Uh Oh

I've been running some 25 years and I've never had an injury. Lucky, I guess. I've had my share of aches and pains and there's been many times that I've cut back on my mileage because I felt a twinge here or there but I've never had a full-on injury.

So, I should feel lucky, right?

I am lucky but darn it, why do I get one now?  The year I am REALLY going for it....really going all out for the best possible finish time in my 2nd (and probably last) Ironman. And at a time when I'm REALLY enjoying my long runs!

I guess its fate. 

Whatever it is, it stinks. And it hurts.

So, what is the injury?  Its the sharp pain in my upper left hip bone - maybe pelvic bone, I'm not sure - that has been bothering me for months now. It has been especially painful when I get out of a car, for some weird reason. It hurts like heck when I step out of my Honda mini-van and I hobble for the first few steps.

The good news (until now) was that it did not hurt when I ran. This made it easy for me to rationalize running. I mean, why stop running if you don't have pain during the run?  Ask any runner what they would do and they'd look at you strange and say "I'd keep running, of course". And so I did.

And it actually got better for awhile. It was hurting before the Florida Ironman but then it subsided and I was able to do the Ironman (although I walked most of the marathon, but that's another story).

I didn't feel it for weeks after the Ironman but then it slowly came back. But still, it never hurt during the run, only after (and it hurt like heck).

And its back with a vengeance. Yesterday, during a typical 5 mile run, it started hurting with each foot strike. Then it radiated down and around the entire hip area. Crap!  I came home and could hardly walk. It was really, really painful. I took a Celebrex and iced it for 30 mins but it still kept hurting.

Today when I woke up, it hurt like heck. I made it to the pool and swam for 30 mins. Fortunately, for my psyche, I had a great swim!  I wanted to swim longer but in order to get kids to school, I have to leave the pool by 7:00. Plus, Kurt had a 7:00 AM meeting and he needed a ride to the office. More on the swim later.

So, what to do. I should probably stay off it and keep taking Celebrex and icing it. But since I'm not running today or tomrrow, it might settle down long enough for me to run 90 mins on Sunday (can't believe I'm saying that). Cross your fingers - I really want to run on Sunday!

Back to the swim today. Tom and Richard were there and being the great guys that they are, they gave more excellent advice on my technique. Richard watched me swim underwater and told me to try the "almost catch up drill" which will hopefully force me to follow through on my stroke and "push" at the end, which is what I'm not doing. I tried it a few times and it did feel different. I really wanted to stay and practice longer (and the water felt so good!) but had to go. Such is the life of an endurance junkie with kids.

I'm looking forward to swimming more. I really think my stroke has improved and I want to start trying more speedwork (did I just say that???).  But as I said in my last post, if I can manage 2 days/week until summer when I can go to 3 days/week, I should be fine. Can't wait to do open water swims again!

As for biking, I did a 30 min Spinerval workout today. Again, no time to do the whole thing. I tried one that Sarah loaned me and I can't remember the name of it but it called for three 6-minute bouts of high intensity cycling, after doing an extensive warm-up. The good news is that I did that and felt like I hadn't done much work - I was ready to do more but had to grade papers and write an exam. Sigh.

So, not a bad week all in all. Tomorrow I'm skiing with the kids and Sunday, I hope to be running with my friends. Prayers for healing and good karma will be accepted and appreciated!

TTFN!