Breaking the Cycle of Pain, and Another Challenge

After a few days of finding no way to release the pain through stretching and massaging, I gave into Vitamin I, 800 mg of Ibuprofen.  Though I try to avoid ibuprofen, I needed something to break the cycle of pain. It worked, I ran 5 miles the next morning and seemed to be back in action.

The next day I got up and out with enthusiasm and optimism.  I started out at a little faster pace, feeling good.  I hit my first mile 30 seconds faster than the day before and then promptly went into an irregular heart rhythm. I couldn’t keep my heart rate down.  I turned around and walked/jogged home.  This is the life of an aging runner.  I did many things wrong in my first 40 years of running, now I need to be nearly perfect in my training to keep running in the coming years.
 
After taking it easy for the rest of the day, I was able to get up the next day, Saturday, and run 10K very conservatively.  I stayed in HR Zone 2 and took a short walking break once per mile. That was positive.  The next day, Sunday, was a strength training day.  I supplemented that with a 4-mile hike with Cat later in the day.  It was beautiful day.  My hip was a little wonky but, oddly, the further we got into the hike, the stronger my hip felt.  Another positive sign.  I felt I was ready to try to extend my distance and planned to set out for a 10-mile run first thing in the morning.
 
I woke naturally at 5:30am.  Perfect, I would lie there for a few more minutes and get up to get ready to go running.  Within minutes, I could feel my heart rate was irregular again.  Sh*t! WTF!   I jumped out of bed in hopes that I could quickly trigger a rhythm reset.  I tried a few things to no avail.  After about an hour, there was no change. The morning was a beautiful summer morning when the air is still cool and dry.  I had an appointment late morning, and I did not want to pass up the beautiful weather.  So, my 10-mile run became a 4-mile walk.  
 
I know that for RunDisney Dopey I am not going to be able to run all 48.6 miles.  There will be a lot of walking, and for the half and full marathons, I may be relegated to mostly walking.  In which case I better be able to walk at a brisk pace for extended periods of time to stay ahead of the Balloon Ladies.  So, I took this circumstance as an opportunity to practice walking.  At least I covered 4+ miles on my feet.  
 
On the drive to my appointment, my irregular heart rate disappeared as unexpectedly as it came, and I was fine for the rest of the day.  Optimism for Tuesday started building.  Tuesday was another beautiful summer morning.  I set out early with a conservative pace, keeping my heart rate well within zone 2.  I was set in my mind that distance was more important than pace.   The goal was to comfortably cover 10 miles regardless of how much I walked.  A little over 2 hours later I had covered 11 miles.  Probably my slowest run at that distance but given the ups and downs of the last week, I was very pleased with it.
 
This pattern of episodes of irregular heart rate continued for the next couple of weeks.  I have learned to be flexible in my running plans.  On days where I wake up in normal sinus rhythm, I feel energized and can enjoy a run. But I am reluctant to let my heart rate get into zone 4, so I do a lot of walking when I get to the high end of zone 3.  At this point I’m happy to be moving and still building mileage.
 
It is the end of July now.  In the last few weeks, I have completed long runs (run/walks) of 11, 12 and 13 miles.   My total running mileage has been 28+ miles in each week, with 5-10 miles of walking/hiking in each week.   My hip discomfort has been much more manageable since the one day I gave in and took ibuprofen.   My strength training routine and stretching routine seem to be paying off.  Even with the challenges I have faced, I feel like am still in a pretty good position for Dopey Training.