all the thoughts

so last september i developed some weird pain in my left hip after northface.  i'm pretty sure it is because i took advantage of a free chiropractic adjustment from a dude at the northface race.  i can't be certain about that but since that's when all of this began... well, i'm going with that diagnosis.

i didn't do anything about it until finally the week before my marathon (because i procrastinate and believe in miracles) i went to my real chiropractor and all but demanded he fix me.  he's basically a unicorn and therefore magical.

i saw him the tuesday and thursday before my sunday marathon and whatever he did got me through my marathon without any limping.  i was in a great deal of pain but no limping so i considered it a win.

after my marathon my season was basically over.  just one more measly 5K to do in november and i was finished racing for 2014.

i dialed back my milage after the marathon to around 25 miles (give or take) a week and have been at that since november.  now that my training season is about to begin and i've bumped up my mileage a little bit my hip is bothering me so i thought i'd be proactive and get a physical therapist on board.

i started a new job at the end of november and turns out there's a PT who works in our office.  he's pretty great from what i hear so i thought i'd give him a shot.  i saw him for the first time last thursday and he didn't even have his hands on me for 3 seconds before he said the same stuff my chiropractor said.  my hips are out of alignment.  turns out that my hyper flexibility is the bane of my running existence.  so he realigned my hips and did some deep tissue massage on the muscle that is all jacked in my left hip.  we discussed some exercises to strengthen the stabilizer muscles that hold the hips in place and that was that.  i've been doing those exercises and anticipate that he will be able to help me.  he intends to do some dry needling on me this coming week to really get deep into the muscle that is all bunched up since i cannot seem to stretch it out on my own and he was unable to really rub the knot out manually.  i hope that it works.  i just want to run and run successfully while meeting the goals i've set for myself.  i will try whatever in order to get this to happen.

the pain in my hip is pretty minimal but my fear is that it will increase as my mileage increases and i just want to avoid that whole mess.  be proactive and all that jazz.

i'm planning on training smart and steady.  running my miles easy and building up so that my races are easy too.  since the weather is cold and my work schedule is going to make sure that i spend some time on the dreadmill i've also decided to use those runs as my fartlek speed workouts.  i plan to get my speed up so that i can absolutely meet my BQ at lakefront.

on december 29th i cut my topamax dose in half.  at first this was causing me to experience some minor headaches pretty frequently but once my body adjusted i've been fine.  i'm hoping that this dosage change will positively effect my gut issues.  hopefully negate them.  we'll see.  i'm noticing that i'm not needing to go to the bathroom in the same way on my long runs so i think it may have worked in the way i anticipated.  if i could stop taking the medication altogether i would.  i'm just afraid to do so because migraines are no joke.  if i can keep them at bay with 25mg instead of 50mg... then i'm going to try and do that.  considering my prescription is for 100mg daily i've cut that medication a whole lot.  i see my doc (a new new one) in march and will discuss at that time.

so far my running is going well and i'm happy about that.  my goals for 2015 are attainable yet still tough.  my biggest race is the 50K and then second to that is the marathon.  i have pretty lofty finish times for both.  we'll see.  if my training keeps going so well i think i can meet my goals.