Why I Joined a Running Club

I am not going to do my weekly recap as I normally do because I don't have anything to recap. I am sure you don't want to hear me talk about how I have not been running so I won't do that either. I think I  just will talk about the other exciting things in my life like my new running club. I have a lot to be thankful for so I am staying as positive as I can about this whole hip issue.

I was planning on going to my first meeting with the club on Saturday but I knew that I would have been tempted to run. I decided to wait until I can run again since it might be weird to show up at a running club if you can't run. Hopefully that will be really soon. I have been wanting to join a running club for a while but just haven't taken the time to do it.  I wanted to join a running club for a few reasons so here are just a few reasons why I decided to do it.

1) I am tired of running those long runs all by myself. Those 20 milers can be pretty brutal when you are out there by yourself.

2) Time flies when you run with a group or even with one other person. I used to run with my close friend but once her husband passed away her desire to run just kind of went away. I have been trying to get her back into running but I can see that right now she just isn't ready. I miss running with her so I figured that joining a running club would give me some company and give me an opportunity to meet some new people who also love running.

3) I like the idea of meeting other people who share the same passion as I do. I think that this like-mindedness (is that even a word) is great because it causes us to motivate each other, share training ideas, share our achievements and it is also a safer environment than just running alone.

4) I feel like I need to change things up. I sometimes feel like I am stuck in a typical routine and running the same old routes that I always train on. I think this will be a nice change of scenery for me. Running in new places always makes me feel refreshed and I kind of like the idea of not having to map out a 15 mile route or a 20 mile route for my long run.

These are just a few reasons why I joined a running club. I am sure there are a million benefits to being a member of a running club which I will soon find out.

Are you a member of a running club?

Tell me some of the benefits that you have discovered to being a member of a running club.

Weekly Recap (8/18-8/24)

I think I am dealing with a case of hip bursitis. My hip never hurts when I run but I do wake up with some discomfort in the morning so his past week has been all about keeping the hip happy and trying to make it feel better. I have been faithfully icing my hip and doing hip stretching and strengthening exercises every morning and every night. It was a pretty boring and sad week for me but I will tell you about it anyway...

Monday: REST DAY from running. Hip stretching and strengthening exercises, planked and did some push ups.

Tuesday: 7 Miles@ 8:05 avg. pace/I warmed up and then pushed the pace from Miles 3-7 to see if my hip would hurt and it did not. Amen for that but I did have some really minor pain the next day so I iced it and decided that I needed to take a few days off.

Wednesday: REST DAY with hip stretches and strengthening exercises.

Thursday: REST DAY with hip stretches and strengthening exercises.

Friday: REST DAY with hip stretches and strengthening exercises.

Saturday: 20 Miles@ 8:49/ I woke up with no hip pain so I decided to go for a run to see how I felt. I had no pain so I just went for it. I really needed to get this last long run in so that I could start making plans for Ventura in two weeks. I attempted to take an ice bath after my run and it was pretty traumatic. I kept jumping in and out of the tub because it was painfully cold! I am not sure when I will attempt this again.

Sunday: Hip pain was back again so I decided that I am going to take some more time off at this point until the pain goes away. BOO!

TOTAL MILES: 27 miles

This whole hip issue is kind of messing with my race plans in two weeks. I really wanted to run the full marathon but it looks like maybe it is not going to happen if this hip pain continues. I am hoping for some relief so that I can still run the half but if not then the birthday race is off the calendar. I am bummed but I am glad that I did not have big plans for this race or else I would be beyond bummed at this point!

Have you ever had a case of hip bursitis?

 Any advice...besides rest and stop running :(

Weekly Recap (8/11-8/17)

Three weeks to go and I have been leaning towards running the marathon but then this hip pain decided to make an appearance this week. Thankfully I have no goals for this race and I will just run to celebrate my birthday or else I would be pretty bummed right now. In any case, it was a disappointing week for me with very low mileage due to the left hip pain. It is VERY HARD to skip a long run but I know I am doing the right thing. In the end I know that I will thank myself for being a smart runner and playing it smart. Live and Learn!

Monday: Rest Day with some push ups, squats and exercises with the medicine ball.

Tuesday: 7 Mile Tempo @8:22/This run was really rough. The winds were super strong the first two miles and I started in 89 degree heat. You can kind of see where I am going with this one. The rest of the run was a fight to finish. I was hoping for Miles 3-6 to be under 8:00 but that was not happening on this particular day!

Wednesday: Rest Day- I woke up with some pain in my left hip so I did some stretches for my hips and took a break from running.

Thursday: My hip felt okay so I did 5 Easy Miles @10:11 pace. I met up with Megan at the crack of dawn (explains why the picture is so dark) to attend the #blogfest #funrun. We parked a mile from the Anaheim Convention Center and then ran the 3 mile fun run and then the final mile back to our cars.  I was too cheap to pay the $20 parking fee at the convention center so I forced Megan to run two extra miles with me.

Friday and Saturday: Rest Days since my hip pain returned on Friday morning! It felt better on Saturday but I didn't want to chance it and run. I did some stretches for my hip and lots of icing throughout the day.

Sunday: 6 Easy Miles @10:09/My hip felt much better and I had zero pain while running. I never felt any pain at all when I was running but the pain seems to appear a few hours after running or the next morning.

Total Miles: 18 (BOO!)

It was a pretty crappy week in terms of mileage since I skipped my long run which was supposed to be 20 miles. I hope I can run it next week or else I might have to finalize my plans for Ventura and just run the half which I am totally fine with since I have Long Beach coming up really soon. 

How was your week? Any races coming up?