Hip struggles

Saturday, March 24, 2012 · Mike Davis

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Been a while since I last posted on my training for Burlington. Right now if I had to place odds on getting to Burlington, they would not be favorable. I have been running while on vacation and I must say; the humidity at Myrtle Beach has been brutal! I have run somewhat earlier in the day and the humidity has been 84 percent or higher. Yikes! Talk about draining me and slowing me down. Wednesday I did a tempo workout that is normally somewhat easy for me and I had to fight to maintain my goal pace.

Anyhow, it seems as if I’m struggling with bursitis in both my hips which has been my problem in previous marathon training’s. I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand what’s causing the bursitis and how to combat it, but apparently I’ve not figured it out yet. One of the telling signs is as night when I lay on my side as I sleep; my hip starts burning and aches for the remainder of the night. One hip is worse than the one hip is worse than the other right now, but both are making things difficult.

Today I was to run 18 miles and I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence after my experiences this week. I set out around 7:00 with Kathy and I was soaked with sweat by mile 4! I pulled away from Kathy at mile 2 so I was pretty much on my own. I had no idea what the course would be like as I planned to run 9 out and back. I knew the first 3.5 would be along the ocean, but after that I had no idea. Well after 4.5 miles Ocean Blvd ended and I had to run along a busy highway with no sidewalk. I didn’t want to turnaround as I feared that the conditions would make it easier not to get close to my goal distance. So I continued on, eventually I hit a sidewalk and a touristy area, so that was better. My pace was okay, but now my hips were becoming enflamed and I weighed about 20 extra pounds from the sweat. I was carrying a large hand drink holder and my gator aid was also going down a bit too fast.

Around mile 12 I pretty much realized my goal distance for the day would not happen between the aching hips and the humidity, I was pretty much done. At mile 15 (with some stretches of walking and stretching), my wife pulled up in her vehicle and I was grateful. Could I have gone further, maybe, but I was out of gator aid, things were hurting and the conditions were brutal. Even my pride couldn’t push me away from her Chevy.

So I don’t know. I may be somewhat better once I’m back in NH and not running in the brutal humidity, but my hips are most likely what they are and not a result of southern climate. I have not given up and I will continue on for another week or two before I evaluate how my body will hold up. I’m not bothered or frustrated (maybe a little), as I understand that I can’t control everything. I will hopefully be ready come Monday to get back on schedule and will no better when I attempt my next long run. Till then I will just press on and keep running.