a new beginning..

For many...many...many years I've been running; most my life in fact. In all that time you'd think that I'd have learned just about everything there is to know about this thing called running.

I have recently come off a pretty bad hip flexor injury, months of physical therapy...the appointments, the x-rays, the verbal punishment for not listening and running anyway. You learn alot from your stumbles, your fall from the heights of running confidence; at least I did.

Coming of an 18 mile trail run, gliding down some switchbacks It happened, but I didnt feel it, my body had come to a crossroads and I didnt even know it..... a small twinge, nothing to be worried about I thought; so I ran. The days of the week blurred after that.. I was pushing for an upcoming race...ok a marathon, for me at the time, it wasnt a race; more of an obligation. I've been running this run now for some time 7 at my last count and was looking forward to a PR time with my training recently. So on I pushed, sore now, unusually sore...upper inner thigh sore but I ran anyway. I've been sore before, ha!, there it is! my downfall....and just when you think you know everything.

After a week of hard running I couldn't walk, like Dr. Frankensteins assistant in "Young Dr. Frankenstein"...." you Igor! get me a brain!, a healthy brain!". I drug myself around, drug my leg around; man it hurt. You can only fake those little things, like gifts that you dont like... that sheepish smile just to satisfy those around you...... but not pain like this; you cant fake a walk when you just can walk! I spent hours on the internet doing research, educating myself about muscles, tears and strains..hours...and hours. Then it happened, a race, a trail race that seemed to good to pass up!

It was called Bandit and it was beautiful, a 30k run through the mountains above Simi Valley and it called to me..... after all it was the first run of this race, just organized! and my first official trail run... so I did it. I completed the race but not before my left leg seized up on me during the last half mile of downhill; frozen, clamped tight i felt it run through my thight; scary.

It was Physical Therapy after that because I might be a runner, a stuborn runner but we do know our bodies.....at times people might think they know more but we know OUR bodies. And mine had enough. My adductors were strained but I learned alot from therapy, my gluts were not strong enough and were not firing before my quads fired which put extra strain on the adductors and hip flexor; wow... kinda boring but interesting at the same time!..... The exercises were easy, there were many but they were routines that you can do at home if you knew what to do.......

So after weeks, months and the L.A. Marathon (they werent happy that I ran that one either), I moved on and took what I learned with me......to exercise at home for free.

I'm feeling better know, sometimes I'm reminded about my hip which I think might be a good thing......but I'm running almost at 100 % now, although it takes some time to get back what you lost...... a runner doesnt have that time to lose, it seems that for every day lost we loose two steps..so we just have to keep running.

This is a first for me, this blogging thing....I've got alot to talk about, things I've learned along the way; I'll get to em. For know though, I though I'd share my mentality with you, good or bad...at least its a beginning...... alot to talk about, trail running, Mt. Disappointment, Bulldog and the OC trailrunners .....