First of all, apologies for the lack of posts - I have really struggled to find inspiration when I've been stuck at home wrestling with this injury.
I was referred for physio at the BMI Hospital in Harrogate and my therapist, Vicky has been incredible. Not only is she a very lovely lady, she seems to have worked miracles on my hip. The problem lies in the piriformis - a pear-shaped muscle responsible for the flexibility of the hip joint. Apparently it's quite common for runners (still don't think I can call myself that) to have issues with the piriformis - mainly due to a lack of adequate stretching both before and after a run.
Anyway, after two sessions of physio, a little more rest and a week of gritted teeth, I was finally able to set out on a run on Friday morning. I won't lie, it was tough - I lacked a huge amount of confidence and as such picked a route which was more focused on avoiding the general public than tailored to a first run out in three weeks.
I hurt afterwards - my hip was throbbing and my time was disappointing. I took five minutes to lie down (in all honesty, I had no choice) and wanted to slap myself around the chops. I thought about how far I had come - despite my run of bad luck injury-wise I was still able to run a 9.38 mile - a good two minutes faster than when I had first started, and I'm not even fully fit.
To many people, this will seem like a terrible time but for me it is a sign of determination. Getting out there and pounding the pathways of Harrogate is not easy at the moment - I want to go further, faster and be much closer to my goal. But I am where I am, and pushing myself too far too soon will only make things worse (the story of my training life so far!)
I'm planning on heading out tomorrow morning and will force myself to take a better route - the one I ran on Friday did me no favours as over half of it was on an incline. Proper planning and all that malarkey!
In other news, I just realised that I won't be able to run the Harrogate 10k as I'll be at a wedding that weekend, which is a real shame. I'll also miss out on the BUPA Great Yorkshire Run - even more gutting as it passes past the South Stand at Hillsborough - my home every other Saturday next season - I can't imagine getting a better lift than that at halfway. I fly to Ibiza that day for my beautiful friend, Jessica's wedding where I am Maid of Honour - so that takes the sting out of it slightly!
Lastly, a huge amount of respect and biggedy-ups go out to Andy Broomhead - my Twitter friend who is, as I speak, running the London Marathon. I've been watching it since the beginning and boo-hoo-ing at some of the amazing fundraising stories. It's inspired me to run, run, run - maybe even a marathon next year, even though I said I never would... So well done, Andy - great effort and all your Twitter buddies are incredibly proud of you.
Sam x
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