Overcoming Injuries... And Easing Back Into It.

Everything was going great. Until August 17th. Taste of Tierrasanta. Too much to drink. Too many old people dancing to an awesomely cheezy cover band egging me on to dance. Somehow (my memory is a little fuzzy here) I threw out my hip really bad. I couldn't walk strait. Needed to lean on a wall or handrail to walk up stairs. It was really bad. So I had to let it heal for a week. Almost there, and I twisted my ankle which twisted my hip out again. Back to square one. Another week of healing, good to go. Ok finally going to get running again. End of August, I aim for a 3 mile run. On mile 2 my hip goes out on me. Then I have to walk home, likely further injuring myself. Ok I'm starting to learn my lesson. I wait until it feels ok to walk - about a week and a half. Lots of stretching throughout the day. I realize now I will have to slowly incorporate exercise at all, so I start with a nearly 1 mile walk. Frustrated that I can only walk a mile and my hip feels swollen and hot but try to feel encouraged that I couldn't walk without pain just a week before. Continue to stretch, and walk a little more each day. Throw in a little bit of jogging after a walking warm up. Start jogging for more of the distance while simultaneously adding length to the workout. Lots of stretching, and leg strengthening exercises, and paying a lot of attention to how my hip feels. Yesterday I was able to run 4.25 miles. Sweet! I'm not quite as far behind as I thought I would be since I've been able to add miles faster than I thought I would. Today is supposed to be a 5 mile run and I'll have to take a break since I ran the last 3 days. Sunday is supposed to be my long run which should be up to 7 miles. But as long as I don't have any re-injuries I should be able to add miles enough to catch up in my training schedule by race day.