3 deep breaths

Happy November to you!

This is kind of a cRaZy month for me as I have lots of traveling going on.  This makes me VERY nervous as far as my training goes since I will be missing 3 Saturdays of long runs with my running group.  That statement alone is kinda funny considering I'm soooo much slower than the rest of my team that I'm basically running solo save for the turn around of each mapped out run when we pass each other, but even those few words of encouragement and our little team camaraderie before we begin go along way, you know?!  I will, of course, run the same mileage they are just in a different cities and sometimes on different days.  I should flip it for the positive by way of saying what an adventure it will be to run in Chicago and Orlando instead of Houston!

I also wonder whether or not I will be able to join them this Saturday.  I'm still nursing this strange injury from my half marathon (that wasn't) from October 24th.  I know I never went into much detail of what happened with that whole thing, so here it goes.  As I was running, I started feeling a tightness in my left hamstring prior to seeing my family somewhere just after mile 3.  I remember running past them telling them "the hills are killing me" and knowing I was referring to my hamstring.  When I finished the run, I was feeling sore in my thighs and my left side from the back of my hip to my hamstring - kind of the sciatic area.  The weird thing is that I ALWAYS have total runner's knee on both my left and right legs, but this run I did not.  I attributed it to my new properly fitted shoes (you know...the ones I probably shouldn't have run in, but I did cuz I'm such a rebel).  So after the race, we went to lunch and when I got up from the table I totally had a hard time walking, but not with stiff legs as would be expected, but it was with this whole problem going on with the left side of me.  On Monday, my father made fun of me calling me "Chester" from the tv show "Gun Smoke" only the reference was lost on me cuz I had never seen it.  I made an appointment for a massage and immediately Sarah (with her magic torturous touch) was able to break apart some knots that had developed in my gluttish (probably not a word, but bear with me here) area.  The rest of the week, I did all the things you are supposed to do to heal an injury.  I tried to run on Wednesday, but it was an epic fail.  Then came Saturday and as I mentioned - I did 7 of the scheduled 12 miles and then felt crippled (even limped) the rest of the day.  The pain had moved to most of my upper left leg (as in all the way around).  On Sunday, after an Epsom salt bath, it was back to just the hamstring.  I'm perplexed.  My coach told me REST it.  He said I might not be able to run all week.  He said I might not be there next Saturday.  My biggest fear is getting behind.  He tells me not to worry - that the worst thing I can do is further injure myself by running injured.  I'm a worry wart.  It's what I do.

My mom would ask "how's that working for you?"  It's not.  It makes me feel sick.  It probably prevents me from getting better.  My mom would say "when you always do what you have always done, then you are always going to get what you have always gotten."  I know she's right.  I hate that, by the way.  3 deep breaths.  It's going to be okay.

Anyway...I spent 3 months dealing with a hip injury at the beginning of this journey and that didn't stop me - if anything, it made me even more determined.  I am going to get through this.  I am.  If anything, it's an exercise on patience - a virtue that has been lost on me in the past and something I really need to work on.  Sometimes my stubbornness is a good thing - it means I don't give up even when it appears the cards are stacked against me.