BACK TO BACKS.

Years ago, when I was running and training with a group, we often did back to back workouts. We might have an evening 5k or 10k race, and then meet again in the morning for a long slow run. I was always amazed at really how good that felt--after a hard run at night, a nice slow long run felt relaxing and was actually a good recovery workout.

But I'm not talking about back to back workouts. I'm talking about back to back trials here in the office. Its almost ridiculous how this happened, but suddenly I realized about mid-October what the end of the month and the beginning of the next month would be like--working 10 hour days most days, and constantly being in high gear.

Somewhat like training for a big race, where you do all your prep work (training) up to two weeks before the big event, the same thing happens in trial prep. Unlike training for a big race, where you taper the last 2 weeks before the big event, in trial prep you gear up more the last two weeks. Lucky for me I only have a small part in both of these, so that shows how much more is required of the attorneys. Everything is so technical now in court also that you have to get the techies on board to work along with you, and that's not always an easy task. They have a totally different idea of what "I need it now" means. The usual no help from the helpless desk.

Anyway, such has been my life the last few weeks, changing my running plans for the next month now. Which actually might be a good thing since this hip thing is really getting to be a nuisance and a mystery at the same time. I suspect its a tight hip flexor muscle, but none of my usual therapies are working.

Saturday, after the deluge of rain stopped, it cleared up enough for me to consider getting outside. It was brisk and partly sunny, requiring me to bundle up a little more than usual. But it felt good to be outside again after spending all week inside or not doing anything but working. The plan was to just do my 3 mile loop, and if all went well to go longer on Sunday.

All did not go well. It started out okay however. I have 3 checkpoints on this route, where I check my time to see how I'm doing: if I hit my average times, I feel okay with that. If I'm slower, I know I'm not ready to be running. And if I'm faster, then woo hoo, I'll take that. I was only slightly faster than average so felt okay with that. I was having no hip tightness or pain. There was one scary moment when I saw something dangling from a tree and realized it was a huge spider dropping down from its web! It was Halloween horror, for sure.

All I could imagine was what if I'd been running in the dark like usual through here??? It would have gotten in my hair!! Shudder.

But I was still good on time at the next checkpoint and was really enjoying the day, especially since the all day rain predicted was not happening.

Right around 2 miles it happened--suddenly that hip flexor muscle tightened right up, almost like a vice grip, and I had to stop and start walking. Then it was sore and stiff and I ended up walking the rest of the way home. I could not run any more. I was actually limping somewhat and off balance. Using the foam roller when I got home was excruciating, actually taking my breath away, making it impossible for me to tolerate that torture for only a few minutes. Then I iced.

It was sore all day, achey sore, and Sunday I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and it was fine. Today I did a spin class and it was fine. So I have to figure this thing out. I do not want to have to stop running for any length of time and rebuild my base--again--but I may have to take a week or so off. Any ideas will be welcome, but I've probably tried everything!

Hope everyone had great weekends!