The hip is angry

Well, I rested my hip over the weekend.  I felt like crap missing my long run.  It's hard to shake the voices in my head yelling "slacker!!" even when I know it's the smart thing to do.  Looking back over my training log I realized that because I missed a run when I went to CA to visit my sister a couple weeks ago (again, slacker!) I went from running a total of 10.7mi in week 3 to a total of 15.5mi the next week - an increase of almost 50% from one week to the next.  And by week 5 is when I started noticing a twinge in my hip.  Everything I read about training strongly suggests not increasing mileage more than 10% from week to week, so I suppose that wasn't very smart on my part.

I've been trying to think of everything I could have done to make my hip angry again.  It's probably as simple as coming back from an injury and pushing it too hard too fast.  I just had been feeling so good the past month with training, I was totally on a high.  It felt really good, and I finally felt like I was starting to get stronger and running better.

Could it have been switching out my orthotics?  Did that change my gait enough while running that it bothered my hip?  I somehow doubt it, but it was also these orthotics that I was wearing when I injured myself last time too (hmmm, my bad luck orthotics?)

Could it have been increasing my running interval time?  Maybe 3:2 is my magic interval.  It seems unlikely to me, but I had just tried 4:2 for the first time right before my hip really started to bother me.  Perhaps the extra minute per interval of high impact on my hip was just too much.  I hope not because I actually preferred the 4:2 intervals.

Did I do something wrong during spinning?  This also seems doubtful to me because I was definitely feeling a bit of a twinge even before spinning, but I did have a bit of a problem with my left pedal strap.  My first choice bike (decided after having it for all of 2 classes) was already taken when I got to the spinning studio.  It's a bike way in the back and directly next to a fan.  I'm actually surprised I was able to get it the first 2 times!  Anyway, the left strap on the foot pedal of the bike I had on Friday was super loose and I couldn't figure out how to tighten it.  I didn't think it was that big a deal until I realized well into the class that because my left foot was perpetually about to fall off the pedal, I definitely had a slightly uneven pedal stroke, but after I realized it I concentrated on pedaling evenly and didn't think it was that big a deal.

E suggested it's the crazy humidity that was bothering my hip.  Well, with these thunderstorms we've been having the last few days...maybe it's just another example of me already being a crazy old person whose arthritis acting up means I can predict the weather.

Ok, well, that's my slightly neurotic over-analysis of my hip not being happy with me at the moment.  Hopefully the rest I allowed myself, continuing to take it a little more easy than I have been (I'm thinking elliptical tomorrow instead of pounding pavement), and possibly scaling back a wee bit will allow me to ease right back into training and not affect me big picture.