Run Through It

Well, I didn't wimp out!  I decided the hip pain (which really was very bad) felt more muscle-y than structural, so I decided to grind through it for 35 minutes at 5:1 and see what happened.  I set my timer for a 4 minute warm up walk instead of my usual 2, in hopes that it would loosen up a bit before I got to the run bit.  It did not.  I looked like Quasimodo walking along, then beep beep beeep...time to run.  Amazingly, running didn't hurt nearly as much.  I think I keep my feet under me better at a run than a walk, and it was the extension of my leg that was hurting.

The whole run felt heavy and slow.  The 5 minutes (new interval length!) wasn't challenging, but my ankle and neck hurt from limping all day.  I wasn't even concerned about pace as I just wanted to do the run and see what happened with the hip.  The back half of the run really reinforced how bloody slow I am - I spent the whole time about 20 yards behind a lady WALKING her dog at the same pace I was running.

At the end of it, I ran 3.06km for a pace of 11:09, which is nearly a full minute below where I was averaging at 4:1.  I was shocked!  Sore and slow, I am still improving!  This was the best happy face I could muster:

The hip felt much looser and better afterwards.  Not so much for Wednesday, when it locked up tight and I looked like a 90-year-old trying to walk around my construction site!  Ha!  I made the decision last night to postpone today's run a day and didn't even set my early alarm.

Then I woke up and poof!  All gone.  Whatever was tight and limiting range of motion had come loose, and the pain was down to an occasional flutter.  Go figure.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hoping that it doesn't come back again.