The weirdness of not running.

Today is Day 41 of No Running. That's one day shy of 6 weeks without a run. Just hanging out, resting and obsessing about my bum hip.

One would think, if one were to think about such things, that a hip would heal after resting for 41 days. One might further think that said hip would feel wonderfully ready to run and that the body attached to that hip would be raring to go. For a run, that is.

One would be wrong.

You see, there is a weirdness to this whole not running thing. Rest, when entered into voluntarily (as an important part of a training program) and/or with the promise of something good at the end (like a baby after not running while pregnant), is manageable and almost always rejuvenating. It doesn't mess with your head the way injury rest does mostly, I imagine, because it is controlled. When you decide to do something -- in this case, rest -- you control it, it doesn't control you.

True. Very true.
Thanks, ilovetorun.org!

Injury rest is a total control freak.

Injury rest doesn't let the runner decide when to get back to running. That decision lies solely with the injured body part. If the injured body part isn't healed in a week, a month, two months . . . well, honey, you can forget about running.

And that lack of control is more or less the crux of the weirdness of not running.

I can't stand it. I can't stand thinking about my hip and whether or not it is healing on schedule. I can't stand feeling like I am missing out. I can't stand worrying that I might not be able to run the marathon in October because, after all, I am still not able to run.

I'm pretty good about shaking those thoughts out of my head and accepting that right now I can't run but I will be back, stronger than ever.

What ifs, however, have been known to creep in to my otherwise tough mind. What if I still have pain next week? What if this swelling that refuses to go away is something bad? What if the doctor was rushed when he saw me, misread the MRI and was wrong in his diagnosis -- and I'm doomed to never run again?

I reason with myself: Then you'll rest for another week. Then you'll find a new treatment and deal with the swelling and it will go away. Then you'll hunt down that crazy triathlete doctor of yours and kick him in the shin.

Yeah, see, more weirdness.

Not running is weird and I can't wait to stop being such a weirdo. With any luck I'll be a little less weird in one week. One week to test run day -- I'm counting down the days!!

Have a great weekend, everyone. I'll be resting (as usual).

About the ankle.

As you may recall from my race report, I twisted my ankle around mile 5 of the half marathon. Since then, my ankle has swollen up and become a bit discolored. I've been resting and icing and compressing and elevating. Classic RICE going on here in Happy Runner-ville.

It seems to be working. Today, my ankle is noticeably less swollen. Yay!

My plan was to test out the ankle on an easy 3 mile run today. That's not happening. I went in for a nerve conduction velocity test and an EMG this morning and, wow, is my leg ever sore. The NCV test involves getting shocks on various places -- for me, it was mostly my left leg, and some on my right leg, low back and left arm. The lovely shocks were followed by electromyography -- EMG. That's when they stick needles into your muscles to test their response to nerve stimulation. Or something like that.

It hurt. The doctor said it wouldn't -- said, in fact, that it would feel like a "little, tiny zap of static electricity." Um, no. That was a lie. The whole thing was uncomfortable and the needles hurt. Now, my left leg still hurts so I'm bagging the test run.

Tomorrow is a new day and I believe that one more day of rest can only do me good.

So, where I thought I'd be able to report about my return to running, I'm reporting about my continued rest. Such is life.

Fingers crossed that I'll return to the run tomorrow.

Have a good day!

~ Felice

PS: Don't miss my giveaway HERE!

Readjustments. And August wrap-up.

Nothing like a blah run and a tight hip to throw you off your plan.

That's where I am today. Today, according to my training schedule for this week, is supposed to be some speedy 800s. Yeah, that's not happening. Instead, I'm taking today off and pushing my speed work to tomorrow. Then I'll do tomorrow's run on Friday and everything else will remain the same.

See, I went for a run yesterday and just didn't feel it. It wasn't a terrible run -- the weather, after all, was perfect -- but it just wasn't a smooth run. It was a let's-just-hurry-up-and-get-this-finished run. To top it off, my hip felt really tight when I got home. I treated my hip to a little tennis ball therapy and today it feels OK but I don't want to push it. Not with speed work on the schedule. I would like to be able to approach those 800s with strong legs. So, tomorrow it is.

I'm also readjusting my giveaway post. I don't have it for you today. It will go up tomorrow or Friday.

And now, my monthly wrap-up . . .

August stats

Running (miles): 78.2
Cross-training (sessions): 2

Two cross-training sessions. What a slacker! I've got to get back to that (maybe tonight . . . ). Although, when I think about it, all of the baseball and golf that I play with my son should probably count. Right???

My running, on the other hand, has been going well. I only ran 19 miles over the first two weeks of the month because of all of my traveling but picked it back up recently. And now that I have my new plan, I'm feeling serious. Seriously!

Well, that's it. I hope I don't have any more readjustments to report in the near future. But, it could (and probably will) happen.

~ Felice

And then we rest.

Rest, rest, rest.

What a day for rest. It's sunny and warm and I have nothing pressing going on. So, my legs will rest. No running today.

After Thursday's speedwork, my legs felt terrific all day Friday. Until I took them out for a run. Then they felt like lead. The lead legs forced me to slow down my pace, which was actually a really good thing. My recovery runs have been too fast in the past. Yesterday, my recovery run was completed at an on-target 9:21/mi pace. Yes!

Now, rest. I hit the farmers market with Conal this morning, but only after lounging around in our jammies for a good hour after waking. We came home for lunch and a tickle fest.

This rest will do me good.

Are you resting? Racing? Just taking it all in? Whatever you're up to, I hope you're having fun!

~ Felice