Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Ouch.  Planned to do 8 but had to turn around and do the jog of shame thanks to my hip.  I can feel it aching the whole run now so it's getting worse.  I probably could've powered through it but I could hear the little voice in the back of my head saying, "this is stupid."  My left thigh/hip feels nothing like the right so something is wrong.  Let's see what a few days off does.

couple minutes on the TM in the evening to test my hip - maybe a little improvement but nothing major.  So much for keeping the momentum of my training going...guess I'm sleeping in again.

Sigh...went to the pool today at the gym on base.  Did a mile in 4 x 400m with a minute rest between each 400.  The whole thing took 28 minutes; I can remember doing a mile in 18 minutes in high school.  I guess 13 years of not swimming makes you slower.  Finished with 2 x 50m sprint in 38 each to get the heart rate going.  I had to ask a couple of pool/gym employees to make sure the pool was meters and not yards (a lot of short-course pools in the U.S. tend to be yards).  Thankfully it was meters...good ol' military sticks to what they know I guess.

There was zero impact to my bad hip in the pool, so maybe I'll swim every other day and try the...sigh...elliptical machine if I can figure it out tomorrow.  I see the doctor on Thursday morning.

30 minutes was all I could take on the elliptical which got me 3.4 elliptical miles, whatever that means.  As long as I didn't shift my weight, my hip didn't mind.  I don't think I got as good of an aerobic workout as running, but it crushed my quads which is good.  My legs were even shaking a little when I got off so I bet they'll be sore tomorrow.

The doctor visit went about like you would think - he did a few tests and concluded it was the hip flexor and didn't want to do any imaging on it, then wrote a rx for aleve or something like it and told me to not run for a few weeks.  He seemed sure, but I will keep the sfx possibility in my mind, especially since the article I read said that FNSFs are misdiagnosed as hip flexor problems all the time, but you need an MRI to tell.  I'm not ready to run yet anyway but I'll be taking no less than another week off, probably more.  My plan is to wait until I can't feel it anymore while walking, then test it jogging on the treadmill a little at a time.  I don't want to go backwards if it is a sfx.  He also suggested physical therapy at the wellness center for exercises but I think the elliptical is taking care of that just fine.

Swam a mile (1600m) today in ~27 minutes, so a little better.  I did a progressive effort for the last 300m or so.  Then 2 x 50m sprints in 38 and 37.  I wish the pool was yards since that's what I remember from HS.  I can recall doing 50yd sprint repeats from the wall consistently in 26 each back in the day which would be about 29 seconds in meters.  So that's how slow I've gotten.  Oh well, the pool is closed all next week anyway, then hopefully I'm close to being able to run a little. 

No cardio today.  That stupid elliptical machine gave me some super soreness in my calves to the point where I'm walking funny with calf pain.  Never got the least bit sore in my quads.  I'm sure I was doing the machine all wrong and favoring my hip because it's my left calf; I probably was unconsciously making it do all the work.  I don't really have time for anything today anyway so I'll try maybe the stationaly bike, cycle, whatever it's called on Monday.  Have a nice weekend all!

More good news yesterday - my marathon plans are on hold and Houston is out.  I'm being deployed again, this time to beautiful sunny Iraq.  Leave in July, back in January or early Feb.  Here we go again...  Not sure if I'll be able to keep up consistent training but I think I will still be able to run some, depending on where I go.  Either way, Houston in January is out, so maybe I can do OKC in April 2011.  I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to get on the blog overseas, but we'll see.

I think my hip is getting a lot better so I might try an easy mile on the TM toward the end of next week.

Did some walking and stretching, then tried a few minutes at 5 and 6 mph on the TM.  Definitely better than last week by quite a bit, although I was on Aleve when I did it this time.  Even so, I felt it there so I'll wait to try again Wednesday w/o the nsaid.  I really can't rush it now because I have to be healthy for a physical readiness test next month.

30 minutes on the bike at the gym.  It was easier to figure out than the elliptical, apparently you just sit there and pedal.  Anyway I increased the resistance and pedaled fast until it was hard to do - I just can't make myself spend more than 30 minutes on these machines though.

Barely felt my hip all day (without nsaids) so after work I walked bit, stretched, and hit the TM.  Slowly increased to 6 mph the first quarter-mile, then ran the second quarter mile at 7 mph (about my old easy-run speed).  I felt the injury there, but wouldn't really classify it as pain, just a tightness or something.  Maybe I'll run a full mile on Friday.

I just wish I knew if I'm supposed to wait until there's zero indication of an injury, or if a little tweakiness is ok.  The doctor, after his 5-minute diagnosis, said take a "few" weeks off running.  Well, if I count the week before I saw him which I sat out, then the week after I saw him, I'm at 2 weeks of not running;  2 is a few.

I did 25 minutes on the elliptical after the TM test.

25 minutes on the bike at the gym.  My tolerance for the machines is decreasing.

5 and 6 mph on the treadmill - I definitely could have kept going but called it quits after the 3rd lap because I perceived the hip soreness getting slightly worse as I went.  I wouldn't say it hurts at all, just a dull soreness when running and after I'm done.  After my race a few weeks ago, there was actual pain that made me limp/hobble so this is better.  Still, seems ever so slightly better than Wednesday's run.  I'll give it total rest this weekend and play it by feel on Monday.

Weird injury - my hip has actually been more sore on the side the past couple days so I didn't hold out much hope for today's TM run but it went ok.  At first I didn't feel it at all but the soreness crept in after a few minutes.  Now it really feels like a muscle or tendon and it's even a little tender to the touch for the first time; before, I could never touch the pain if that makes any sense.  So I don't know if it's just healing in different places or what, it's just weird.

But, I think it felt a little better than Friday...slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

Swam a mile in 26:30, kicking it in the last 200 or so.

Never thought I would be excited about a 1.5 mile TM run that took 14 minutes, but I am.  The hip was the best it has felt in a long time.  It also got better as the jog progressed instead of worse.  The left still felt different than the right so there is some healing left, but definite improvement this time.  Just some mild soreness afterward which now, an hour later, is gone.  I think I'll be running outside in a week or so.

I forgot my workout clothes today so couldn't go to the gym at work.  So when I got home I went ahead and did a TM run - a full 2 miles this time in about 19 min.  Toward the end I had a weird urge to just go 10mph as long as I could to make my lungs burn and feel some pain.  I resisted...  The run felt ok - about like yesterday, with my hip feeling better after a mile or so.  Then I remembered that that's sort of how it was when this injury started, except the pain was stabbing before and just dull/sore now.  That made me a bit nervous so I'll bike or swim Friday, take the weekend off, and my hip will have 3 full days off before I start up again.

8:45 AP.  I was looking forward to this run to see what 3 days off would do, and it improved things even more.  There's still some healing left to do in my bad hip, but I would have barely noticed the difference between the two if I wasn't hyper-aware of every twinge down there.  Still got a bit of soreness right afterward but feels pretty strong now.  Planning on 1 more TM run on Wednesday (3-4 miles) to make sure it recovered well from today, then I'll move back outside.

Brought my swimming stuff to work but I got an Anthrax booster in the morning so my shoulder was not in the mood for swimming.  So, no cardio yet again but soon it will not matter as long as tomorrow's TM run goes well because I'll be running again.  From that point on I'll run outside but easy runs for as long as I can stand it, which we all know will not be long but I'll try.

Went great, 8:33 pace overall.  Because my HF didn't quite feel perfect, I'll take another day off and run outside on Friday.

Swam a mile in about 26:05, giving a pretty strong effort in the last 200.  Got a day off work tomorrow and I'll start it with a morning run outside, probably 4 miles to start with and maybe 5 on Saturday.

Nice to be running again, winds were low and it was about 70F.  Ran 4.0 in 8:13 pace, which was probably too fast for injury recovery but felt good and easy at first.  Then I saw how out-of-shape I'd gotten after 3 weeks.  It felt like the me-from-3-months-ago.  Hopefully you can regain fitness faster than it takes to build it up in the first place.  Anyway, I'm thankful the injury seems to be behind me.  I guess 3 weeks ago it wasn't this hot either, plus I had White Rabbit stuck in my head the whole time for some reason.  That's a weird song to be running to.

74F at the start and 78F when I finished.  I don't know how some of you are running in 90 degrees because that was kind of miserable.  Anyway, 8:22 pace and ran pretty even splits - already felt in better shape than yesterday so maybe it's coming back to me.  I'll have 1 more run in TX before I head to Wyoming on Monday for a couple weeks of training for work and get spoiled by nice running weather again.

8:23 pace, 74F.  I travel to Wyoming tomorrow for 2 weeks; not sure if they'll have wifi there since it's a pretty small Army camp.  They don't always have the nice amenities we're used to in the AF.  If not, will catch up with everyone in a couple weeks.  Have a good holiday!