike really works up a good sweat, but it's just not the same.  The skiing gives me a nice sence of being outside, but doesn't provide one long cardio session.  I am getting more and more out of shape.  If you would have told me last Septeber that little pain in my back would lead to this ongoing thing in my Hip, I would not have believed how long it could go on.  I'm still in denial over this injury, and what's worse is that I am cross training and even skipping some days in favor of stretching.  Then I get sick of it and run days in a row, only to end up with that pain in the hip again.  Maybe it will be like my elbow where it will eventualy go away on it's own (that took 6-9 months). 

treadmill.

Shoes hardly seem to matter when the running is slow.  In Summer I felt like I needed new shoes like every 300 miles--now it hardly matters.  Then again, my back/ham/hip was breaking down during that time so maybe I did need new shoes all the time.  I keep pulling the typical weekend warrior routine on Saturdays/Sundays (running further and faster because I have more time) but then I pay for it the rest of the week.  I run for sanity, but pay for it with my hip.  I am trying to decide how I'm going to handle getting ready for Moab.  Even if I went in for the MRI to see if all that scar tissue from last year is to blame for my pelvic ligaments -- what will they do? I'd still have to do all this aggressive stretching and moderation.  With the mornings getting a little bit lighter, it has me wanting to run further distances. I have made a nice  routine of moderation using the stationary bike, and counting anything physical as excrsize (skiing, walking, push ups/sit ups, etc).  The thing about using running as a coping mechanism is, that once the hard kind of running that used to keep you sane is not possible-- the crazy comes out.  Where do you put all that crazy without the hard kind of running?