Learning to manage the body but more importantly the mind.

It is 8 am on Memorial Day here in Austin. I have the whole day off training which is a real blessing. Overall my body is doing pretty well these days but admittedly the past few have been a little more up and down. Friday morning is known as "fast friday" at University of Texas Masters swim program. The idea behind this is that we do fewer sets very fast. I say the idea because although effort/intention may have been there for me it was like I was going backwards. I was not too sure how the run that afternoon was going to go considering my less than stellar performance in the pool. Sure enough though the body is a funny thing and I had what felt like my best run in a long time - it was hard for me to hold back and not just go, letting my legs just take me how fast they wanted to go. I finished thinking that finally I was coming around just a little. Then it hit. My limp was back. Just to remind me that not all is well with that hip I felt it. Doesn't hurt just is this weird feeling that makes you not want to put all the pressure on the hip. I sat in cold water to try to recover, stretched a little and just hoped that it would go away. Saturday was a hard ride... I don't feel my hip on rides but did feel that my right glut got a little more jacked up. Again the day, evening was spent wondering what this is all supposed to mean. I had a run on Sunday and this is the challenge - do you constantly try to have "no pain" or is it about managing "the pain". I put "pain" in quotes because it isn't really pain that I feel. It is just this annoying feeling that comes and goes and sometimes feels worse than other times and causes me to protect it. I decided to give it a go - long run of 40 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. This is what is funny - running now feels much better than walking. It is only when I stop then the sensation in my hip comes back a bit. Does this mean then that I should only run everywhere? Love it. So what to do.

Managing a labral tear I think is more about the mind game of managing rather than what the body feels. It is the up and down of analysing, trying to be "smart" but also of not giving in to fear. It is the decision to give it a go and see what happens and trusting that your body is in fact managing and that this will just be part of it - an annoyance. I will continue my core work, trigger ball, cold baths and focus on good running form. The only thing I can do is take a deep breath, remember to exhale and go with it. What is left if you do not have hope and faith? And so today I will relax, send all the positive thoughts I can to my body and be ready to start again tomorrow. Managing and happy.