Running

Decided to take 3 full weeks off of running and see if it would help my hip fully recover and allow me to start back slowly building again. 

Went out this morning to test out the hip, got about 1 mile out and started having more hip pain, turned around and decided to pull the plug. Got home at 2.2 miles and the pain gradually got worse on the way back. 

I guess I will have to go to the doctor and have it looked at to figure it out. I have never had an injury from running before and this has been beyond frustrating for me after working so hard last year to get a solid base. I had hoped to be running a few races this year, but It is looking like a recovery year at this point. 

After my visit to the doctor last week, I decided to still take a few days off and just stretch and foam roll my IT band and try to loosen things up.

Went out to test out the leg, felt fine for the first mile. No pain, no feeling like it was going to come. Then at just over a mile a small dull pain in my upper hip which is a different place than it has been hurting. It didn't seem to get any worse over the next .5 miles so I was glad that I could keep going for a bit. The pain seemed to be in my upper glutes this time.

By the time I got back to my house, the pain was starting to get a little more noticeable in the joint so I was glad to be done. The doctor told me to just start running and slowly build mileage and pace. I will try to be very cautious about how it feels. If it is bugging me, I will back off. If there isn't much more improvement over the next couple of weeks, I may go back in for another look at things. After today, I was a little bit encouraged that I could go for a mile with no pain. Hopefully it is a sign of improvement.
 

Did my foam rolling and hip exercises the last few nights along with quite a bit of core strengthening.

Went out today hopeful that my hip would respond well to everything I have been doing.

Felt fine for the first mile or so, and then a very slight ache in my hip started and never really got worse over the next 2 miles. It started to get a little bit sorer as I got closer to 4 miles. I think that my mind is making this worse because I am more focused on my hip pain than actually running. It sort of takes the enjoyment out of it. I tried to keep my mind off of it and just do little checkpoints on the hip.

Overall, I think it is getting a little better. I will just have to keep working on strengthening and stretching and slowly building the miles. Not totally sure on a timeline at this point.