Sad to say my comeback to running lasted a whole 2 weeks. I have never had an unsucessful restart to running!! Did I do something wrong?? No, but my “complicated” body (as it’s been called many times), just freaked out a bit now running with a left SI joint moving correctly, and muscles that were weak now strong-just didn’t know what to do except set off a chain reaction.

So, here’s the rundown…Sunday, now 4 weeks ago, I set out on a run from my house (a route I will never ever do again since the last 2 times something bad has happened), and about 25 minutes into the run going down a hill there was a little “pop” in my left hip area-not huge, and I thought maybe something moved into place? Stretched a bit, tried again, and nope-something moved OUT of place. So, on this cool drizzly morning, nothing to do but turn and walk home.
Thankfully I hadn’t been walking too long and one of our neighbors drove by and saw me, and he turned around, stopped and asked if I wanted a ride home. I gratefully said yes. He said “I saw you walking and I figured you should have been running” That’s right-but should have went right out the window.

Since then it’s been another whilrwind of seeing the people who take VERY good care of me: massage therapist, Physical therapist and chiropractor. The good thing is no one could find anything “wrong”, but they also couldn’t find cause of the “pop” and subsequent non-running days again. We have found lots of very tight places” glutes, adductor, TFL, piriformis, and all those tiny little deep muscles under the glute max. My goodness how can one area have so many little strong muscles?!
These areas have been massaged, dry needled, adjusted-and it all helps, but only for a little while

Meanwhile, I am cycling-a good bit-at least now the weather in gorgeous for lots of riding…swimming and water running. But, something is still missing.
Earlier this week, Eileen (massage), suggested ligament versus muscle. Coincidentally, at the same time, super coach ML suggested the same thing. Ligaments can “pop”, and we’re sure they have been strained and are adjusting to my new/proper bone structure. So, how do we fix it (was my next question)?

Just to be on the safe side, made a trip to my orthopedist yesterday just to make sure bones were cool. I figured I couldn’t have done damage in 2 weeks of running but who knows!
Bones look fine-and so does all the hardware in my left hip (a rod and 6 pins). My doc didn’t see anything hiding, and it is most likely strain of ligament or tendon-again, so many small ones in there. He also said as he commented that the pins look fine “I am surprised you haven’t had more problems like this with all the pins in there”. I said “give it time”.

I have been saying many prayers for healing/answers/direction, and got a HUGE answer Wednesday night while listening to the Rev 3 Radio Blog. Heather Gollnick mentionned the treatment facility she went to last week while in Altanta and how much they helped when nothing else did. So, we immediately googled this place, and I have an appointment this Monday to see the doc Heather saw!! Fresh eyes, fresh perspective-can’t hurt.

Where does this leave me for my season and racing?? Can’t say. In a long talk with ML Wednesday, he did make a point to say when I do start runnning again I have to start from scratch-as if I haven’t run before. Man that’s tough-forget what my body knows and wants to do-but he’s right.
I will run when it’s time to run. In the meantime, it does make me sad, and frustrated, and angry, but I try not to dwell on these things-it will all work out for the best in the end, and through it I am learning even more about how the body works!

Ths obviously gives me more time to ride my 2 new TOTALLY AWESOME KESTREL BIKES (yippee!!!), I will also be working hard continuing to promote my wonderful sponsors!! Part of me feels very guilty about all of this, but it’s just something that happened. I am so blessed to have the sponsors and support of such a cool team!! Can’t say thank you enough to Trakkers. Kestrel, Saucony, First Endurance, TriSwim, All 3 Sports, and Rev 3!!!
I will be in Knoxville to cheer everyone on and see the big Pro “showdown”. We all know who’s going to win that one :)

I also have to say a huge Thank You to few who have really given me so much support through not be best few months: my amazing coach ML, Eileen-best massage therapist and even better friend-these 2 people have allowed me to vent, cry, scream whenever I need to; Trigirl Pink-my awesome Trakkers Teammate-we have discovered we have LOTS on common, and who is going to come back stronger than ever herself!! And the biggest thanks to Cris-I haven’t been the easiest person to live with some days these past 4 months, but I know how much you want us to get back to Hawaii so that’s incentive to grin and bare it :)