A Much Needed Dose of Relief

Saturday morning, I gathered along with a small group of CA Cruisers in front of the Snail's Pace Running Store in Brea. Our planned route was the 2 Parks-2 Loops with the possible addition of the Summit House Loop.

I had no idea whether I'd be running or not, but I decided to give it a shot. Based on the bad results of Thursday run, I didn't have much hope. But based on the work that Jeff, the PT, did on Friday I was more hopeful.

Our group was small and even fewer of the group was interested in doing the Summit House Loop. The loop includes some hills that some wanted to avoid. The one's that did want to give it a go were unsure of the directions. I fell into the leadership role.

I started off running and everything fell into place. I was running with some of the slower members of our group which necessitated frequent stops at key intersections so that I didn't lose anybody. I think the slower pace worked in my favor. No matter the pace I was able to run without the nagging hip pain that had sent me over the edge on Thursday.

After the Summit Loop was accomplished, without losing anybody, I headed off an abbreviated 2 Parks - 1 Loop route. At this point I was running with Adolfo. The rest of the group cut their run short so it was just he and I doing the 2 Parks. Adolfo, a 5-plus hour marathoner, was urging me to go on ahead of him. I stayed with him enjoying the easy pace and pain free run. After a couple more urgings I headed off ahead of him around the 6.5 mile mark. I ended up running the rest of the route without a walk break, feeling pretty darn good.

The entire route - Summit House Loop and 2 Parks-1 Loop was 9.3 relatively pain free miles. Whatever the PT did, and boy did he work me over, on Friday seemed to work.

Sunday morning, after a session with my personal trainer, I headed over to Bonelli for a second go at the 2x Picnic Loop route. I got it done without hip pain.

Things seemed to have turned around. So far, so good. I ended the week with only my second week over 20 miles in 2009 at 20.5 miles.

On other fronts, the offending Regulatory Affairs person actually scheduled a short meeting on Friday to work out one of the issues from Thursday. The teenager helped a friend repair the friend's car so they could take that on the weekend trip they'd planned. Let's see what the next week has in store for me.