I've been struggling with this stupid hip pain for three weeks now, entering week four. I have not know what is causing it but have many guesses. During this last month I ended up raceing 5 times, two of which I probably should not have done because I was already injured. It began the day after my third race when I decided to go for a long slow run. I did my usual Sunday run, which was up to 10.5 miles, on a farily flat course and about 3/4 way through the run I felt what can only be described as a tapping right between my legs every time my right foot hit the ground. It was weird but not painful or even necessairly uncomfortable so I let it go and finished the run. The next two days I did not run, which is my usual training protocol after a long run. Wednesday I decided to start some heat training so left my run for the afternoon. Wednesday is also my 40 mile bike day when I ride the 20 miles in to work and then return. So, the ride home has a couple good climbs right near the end of the ride and immediatly off the bike I went inshde and in about 5 minutes was on the road for my little 6.5 mile afternoon run. After about 3/4 of a mile I began experiencing a kind of stabbing pain between my legs. This hurt but, stupidly, I discovered that if I really focused on moving my legs perfectly straight and slowed my pace a little I could keep going with only "a lot of discomfort" instead of serious pain. I finished off the 6.5 miles and went inside and just about collapsed. I could hardly walk, I have no idea how I was able to keep myself running.
Anyhow, I stopped running for the rest of the week but kept biking to work, though I used the shorter 15 mile route without the climbs, and I started taking Ibuprophin religiously every 4 hours. Three days later I ran in the Amarillo Sprint Triathlon loaded up on Ibuprophin. The race went pretty well until the last mile of the run, which was the last event in this race. At that point my leg just about siezed up and I was able to gimp it on in. Amazingly, I wond the Clydes division and sent a new Clyde course record. I spent the whole next week eating ibuprophin, not running but still ridding my bike. I was making some headway with the pain and by Thursday was feeling pretty good and so ridding home, with the wind to my back, I hammered away on the bike on this one long flat that is completely free of traffic. Got the bike up to 38.5 mph and felt strong. the next morning I felt less strong and the pain and weakness were back. I wnet to see my doc and he said he thought it was inflamation and that I just needed to take the anti-inflamatories and give it rest. I took the anti-inflamatories and, well, I did'nt exactly rest. What I actually did was my fifth race in April, the Atomic Man Duathlon. This was a 10K - 40K - 5K race in hilly/mountainous Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was beautiful and I did run it slowly. I'll do a race report later but suffice it to say, I was hurting on the run.
Ok, now I'm finally serious. People are probably thinking that all my weight must be in my head, which must be filled with concrete or some other heavy, non-thinking substance. I took all last week off. I did not run, I did not swim, I did not bike and, gulp, I did not race at my next scheduled race, Ransom Canyon. It was more painfun than my hip but today is the first day where I feel like I may actually get better. I went for a swim, I sat in the hot tub and I spent about 20 minutes stretching.
Let's hope this works, I'm more than willing to skip the Jay Benson this comming weekend but I REALLY do not want to miss the Buffman & Squeaky on May 21st. However, more than that, I do not want to miss out on the rest of my season. I'm registered for the Buffalo Springs Half Iron on June 25th and the Oklahoma RedMan Iron distance on September 23rd.
Don't know why I need to learn so many of my lessons the hard way.
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