Oh Dear...

Well, Merry Christmas - It's the 21st December 2010 today, 4 more sleeps till Santa comes. I wonder if he will bring me some motivation, or a new hip even.

After, actually during, the second spring into shape 8.5km race my running has taken a turn for the worst. After running one of the best runs of my life at the Melbourne Marathon, I struggled my way through the 8.5km of Spring Into Shape a week later, which turned out to be one of worst runs of my life. I don't think I left adequate time to rest and recover from the 10kms and shortly after the 3km mark my right hip started to give me grief.

Long story short, here we are 2 months later, my hip still giving me trouble and I've only managed a very short 1km run (in Papua New Guinea which came with it's own set of challenges - see pics above - very hilly, altitude and prickles!!) since dragging myself accross the finish line.

So where to from here? Good question.

I guess I need to get my hip looked at for starters, it is deffinetely something more than tight muscles causing me such intense pain. I've had plenty of deep tissue massage and my massage therapist ensures me everything is loose and the muscles are all in order. My mum said an x-ray should be able to give a lot of information, so after christmas I'll get myself to the vet and see what they say.

I think I lost my motivation somewhere along the way too, so I probably need to get that back. I guess part of me was secretly glad that I had hurt myself - it meant less washing, more time to sit and bludge, not feeling so wrecked and exhausted and I could keep dry with all the rain we have experienced lately. My running partner Running Lemming also left for her overseas jaunt so it has been difficult to make myself get up into action.

The laziness part of it has been good for a while, but now my muscles are starting to turn into fat and my previously tonned bits and pieces are becoming all a bit to jiggly for my liking. My bum which grew in size (from the muscle I gained) has unfortunately stayed the same size, it's just become saggier. In all I've lost 2kgs in 2 months, so the muscle tone has deffinetely decreased.

Ok - So clearly my hip problem isn't going away any time soon. And clearly I am not about to wake up and all my jiggly bits will be gone. I need to take some action.

Steps - In no particular order:

1. Get hip looked at.
2. Look at alternative exercise options - Gym membership?
3. At least try and go for short walks or runs before I feel my hip flare up.
4. Make time to take any of these steps.
5. Stretch more.

Ok... feeling a little better I have admitted some things to the general public. Denial is great for a while, but I'm getting sick of that nagging voice in the back of my head and more importantly I don't want to feel self consious in the summer sun if I don't have to.

Merry Christmas everyone!!