Alternatives to running
My slow return to running was going well. And then it wasn’t. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s just that my body isn’t ready to run again yet. I go back and forth all the time from frustration to acceptance. This morning, it’s acceptance.
I was running every other day and starting to feel decent. And then, pretty much out of nowhere, last Friday afternoon, I developed a sharp pain in my left inner hip/adductor and right lower abdomen. Saturday morning I was a bit hobbled. I’d committed to helping Brian Recore during EC100 last Saturday night so I pushed through 13 miles of pacing with him. (Not my smartest decision, I know. But I wanted to help a friend and it was a ton of fun.) After running that night, my legs didn’t feel great and I was mostly expecting to be totally crippled on Sunday and Monday. Thankfully, it didn’t get any worse, and actually the sharp pain was gone by Tuesday. Since then, I mostly just have a dull pull feeling in my abdomen and a bit of sharp pain in my low back – both on the right side. I think it’s my psoas and/or hip flexor. I’m working on regularly stretching both.
I haven’t run since pacing Brian and am actually not sure when I’ll try it again. At this point, there’s a big part of me considering just shutting it down for the near future and starting up again in 2015. That may be the course I have to take anyway, but that’s a topic for a different blog post.
So while I’m not getting the endorphins from running, I’m finding them in other places. And the main place I’ve been finding that this month is at the pool. I’m still not swimming a lot by swimmers’ standards, but my three swims per week is more than I’ve swam in years. From years of running in the mountains, I got used to stunning views while exercising. The view while swimming isn’t nearly as nice:
(not actually Culver City Plunge, but close enough)
But at least the pool is outdoors, so I’m still getting plenty of vitamin D. I feel really comfortable again in the water and am at the point where 1,600 meters is too short of a swim. I still haven’t swam more than 2,200 in a workout, but that 45-50 minute swim I’ve been doing feels great.
I’m also getting to the gym pretty regularly and doing two strength sessions each week (one intense with Ryan and one more moderate on my own – off to do that now, actually). I’m maintaining a friendship with the elliptical, though we’re not as close as we were when I was coming back from the achilles injury last month. I’m making an effort to get to yoga, but that’s not been happening too often.
Tuesday was Elizabeth’s birthday and we celebrated with a bunch of friends at a nearby bar. It was a great night. Here we are, all smiles with Billy:
