The Recurrence

I took a short run today for the first time since Sunday. I needed one day to nurse an old injury (more on that momentarily) and the second day I came down with a terrible sore throat, so I laid on the couch watching sappy girlie movies. Better today, and tomorrow I'm staying home. But I figured exercise stimulates the immune system, right? And now that I'm officially working toward something, I don't want to take off more time than necessary. The run felt great, by the way.

Back to that old injury thing. I have two recurring injuries. The one that currently plagues me is one that first popped up my freshmen year of high school. I had taken three solid months off after cross country to heal a stress fracture and was starting back in track in the spring. After the first hard workout--BOOM--my ass hurt. Not muscle hurt. It had nothing to do with that. It wasn't connective tissue either. I've since had tendinitis and think that could not have been it. Our resident physical therapist and weight lifting teacher diagnosed a bruised or inflamed bursa sack. I used ice massage for a couple weeks and then it was gone. For years. Until now. It's back and it's a real pain in--well, literally, it's a pain in my ass. Right below it actually. And it seems people really only get bursitis in knees, shoulders and elbows. Not their butts. Does anyone who may have stumbled upon my ramblings, or have any of my fellow "chicks" any experience with this? I can pin-point the exact spot, and ice does seem to help. It's right where my left leg connects to my butt in one specific point. Could Dave Sheehan have been right all those years ago? Or might it be something else? Thankfully, it's only a little nagging thing that bothers after huge alpine days or after running 9 miles on the road when I've only been running 5 on dirt.

My other recurring injury pops up after huge alpine days and I think it's why I dislike "hiking" so much---why I can run twice the distance I can hike and not hurt nearly as much as I would after hiking. It's recurring patella tendinitis. In both my knees. Ugh. This one popped up in college, when I ran cross country at UNCG. It has bothered me ever since. But seriously, only after huge days in the mountains when I've had to hike down just as much and as steeply as I've gone up, and after downhill long races such as the Moab Half Marathon. Downhill kills!! But I love climbing mountains. There is a serious dilemma here because when I climb a mountain, I have to take at least three days off from running. What to do? What to do? Wish there was a way to do both. Do I keep climbing and just take the hit in training? Guess so. For now anyway.