This week brought a comeback, and then a setback.

October 5, 2019, will mark two years since I had surgery to repair a labral tear in my right hip. I am in the process of writing a longer post about this procedure and the lengthy recovery, but it was an extremely emotional process for me. More than once, I feared that I would never be able run again, let alone do another marathon. Thankfully, though, about a year ago, I finally regained my strength and slowly returned to running, and by the time the Twin Cities Marathon registration open, I had completely recovered, and my body felt ready to go through another marathon cycle.

I trained for and raced a spring half marathon and then entered into marathon. In most training cycles, I’ve usually taken two rest days per week, but I stepped it down to one and slowly increased my weekly mileage and added two high effort workouts with a long run into my schedule. For the first 10 weeks, my hip felt great. I hadn’t had any pain in months, and I started to believe that I could get through this cycle without any issues at all.

In addition to running, I often ride my bike to work, which is about 10 miles roundtrip. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a slight nudge in my right hip. It wasn’t painful, but it didn’t feel great either. Rather, it was familiar. The sensation wasn’t there when I was running, or after, so I decided to take a break from biking (also because I was tired of dodging careless drivers) thinking the combination of activities was becoming a bit much for the hip.

Coming off last week’s 50 miles, I was eager to post another high mileage week, before cutting back. The first run of the week was six tempo miles with a warm up and cool down. I started dreading the run nearly 24 hours before the workout, but I saw this as an opportunity to bring some speed on tired legs. Despite the slog to get out the door, it was a great run. My miles got progressively faster, and I hit my desired paces. I felt strong and reassured that my body was stronger and healthier than ever.

That afternoon, though, the nudge in my hip was back, and this time it was painful. Not throbbing or wrenching painful, but enough discomfort to cause me pause. Fatigue kept me in bed when my alarm when off the next morning, and I decided to move my rest day from Wednesday to Tuesday, but by mid-day I was fine and eager to run. The scheduled called for seven recovery miles, so I decided to run commute from therapy to work. I promised my husband that if my hip hurt, I would take a bus the rest of the way. I don’t run commute that much, mostly because I hate running with a back pack, but this was pleasant. The extra load on my back kept my pace nice and easy, and I took water breaks as I needed them. My hip tightened up in the first mile but relaxed after that and I didn’t feel it again for the seven-mile run.

At work, it was a different story. My hip tugged when climbing up and down the stairs, sitting and standing, and bending over to pick up boxes. Again, it wasn’t a sharp pain, but the rest day to foam roll, ice, and soak in Epsom salts helped. I even busted out my old physical therapy exercises and stayed off my feet most of the day. I did everything I could think of to get ready for the next day’s work out – 18 miles.

On Sunday, my husband and I left for a week-long road trip west to visit family, so because of travel and a full shift on Saturday, I moved my long run to Thursday. It wasn’t ideal, knowing that I probably wouldn’t find anyone to do that long of a run with me mid-week, but it was what I had to do in order to get it in. And, this was a monumental run for me because I haven’t gone this far since the 2015 Chicago Marathon. Here is the point in the training cycle when I get into the real long distances, when I really have to work on my mental game and reassure myself of what my body is capable of.

Going into the run, I had no expectations. It was going to be hot and humid and three hours is a long time to be out there. I brought my CTA pass with me and vowed to myself that I would abandon the run if I felt any hip pain at all. I’ve normally been trying to keep my long runs at a 9:30 pace, but for this run, I had to give myself the permission to let go of gals and just run, letting my body be the ultimate guide.

Once, I saw someone post about how awful 18 milers are, and for whatever reason, I’ve adopted that attitude. I can have a great 20 miler but a disgusting 18. Because my goal was just to get through this, for whatever reason, the mental trudge wasn’t there. For most of the run, I kept my Garmin on watch mode and didn’t care too much about pace. It was a gorgeous morning, and I was mostly just enjoying being on the Lakefront Path. It was a steady and strong run, and my hip was perfect. I never had to use the CTA pass.

Before my surgery, it was hard to tell how bad the pain was because it rarely hurt while running. I felt it biking and doing yoga, but not during running. The pain usually came after. That’s what happened this week. I ran for three hours without noticing my hip, but several hours later, I felt it.

The next day, it was a bit worse after my recovery. On Saturday morning, I was hoping to do eight miles with my neighborhood running group. A little voice in my head told me, that because I could feel the pain while sleeping, maybe I should take the day off. Still, when my alarm went off, I got dressed like I was going to run but unsure if I would. I stood in my kitchen, feeling the nagging in my hip, and understood that this was my chance to train smart and actually work with my body. I decided to call it, and instead, I did PT exercises and foam rolled.

Not running, especially on Saturday, was devastating. I was extremely upset about having to miss my first workout of this training cycle, and I had to give myself a few pep talks to get back to a mentally sound place. It sucked, and I was sad, but I could also understand that the break was necessary. Instead of letting myself panic about how missing one workout could derail my training, I tried to focus on how the rest could boost it. In reality, this entire week was filled with mornings when I didn’t want to run, and maybe a few rest days would actually do me good.

I am to susceptible to my external world and comparing myself to others is practically a part-time job for me. After I made my decision, I wanted to browse Strava and punish myself by looking at all the great workouts that others did, and I did for a while, but then I had to take a break. To stay mentally sound, I had to remind myself over and over that I was on my own journey, and that means taking a few days off to calm an old hip injury.

The day off, in addition to foam rolling, massages, ibuprofen, Epson salt baths, and icing helped, and the pain dulled. I ran a bit on Sunday to test it, and it wasn’t totally back to normal but it also wasn’t excruciating.  

The pain is still present, but less so. I think I became too complacent with strength workouts and recovery, so moving forward I will keeping doing PT exercises, along with core work, and making stretching and rolling a priority. I am confident that if I am more intentional the hip issues should fade away. If there is still pain by the time I return from vacation, I will consult a doctor, but I really don’t expect that.

So, this week I had to take more rest, and it was a somewhat setback to my training, but I also ran 18 miles for the first time in four years. It wasn’t the week I was hoping for, but that’s part of the process, and if I can’t take the ebbs and flows of marathon training, then I shouldn’t be training. This is all part of it, and I am still here, listening to and understanding my body, and moving forward, whatever that looks like.

Weeks to Marathon: Eight

Miles: 43

Goals: I wanted to build my mileage, but that changed with the hip issues. The goal was to listen to my body and change plans when needed.

Monday: Progressive Tempo – 10 miles – With a 2 mile warm up and cool down, the goal was to start temp miles at 9:00 and move down 15 seconds every two miles. I kind of figured this might not happen, but I nailed.

Tuesday: Recovery Run – 7 miles – Lovely run commute.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Long Run – 18 miles – Amazing. Felt Great.

Friday: Recovery Run – 5 miles – Slow but good.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Easy – 3 miles – Wanted to test the waters, hip seemed to ache a bit but in a different way than before.

Next week’s goal: I am traveling, and already had intentions of cutting back, so my goal is to run as I can. No speed this week, just easy miles. I am looking forward to running to the finish line of the marathon, retracing my old cross country routes while in my hometown, and then doing a little altitude training in Colorado. Again, my body will be my guide so I will do what I am able. No expectations, just fun.