Relapse

Tuesday it was 70 degrees, sunny, class got canceled, and I just got my Garmin back. A million reasons to go ride 10 miles, so I did, just like several times before.

Got out there, kept it easy.

An unfriendly dog started chasing me.

Sprinted to get away.

Now my knee hurts.

See you homies in a while...

Frustrated

A few months ago Chuckie V had a post classifying individuals based on two properties: motivation and ability. The four categories and their results are, essentially, as follows:

1. Ability and motivation = champion
2. Ability but no motivation = frustrated coach
3. No ability but high motivation = frustrated athlete
4. No ability and no motivation = couch potatoes, smokers, alcoholics, etc

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I fall into category three lately. Motivated as hell, but my body just doesn't cooperate. Now, I'm not saying I lack talent. I know I have talent when it comes to running and even biking and swimming are shaping up recently. However during the last seven months, I've been injured for five of them.

This = frustrated athlete.

Big time.

Especially right now with spring coming around. We're having days where its 60 degrees and sunny. All the fair weather runners are even coming out, and I can't take advantage of it. I'm glad they're out there, I like seeing healthy people do what they enjoy, but to say I'm not jealous would be a flat out lie.

Lately, my knee has been shaping up a little bit. It's feeling halfway like a normal knee. This week I was going to start swimming without the pull buoy again, just to test things out before I go and pound my knee on the pavement.

Except, I couldn't.

I woke up Tuesday with a sore shoulder. It hurt pretty bad to lift my arm so my elbow is above my shoulder, kind of like a tendon is rubbing on a bone during the motion. I was hoping for it to heal up quick, but apparently my body isn't into that in 2008.

So right now, I'm flat out gimped. Can't run. Can't bike. Can't swim.

I swear, I'll be consistently upbeat again someday. Eventually. Until then, someone's gotta go run for me. Go get 'em Nancy.

Weekly Recap 03/03/08 - 03/09/08

Monday: Bike in the morning

Tuesday: Run in the morning. Knee was very vocal afterwards. Swimming hurts my knee, so I water ran in the evening.

Wednesday: Nothing.

Thursday: Water run.

Friday: Nothing

Saturday: Nothing

Sunday: Even water running is hurting my knee. Going back to ART guy tomorrow.

Total bike: something insignificant
Total run: something insignificant
Total swim: none

---------------------------------

Can't run. Can't bike. Can't swim. Can't water run.

I hate quitting endorphins cold turkey.

I'm glad your week was better than mine.

Computer Scientists make me sick

Today I was going to post something about half marathons for Runner's Lounge, but I've opted out. I feel like crap. You will find very little insight on running in this post.

Computer Scientists make me sick. Literally.

I'm becoming convinced that the average student in my department is sick a strong majority of the time. There is rarely a day in class when half the class isn't coughing, sneezing, gagging, or making a miserable moaning "please pity me!" noise.

Why are they sick? I know why. It's because they ran in the rain. It has nothing to do with:

• The fact that they'll only eat a stick of gum up until dinner time
• The majority of their exercise coming from pressing the 2nd floor button in the elevator
• The 4-5 hours of sleep they claim to get every night

Being around them every day has finally started to take a toll on me. I don't think I'm sick, yet, but my energy is getting sapped, which really made tonight's swim suck.

My coach kept telling me everything I was doing wrong, but for once I really didn't care. I was counting my strokes, I knew it was taking me 4-5 more to get across the pool. I just wanted to get to the 3/4 of a mile I promised myself I would do. I made it, but I wasn't happy about it. You might even say I was anti-happy.

Sorry for being a downer. It happens sometimes. Hopefully I'll feel better after clonking out for 10+ hours. For once I'm looking forward to taking full advantage of my rest day.

Why I Ran

We all have the reasons we run. It is a common blogging topic, its fun to talk about. However for me it is more in the past tense lately. I can barely call myself a runner anymore, my running has completely collapsed. Maybe I was too relentless. I've decided to become more relenting.

A big reason I've always enjoyed running is because it makes my body work better. I feel healthier. If I'm running late for something, I can run there and not be out of breathe. If its raining and some friends want to run wherever we're going, one of them will turn it into a race, then I'll kick their butts and make it look easy.

But lately, this is not the case. For the past two months I have been babying this hip. I can't run across the street to catch a break in traffic. If I'm running late, then I'm late. I can't hurry, I'll hurt my hip. Running is having the opposite effect of what it used to.

I also love the aspect of running that hard work pays off. You can go out for a run, it might hurt when you're doing it, but you feel like a champ later. I conquered the elements. I beat that side stitch. I tackled that hill. I beat myself from last week. Then the endorphins kick in and I'm on top of the world.

But now theres another stage, that always occurs after I'm on top of the world. My hip starts hurting again. Every time. Without fail. And it never hurts until I'm feeling on top of the world. It waits, patiently, until I'm built up before it brings me crashing down. This, also, is the opposite of what running should be. I feel good during, and bad afterwards. Its like alcohol. You have fun one day, then pay for it the next. It doesn't follow the reasons I enjoy running.

I'm completely frustrated with this cycle of running, feeling optimistic about my hip, then crashing down. I'm done with it for a while. I've proven time and time again a week off is not enough for my hip to heal up. Maybe it needs two weeks, three, four? I don't know. Nobody does.

Right now I feel as if A.R.T. is only treating the effect of some elusive cause. Even when my hip doesn't hurt, it feels off. I can't explain it. If you've ever broken a bone, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It more than hurts. Something just doesn't feel right. After my extremely restful weekend, it still feels off. There isn't really any pain, maybe a little when walking up hills, but thats mostly subsided. Although, I can guarantee you if I go out for a run, it is going to flare up. Something is mechanically wrong.

I'm strongly considering finding someone new to look at my hip. Nothing against Mike, but I want someone else to wrap their brain around it. Maybe a new perspective on it is just what is needed.

If anybody has suggestions, I'm open to them. As long as they don't involve running. I'm officially on break.

At least there wasn't a line...

The roller coaster that is my life continues, but, as the title says, at least there isn't a line!

I woke up this morning with a little kink in my hip again. Nothing huge, but it was noticeable. Then on the way to class, my left IT band really started tightening up -- thats one I haven't had happen yet in this round of injury. At least its mixing things up and making it interesting?

I got the test I "rocked" back this morning too. I sort of, um, didn't rock it. Nobody did. High score: 127/200, average score 77/200. I fell somewhere between those two numbers, but at least I was above average, I guess? This morning left me in a pretty sour mood.

During my appointment today we got the kink worked out, at least. Mike said he could feel a really small knot in the muscles around my hip, about the size of a pea, but that sucker sure hurt like hell! Afterwards I feel good, nothing has hurt much since. One spot is sore to the touch, but movement doesn't hurt it at all.

The game plan right now is to go for a short run in the morning, a one hour massage in the evening, and another round with Mike on Friday. I might take the weekend off running, but I'm indecisive about it at the moment; we'll see how I feel after the next two days.

One of these days I'm going to go out looking for a foam roller to help out these legs of mine. I looked for one at Walmart the other day, but couldn't find them. Where can I find them at?

Theres been a few comments about joggling, too, after my last post. Um, no! Or as Marcy would say: ROFLMAOLOLHAHAHA, no!

Lets hope tomorrow is an up day on this roller coaster ride!

Roller Coaster Ride

This post has the opposite tone of yesterdays. Welcome to the roller coaster that is my life.

After my run yesterday, I felt great. Hours later, though, my hip started hurting again. Nothing bad, but present. Today is more of the same. It isn't really painful, but there is discomfort. Running on it will just do damage.

Yesterday I was pumped up that I was ready to go. Today I'm back in a hole just hoping I can run a few times before the race. I was looking forward to my run today, and until 10 minutes ago had every intention to go out for a few miles. But a few miles isn't going to give me much benefit at all, especially if its tearing my hip apart.

I'm taking today completely off. No running. No exercise bike. Just me and my homework.

Blah.

Frustrated

When I woke up this morning my hip was feeling pretty good. I had a different pain that, in my lack of an equally accurate word, was in my left butt cheek. Since it wasn't a pain associated with a joint, I decided a run would be a good idea; and it felt great to get out there!

The weather this morning was around 55 degrees, which is a rare treat after this summer. My hip never had a horrible pain during the run, but a very dull pain was present. One rather strange detail is that when I run faster, it hurts less. The only explanation I can think of is that when I run slower, I could be putting some of my energy into vertical motion which results in landing harder on my hip. When I go faster, more energy goes into horizontal motion so there is less up and down pounding. Anybody have other ideas?

Immediately after my run, my hip wasn't feeling pleasant. I stretched, iced, and massaged it as soon as I was done. Right now, it feels worlds better than it did a few hours ago; it isn't painful but I can tell it isn't exactly appreciating the 4 miles. I'm hoping putting it in motion at least loosened it up a little bit, but that could be dumb of me.

Tomorrow is going to be played by ear. If it feels absolutely amazing in the morning I will go out for another run. Otherwise I'm going to hit the demon-spawned exercise bike for 90 minutes in place of my step back long run. Yeah. 90 minutes. I better get some really good music on my iPod.

This hip problem is getting very, very frustrating. If it persists much longer I'm going to just call it a 4 week taper before the marathon and hope it works on race day, then still functions well enough to drag myself onto the plane to get back to school.