Back to back runs and a night at Petti's - life is good.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

All the peach cobbler was gone, so I had to revert to cereal for breakfast. There weren’t any Frosted Flakes either, so now my day couldn’t possibly start out “grrrrrrreat”. I reached for the Honey Nut Cheerios.

There was a cool, nasty rain falling as I drove to work and it would continue unabated for the entire day. I kept looking out my window at a sky of total grey, hoping that I’d see a patch of blue somewhere providing some hope for a bike ride. I mean…I could set up the bike on the trainer, but it’s September and I just don’t want to ride inside so early in the fall. No…that just wasn’t an option.

I began the drive home…but not home. I knew where I was going and what I was doing…and had for the entire day. I was going to run again…to hell with the hip. It just had to hold up and if it didn’t…well…I’d know and I’d make another plan. I’d been looking for signs throughout the day. I thought about it with every step I took going up and down stairs. I worried when I got into the car that I’d feel that sharp, familiar pain. It never came.

I reached the park and changed into my running gear. It was still raining lightly, but the temperature was in the 50’s and rain never bothers me on the run. I did some light stretching for the calves before doing the short walk to my favorite running trail. Everything felt solid as I walked and, frankly, I was completely confident that the run would go well. It did…for around 20 minutes. That’s when I started to feel a little pain in my left buttocks. Now…it was different than the hip pain for sure, but since it was on the same side, I started sweating it. I didn’t stop running…of course…just increased the worrying.

I finished the course, which took 30 minutes, with nothing worse than the throb in my butt. Actually, some pain was running down to my foot, but I managed to ignore that, as well. I walked a couple of minutes to test the hip and there was no pain. Tomorrow, John and I were planning to do a ride and that was fine. I’d give it that day to rest and then try another run on Friday. I’m far from convinced it’s healed, but with two consecutive days running, I’m getting closer.

Holly and I made a trip to Petti’s Pizza for dinner. It’s been a long time. When we lived in Willowick, it was our favorite pizza place and I’d always eat half a sausage pizza while downing a couple of tall glasses of a thick, chocolate milkshake. I ate the half pizza as I always did, but washed it down with Diet Coke (they don’t serve Diet Pepsi – my first choice). It’s just not the same, but I probably saved about 500 calories. The pizza is still pretty damned good, by the way.

Run duration: 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.