Two Miles - No Pain

I put in an easy two miles late in the evening yesterday. The good news? No hip pain. The bad news? Some pain and discomfort, but in my muscles!!! This morning I am pain free! I am very happy!!!

I started feeling some discomfort as I was wrapping up my run yesterday. The discomfort though was in my butt and my thigh. No pain in the groin. Definitely nothing in the hip. I did some homework this morning, and everything is pointing to a groin strain - the same as a hip abductor strain or tendinitis. This is exactly what Coach Sumner had surmised the problem was when I explained the symptoms to him last weekend.Turns out there are five abductor muscles that connect the pelvis to the knee. When these muscles are strained, or the tendons that hold the muscles to the bone become inflamed, the symptom is pain in the groin area radiating into the thigh. Yesterday's run presented pain right where the tendons are - butt (pelvis) and thigh.

The only way to resolve this is rest and anti-inflamatories. So, no more speed work for the time being. Everything will be at recovery or easy pace for the next couple of weeks. This week I'll limit my long run to 6 miles or less. I'd like to put in one more 12 miler prior to my half marathon (planned for January 10th) to tell me whether doing the half is a go or not. Longer term will be based on how I fell in the next month or so. Don't know whether a marathon is in the cards early this year or not.