hip

Another successful Rick Run is in the books.  Besides myself there were 9 people that participated in Rick's memorial run this past Saturday.

Mark L, Cris S, John N, my cousin Justin and his bro in law Marc G were at the start at 515.  We all did the 10 mile loop together in exactly 2hrs (a bit faster than I planned on).  Shan was arriving a little later than planned so Cris and John and I made a quick call to do the 3 mile Lamar loop.   It ended up being perfect timing because right when were done and walking up to our cars Shan was walking down the road looking for us.

After replenishing and  regrouping Shan and John and I took off on the 7 mile I-35 loop (all loops I'm referring to are based on the Mopac footbridge).   We ran together for approximately half of the loop and at that point I was slowing down significantly so Shan and John continued on.  With less than 100yds to go I came upon Shan and Linda R coming my way and we stopped to catch up for a minute.  They were headed out on two 7 mile loops and they reported Misty and Jennifer had just arrived!

Upon seeing Misty she kicked into crew mode and asked me what I needed and how I was feeling.  I got my lawn chair out and sat down to munch on one of the bean, guacamole and potato tacos and regroup a little.  At this point I was feeling pretty good but was discovering the hard way that my new shoes that I've been very happy with are a half size to small.  My 3rd toe on both my feet are as long, possibly a little longer than my 2nd toe and big toe.  This usually isn't a problem but these new shoes are cut in a pretty drastic angle from the big toe to the little toe.  What's crazy about that is that as I'm discovering the shoes are too small I'm going over the 100 mile mark in them.  I've done several 10 mile runs in them too.  You'd think this problem would have surfaced before now.  And, I suspect the outside/ plantar issue I'm having is due to these new shoes too.  I've got some miles yet to put on my newer pair of Torin so I'm gonna switch back to those this week and see how they feel.

The 3 of us took off walking together heading west to the Mopac footbridge and walked approximately a mile together before I got happy feet and took off on the rest of the 10 mile loop.  Although the temps were very moderate for a mid July day the humidity was trying to make up for it, I was starting to feel some fatigue.  My left foot was hurting some, my left hip was a bit achy and tired feeling but I was really feeling good about getting in 40 miles.  When I got back to the car I called M and told her I was going out on another 10 mile loop.  Right before I got back to my car Shan had texted that she got in 21 and was done.  I told her about my foot and hip and that I was going to get in another 10 miles. When I got off the phone with M I saw that Shan had sent another text saying what a good day 30 miles was and that maybe it would be a good idea to stop and not risk injuring myself.  I called M back and told her I was bailing and she immediately said,"I knew it"!!!  I told her what Shan said about not injuring myself and she agreed.  So, I was done at 30 miles, a bit disappointed but okay with the 30.

Another issue I'm having is my left hip area.  I think it's mostly my piriformis.  Marc G and I were texting Saturday and he told me to look into a youtube video called the Limber 11.  I took the time to watch the 20 minute video this morning.  There were some stretches and exercises that I already knew about but also some new very interesting ones that I'm looking forward to doing.

Now that I think they worst of my knee issue is behind me I really need to focus on fixing my hip so I've decided I'm not going to do the 40 miler in Glenrose this Sep.  I'm off to my best running start in 5ys and I've got one 50 miler and a 30 miler in so far  this year so I'm going to focus on maintaining my minimum 20 mile weeks and fixing my hip and be ready for some winter races.