Ready to Run

My Garmin says my last run was August 4th.

Huh?

I know that was the weekend I decided to give up on my marathon, relax a little more this summer, and relished the sleep in on Saturday...and Sunday.  I know I spent 4 days of the following week on the road for work and though I wasn't running, I was running around like a crazy person getting ready for our trip.  Then there were those two weeks of vacationing, which included a lot of hiking, but not a lot of running besides from the camper to the drop toilets in the middle of the night.  Then there were 3 days in Whitehorse for work, where I tried to do about 2 weeks of work in 3 days.  And then...

Well, then I procrastinated.  I knew it had been long enough since my last good run, that my next run was not going to be a good one.  I was using every available excuse:  the weather, time, upset stomach, not drinking enough water, tiredness, coming down with a cold, hip pain...

Wait.

What?

How do you get a running injury when you haven't been running?

It started a few days into the trip to Alaska.  Not pain, really, but tightness.  A feeling.  I thought maybe I was just stiff from sitting in the car, but on a couple of our hikes that feeling kicked in a little more.  I went back to doing the physio exercises I was given back in February while we were on the road and I lacked internet to figure out anything else, but this is a different spot.

Today I was dying to get out to run (enough is enough), and though I should know better than to run through pain, I'd pretty well convinced myself that maybe running would make this pain go away, since it started when I wasn't running.  You get my logic, right?  Besides, it wasn't really pain.  It was a feeling.

I went at a comfortable pace and set my Garmin to 5 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking.  I didn't look at my pace at all, because I didn't want to push myself.  I just wanted to stay in a nice, comfortable zone on a nice, flat, 5K loop.

I could feel my hip throughout, and by about half way through, I could also feel my knee.  Not sharp pain, but not right, either.  Once I got home, I stretched well, but by part way through this afternoon, I could still feel my hip, even when I was sitting at my desk.

I tried to take pictures with my iPhone to show you where and how it hurts until I can get into physio, but they turned out like this:

When I lift my leg this high, the "feeling" kicks in right around the side of my pocket
(Ignore the mess in the background)

When I lift my leg as if to march on the spot, the "feeling" hits around this height, right at the bend of my hip, at the flexor

Ok, so really not very useful photos, but I thought they were funny. 

My mind is ready for running, but my body might need a little more convincing.  Foam rolling tonight and heading to the gym tomorrow to see what the eliptical and bike feel like....