you have to learn to walk before you run

I’ve been doing a fitness program for the last 7 weeks and I am proud to say I’ve religiously attended my workouts 3 times a week at 6 … yes, that would be 6 am. I am feeling that I’m getting stronger and about 3-4 weeks ago I felt like running, so I started running again.

I talked to a friend and decided we would aim to run a 5K in May so after a few days of running after my bike ride home, we went out for a 2 mile run around the lake. It felt good… except for the last bit of it. My hip started acting up. This a recurring problem I’ve had for a long time, partly a result of a couple of accidents where I landed right on that hip.

The next day I went to my workout and it turned out that the plan was to run… so my hip problem extended to my knee and to my foot. It sucks. Anyway, I decided to shell the money to get it dealt with before it got worse so I started seeing a chiropractor/sports medicine doctor that has been adjusting me and giving me physical therapy. Again, it sucks.  It is still bugging me and after not quite following his instructions and working out and running until it started hurting for two weeks he had a serious talk with me and told me I can’t run until my hip (and knee) heal. So now I am trying to do other things to continue the conditioning without aggravating the hip but it is not quite working. The truth is the bike riding is not helping and even swimming made it a bit worse.

It is really frustrating to actually feel like excersing, to feel like running and not being able to do it because it will make things worse. I feel like a wimp although I know I am not. The doc keeps telling that all athlets, like me, have these problems and that I just have to work with my body, let it recup, find other ways to excercise while I can’t run.

Tomorrow I’m going to try an elliptical machine and hope that that works. I really, really want this to work. I want to feel good, I want to work hard and increase my endurance and be ready to start running again so that I can do that 5K.  I know it’s not a lot but it is big for me.

I’ve always liked to be active but it doesn’t always come naturally. I have to push myself to get in to the habit of really excersicing. For the last year and a half I’ve been commuting by bike. It’s not a huge ride (3 miles 2x/day) so I finally decided to join this 12 week fitness program to increase my physical activity. I’ve been working hard to get stronger and I don’t want to loose the momentum. I want to continue the pattern that I have established in the last few weeks. I feel so much better both physically and mentally. It does wonders for my confidence to feel that I’m taking care of myself but I guess that I have to accept that right now, taking care of myself means protecting my fucked up hip but it’s not easy to have to walk when you feel like running.