Bah Hum Bug

[Crickets chirping]

Sorry for my absence but I hate writing when I'm crabby, and crabby I have been.  After my long run on Sunday, my left hip ended up hurting a lot.  And I was annoyed.  It's a weird sort of pain because it's not pain per se but a random dull ache.  I had to take some ibuprofen to get it to shut up so I could sleep on Sunday.  GRRR!

Luckily Monday was an off day, since I tend to chill the day after long runs to let my body recover.  I
did my ab workout (yay for me for being back on track with Operation: Alba Abs btw) and decided to try Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred.  I know everyone and their dog has done this workout already, but it was my first.  I stuck with the Level 1 because I'm not much of a strength trainer.  As you may remember from my new years resolutions, one of them was to strength train once this year.  That's how ambitious that is. ;)  I actually really enjoyed the workout.  For anyone who hasn't done it (and yes, I hope that rock you live under is everything you hoped it would be) there are 3 Levels of 20 minute workouts.  Each 20 minute workout consists of 3 minutes of strength training + 2 minutes of cardio + 1 minute abs x 3.  Yes, I realize that equals 18 minutes.  I imagine they're counting the warm up and cooldown to get the 20 minutes.

I was actually pretty impressed by how well Level 1 got my heart rate up.  I would imagine this would be a tough workout for someone who's not in very good shape.  And I can only imagine what Level 2 & 3 are like.  Since I don't strength train (as we've established) I don't have weights, so I used water bottles.  It actually worked perfect.  My co-worker said she did it with 5 lb weights and almost died.

Tuesday I decided to do an easy run instead of the speedwork I had planned.  The weather was gorgeous.  It has been so rainy and cruddy out, that I was literally driving home from work all smily and excited to run.  It didn't take too long for the smile to wipe off my face.  Holy hellacious run.  First of all, I ate crap all day Tuesday.  We had a potluck at work, so of course I ate garbage.  Ugh.  My hips didn't hurt, but they didn't feel awesome either.  They felt stiff and I know my stride was short and choppy because of it.  I kept the pace slow deliberately but many times throughout the run I almost convinced myself to stop and just walk home.

During the run, I decided that on Saturday I would not be running the one mile race :'( and would only be doing the 5k.  I was so excited to do the one mile, but I know that speed work has been a contributing factor in my hip problems, and there's no use hurting myself in the mile and not even getting to try the 5k.  I also decided I'd be taking the rest of the week off and hoping for the best on Saturday.

I did 6 miles in 58:18 for a pace of 9:43.

In more exciting news, I got to attend one of our local baseball team's games after the craptastic run.  I have now watched more Canaries Pheasants baseball this season than every other season combined (with two viewings this year, ha).  Dedicated fan fo sho. ;)  I'm also close to breaking my record for total games seen of any baseball team in my lifetime.  So there's that.  I would have a bunch of super sweet pictures, but apparently some folks are anti-photos.  I seriously need to start hanging with people that aren't so lame.  Heh heh...just kidding.... kind of.

I had a small epiphany this evening while doing a life changing yoga podcast for runners.  I've been so bummed out about not being able to run to my potential because of my hips, but it's not the end of the world (insert duh here).  But honestly, I didn't get hurt during marathon training.  I didn't get injured while running a marathon.  Having some fairly minor hip problems post-marathon while training for some "for fun" 5ks is not the end of the world.  If I have to stop training for the next 3 weeks and only race on Saturdays (yes I have races for the next 3 Saturdays), it won't kill me.  My next primary race isn't until mid-September which gives me PLENTY of time to get healthy and get fast. ;)  So peace out funky attitude.

And so I will leave you with some funny convos from a family lunch from this weekend.  1st my Dad and I sitting on the couch.

Me:  Dad check out my gross toenails!
Dad:  Yeah, your mom had mentioned that you were "losing some of them"?  Is that normal?  Have you talked to other people about that?  That's seriously something that happens to runners?  And they'll be ok?  And they just "fall off"?  Huh.......
Me:  Yup.

Gotta love the super protective Dad, right?

And later on, my Mom was asking me questions about my love life, because she likes to be nosy like that.  She was asking about some ex's and where I was at with them in terms of being friends/still hanging out/cutting them out of my life etc.  She brought up a certain ex, whom I said I wasn't sure if we were going to be friends or not, expressing her distaste in him based on the demise of the relationship and my Grandma piped up with, "They never pick the ones you want them to end up with!"

To which my Dad and Uncle just started cracking up because apparently she wasn't super fond of my Dad in the beginning.  I swear I had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard.  Grandma's flexible (and must have flexible hips too!)....she can put her foot in her mouth quite easily. ;)