We left off training updated in week 9, when I was dealing with a daycare cold and skipping a lot of runs. I only ran twice that week. One short run on Thursday when I was starting to feel a little bit better, and my longest run of training on Saturday.

I was nervous going into that long run on Saturday. I had started to feel a little bit better, but I was conflicted about doing the run. I didn't want to cause a setup, but I also didn't want to skip perhaps one of the most important runs of the training cycle. 

We were in PA visiting my family, and they still had a ton of snow on the ground, but I managed a slow meandering run on some of the streets I used to train on all the time, and luckily, it didn't cause a major health setback.

Rolling into week 10, my time was a bit condensed because of travel. I dropped an easy run and focused instead on one of the speed runs and then my long run at the end of the week. I also mixed in a good amount of strength training and yoga during week 10 to help alleviate some of the soreness that was building up in my legs from this training cycle.

Then week 11 brought the start of taper, which truly couldn't have come at a better time for me. My body was feeling a bit beat up, and knowing the end of this training cycle had arrived and shorter workouts were the on docket felt like a big relief.

I was able to do a stroller run on Sunday, which I hadn't been able to do in months because of the weather, so that was a really fun way to start the week. And then the rest of the workouts flowed smoothly. Incorporating at least one day of solid yoga and stretching has also been really great. 

I ended the week with one more long run of an hour and 15 minutes, and felt pretty good the whole time. 

This week the schedule calls for a couple of 30 minute runs, but I will likely just do one of those runs and then do a couple of walks instead to keep things loose. I'm hopeful that all this training will leave me in a good place for race day Saturday. 

I'm not looking to set any PRs. I'm just looking to finish feeling strong. After this training cycle, that feels like a fairly achieavable goal.

Week Eight

I've officially crossed the halfway point of this training cycle, which is super exciting. I can definitely tell my cardiovascular endurance has increased. Longish runs feel not that hard, and even my harder and faster runs don't leave me as winded as the early weeks of training. 

What's less exciting is the absolute miserable conditions I've had to train in over the last two weeks. 

At the start of week 5, DC got hit with a massive snow/ice storm. We got like three inches of ice on top of six inches of snow, and the mess was so messy that DC coined the term "snowcrete" to describe what was left behind. A mix of snow and ice that's so heavy and impossible to move it may as well be concrete. 

On top of that, we've got unseasonably cold temperatures and windchills that make training outside a real treat. And outside is my only option since I don't have access to a treadmill. So yes, it's been a real adventure these last two weeks trying to find sidewalks that are sort of cleared and piling layers on layers so I don't get frostbite on my exposed skin. 

I skipped a handful of workouts because the conditions were just makings things tough, but here's what I managed.

Week 5:

By my Friday long run, a little bit more sidewalk had been cleared! I could combine the quarter mile loop with a half mile out and back! Did endless lollipops for 70 minutes. 

Only got in two runs, but was honestly glad I managed to get in any at all. 

Week 6:

I had to push the start of week six because my husband was out of town, and there's no way I could run with my kiddo in the stroller on Sunday. There's no clear sidewalks and it's just way too cold.

So I did a progression run on Monday. Started in heart rate zone two and worked up to zone 4 by the end. Felt really good during this workout, despite the cold and needing to run my same silly lollipop course over and over on repeat. 

Had big plans for the rest of the week since the temperatures were finally going to get above freezing, but I got a cold and some rough fatigue that knocked me out for most of the week. 

I rebounded for my long run, and imagine my joy when even more sidewalk was cleared! Now the out and back portion was a little over a mile! Still super monotonous when you've got 80 minutes of running on the agenda, but at least it was some slightly new scenery. 

And that's how two cold and rough weeks of training ended. Far from ideal, but I was happy to at least have managed one harder run and one long run each week. 

The forecast over the next couple of weeks is going to have us up in the 40s, and I'm really hoping that means we'll get some more significant melting. I'm in desperate need of some variety on my running routes. I need these sidewalks to clear!

I've officially made it through the first month of half marathon training, and I managed to fit in every workout in my training plan. There were plenty of times I had to get creative with the schedule and shift things around to accommodatemy husband's work schedule and childcare, but I got it done. 

Weeks three and four were cold, but manageable, except for the long run from week four. That fell right before the massive snow/ice storm that hit DC and was quite unpleasant. 

Week Three Recap

Sunday started with a tempo run with the jogging stroller. Nothing like starting the week off with a hard run while pushing an extra 60 pounds. Didn't have any trouble hitting the prescribed hard heart rate zones in this one, but did have a hard time keeping my heart rate at an easy enough level in the warm up and cool down. Celebrated with treats for both of us afterward. 

Monday was a 45-minute easy run, which felt delightful after Sunday's run. 

Tuesday was full body strength training followed by another dreadful hill workout on Wednesday. Hill sprints are just torture for me. 

Thursday was a rest day and Friday was my long run -- only 50 minutes, so still not super long. 

Week Four Recap

Week four was a cut back week and mentally it was just what I needed. The first part of January felt like a real sprint at work with everyone "circling back" after the holidays. So I was so glad to have a week of slightly shorter runs. Something about a 30-minute run just feels mentally so much easier than a 40-minute run.

Also we potty trained over the weekend between weeks 3 and 4, so I was glad to have shorter runs since it meant I wasn't gone for quite as long during the holiday weekend. 

Sunday was a tempo run, but sans stroller, I had to push a lot harder to get my heart rate into the appropriate zones for the hard sets. 

Monday was a 30-minute easy run. 

Tuesday was a rest day and Wednesday was just regular sprints! I hope that means evil hill sprints are behind me. 

I was able to squeeze in another long run on a Friday without too much schedule disruption or early morning wake ups because it was only 40 minutes. Have I mentioned I love a cut back week. It was in the teens on this run though and I had on so many layers I'm not sure how I managed to run. 

I also threw in a day of strength training somewhere in there, but I couldn't tell you what day it was at this point. 

I had debated pulling up a tempo run from week five and tackling it on Saturday since I knew the snowstorm that was coming was going to prevent me from running for a couple of days. But I woke up Saturday morning and my legs were feeling pretty heavy, so I didn't do that. Didn't seem worth it to risk an injury.

 Four weeks down, 8 more to go. 

After years of injuries, pregnancy complications, almost dying in child birth, the longest postpartum recovery ever and the slow, slow build to get some of my running endurance back, I am finally training for a half marathon. 

I haven't run one since 2021 -- nearly 4.5 years.

It's hard to believe it's been that long.

I spent most of 2022 dealing with hip and hamstring stuff. I graduated from PT in the early days of my pregnancy. 

And I ran until my 20-week appointment when they found a serious complication, and I was forbidden from anything strenuous. 

I thought I'd get back to running fairly quickly after my child was born. I spent enough time researching how to heal from C-sections and did a million core stabilizing exercises in the early days to rebuild strength. 

But then more complications, more surgeries, more recovery time and suddenly we're deep in 2024 before I'm physically able to run, and I'm back at work and still nursing and juggling all that.  Trying to train for anything was a big no for me. 

And that brings us to the end of last year.  I ran 3 races in October -- two 5Ks and a 10K -- none of which I managed to blog about. I felt like I was finally coming out of some of the fog and trauma that 2025 unleashed, and had found some of my running endurance again. 

It was the longest rebuild ever, but I finally felt ready to dive into half marathon training. 

So here we are, two weeks in and still feeling good about my decision to sign up. I'm following the same training plan I followed for the races I ran in 2021. It's a plan based on heart rate, which I found last time really helped me focus on keeping easy runs easy and hard runs hard. It also helped me recover better and keep most injuries at bay. 

I do four runs and a couple of strength sessions each week. 

Week 1 Recap

Week 1 was a little bit of a mess because it was the week between Christmas and New Years, and I had travel at both ends of the week. 

I had to get real creative with the workouts and shifted things around a lot. 

The first two runs were at my parents' house on their treadmill because there was ice on the ground. The first workout was a hard hill run, which honestly the treadmill is great for. The second was an easy steady state run. 

When I got back home, I took a rest day and then had another hard workout and my "long run" for the week on back to back days. This worked only because my long run was only 40 minutes. So I squished a week's worth of running into five days instead of seven with my travel. 

Not ideal, but I was proud that I fit all the workouts in. It felt important to set that kind of tone the first week. 

Week 2 Recap

The second week was a little bit better. I largely followed the training program as it was laid out. 

Sunday was a hard tempo run, which I did with the running stroller for an extra challenge (and because taking my kid was the only way the run was going to happen).

Monday was a steady state run and some strength training. 

Tuesday was a rest day, which was so needed because I could definitely tell I was getting sore.

Wednesday was a killer hill workout. I hate hill workouts so much. But I'm trying to keep it together and not start skipping them yet, like I know I likely will as motivation wanes during later training weeks. Conveniently there is a pretty steep and long hill close to my house, so I did an easy warm up and then did 90 second sprints up the hill with a two-minute recovery in between. I was sucking wind by the end.

Thursday was more rest and Friday was a my long run because my husband had to work the weekend, and I didn't want to have to do a stroller run for a long, slow, easy run. Nothing about running with the stroller is easy. 

Overall the first two weeks of training were really solid. As I look ahead, I can already tell I'm going to have to keep getting creative with my schedule to accommodate some more weekends that my husband has to work and some random appointments and other commitments we already have on the calendar. I'm super glad for the running stroller. I suspect there will be plenty of times I'll need to use it to ensure my runs get done. 

Flexibility is also key to any training plan, but I think this time more than ever, I'm going to have to be adaptable, shift workouts, and find a true love for the pitch black, very cold early mornings to make sure I can fit everything in. 

For nearly two decades, I ran in a moderate stability shoe. Through multiple fittings and foot analyses over the years, I was always directed to the same type of shoe, and in fact, I became a brand loyalist swearing by my Mizuno Wave Inspires (this post is from 2012 lol). 

I ran four marathons and countless half marathons, 10Ks and 5Ks and all the training miles that go into those races wearing the same shoe style. 

And then I got pregnant, and my feet changed. 

First I thought it was just a sizing thing. So I bumped up a half size, and then another half size. And that seemed to help in my running shoes. 

But I also wore a pair of custom running inserts in my non-running shoes because it makes them so much more comfortable to walk around in. Because my arch had flattened some and my feet had lengthened, my custom inserts no longer fit. 

It had been on my to-do list forever to get a new pair if insoles made, and finally during my time off in between jobs, I had the chance to do it.

I went over to Road Runner Sports for a new foot analysis to get properly sized insoles. My plan was to just get the insoles. I didn't need new running shoes. My current pair were in fine shape. 

But then the analysis came back showing something unexpected. Not only had my foot gotten longer, my pronation wasn't really a thing anymore. I was shocked. Nearly 20 years needing the same style shoe, I just assumed it's what I would always need. 

I think my mouth was literally hanging open in the running store because I was so surprised. The tech I was working with told me this actually wasn't uncommon. While we waited for the insoles to finish setting, I tried on several pairs of neutral running shoes. He pulled a ton of different models and styles. 

I tried on my very first pair of Hokas. I know so many people who love them, but they weren't for me. I really liked a pair of Brooks and a pair of Ascics that I tried. Running around the store in them felt so good. 

I ended up walking out of the store with my new insoles and a pair of Asics Novablasts. 

I've been running in the new shoes for about two months now, and I cannot believe how quickly I've adapted to neutral running shoes. My feet feel weirdly free to move in a more comfortable way. The only thing I noticed the day after my first run is that my ankle tendons and muscles were a little tired -- probably from working a bit harder to stabilize me without the aid of the stability shoes. 

But that was a one time thing, and now if I slide into a pair of my old shoes just to go for a quick walk I really notice the difference. It's almost uncomfortable and feels like something is pushing my heel in a funny direction. 

I will be curious how things go longer term with neutral shoes, especially given my injury history because of my loose joints (and spending months and months in PT leading up to and during the early parts of my pregnancy to help build stability in my legs).  

This post has been a long time coming! I'm so happy to say I finally, finally, finally was able to run a race with my little guy in the running stroller. 

It took me way longer to get to this milestone than I ever expected it would. 

When I was pregnant, I had big dreams of getting back to running quickly, and either running with the little man or having him be at the finish line of my races. After so many unfortunate setbacks, I finally got to have that moment over the weekend. 

We were in Rehoboth for the Seawitch Festival, and the Seashore Striders put on a race every year to coincide with the festival. 

I had planned to walk this with the running stroller last year, but the baby ended up melting down, and so I just walked it myself. 

But this year, we were both ready to run. 

It was a chilly morning, so he got plenty bundled in the stroller, and I wished I hadn't forgotten to pack my ear warmer since there was a pretty steady breeze. 

We did packet pick up in the morning, let the little guy run around the playground until about 10 minutes before the race start and then we lined up and took off. 

Having never run a race with the stroller before, I started a bit toward the back of the pack. I was trying to be respectful of the other runners and didn't want them to get stuck behind me. Running with the stroller slows my pace down big time.

I didn't have any time goals for this race. I just wanted to enjoy the experience of finally getting to do a race together.

I stuck to the sides of the road where I could and made sure to not get too close to anyone since I didn't want to accidentally nip them in the heel with a stroller tire. 

The first mile of the race was a little bit congested, but I still had plenty of room to maneuver even with the big stroller.  

I felt mostly good through out the race. It's definitely harder to run with the stroller, but I was just so happy to be out racing again. 

It was fun to run along the ocean. We got some really nice views before turning back into some of the neighborhoods to wind our way to the finish. 

Little man seemed pretty chill the whole time. In fact, for a while I think he might have fallen asleep. 

With just about a half mile to go in the race, I was definitely feel the effort of running with the stroller. 

I tried to pick up the pace a tiny bit as the finish line came into view, but a final kick with a big stroller is definitely different than a final kick without. 

We crossed the finish line in 32:21, which was good enough for 9th place in my age group. 

I was getting a little emotional toward the end of the race. It felt like such a big milestone and accomplishment to finally make it to this day. I'm healthy, he's healthy, and I'm finally back to doing something that I love. 

I'm glad I got to share running and racing with my little buddy. I hope to be able to do a lot more of that together in the future.

This summer has been a rough one for running. Even though I got the good news from my podiatrist that my toe wasn't broken, I did still have a pretty nasty bone bruise that took almost a full month to heal. 

On top of that, we had record-breaking heat for almost the entire month of July. That left me doing lots of cross training and zero running. 

The heat has finally broken a bit now, and with my toe all healed, it's been nice to get back to some running over the last couple of weeks.

Right before I hurt my toe back in June, I had run 3.5 miles. It was my longest run since before I was pregnant, and I had been so disappointed when I was laid up with another injury because I felt like my progress was halted again. 

But just this week, I managed to work myself back to 3.5 miles again. It was slow. All my times are slow these days, but it was something. 

There's a 5K I'm hoping to do with my son in the running stroller in October. Knowing that I can manage three miles already is a good sign. I will definitely need to work on my endurance to be able to run with my heavy toddler in a stroller over that distance, but I still have some time for that. 

I'm also hoping to be able to run a few 5Ks and maybe even a five miler on my own later this fall. At this point, the five miler seems maybe a bit ambitious, but we'll see how things go this fall. 

Over the next couple of weeks, my focus is going to be on getting some of my running endurance back. If after a couple of weeks getting comfortable at the 5K distance, I'll see about starting to gradual add on the miles. 

I really miss racing and running in general, so I'm trying to focus on building back slowly to avoid any more injuries, so that I can actually run some of the races I have my eye on this fall. 

We got back from a trip to the beach a couple weeks ago, and while we were there, I got in a couple of great stroller runs and one really lovely solo run. And then I hurt my toe, and I haven't been able to run since. 

I've been slowly increasing the distance I can go with the running stroller over the last few months. Running with a stroller is no joke. Throw a 23 pound baby and some hills into the mix, and I was huffing and puffing after barely a mile. 

I was really looking forward to some flat boardwalk stroller running. With the super hot summer we've been having, even the early morning runs were still pretty challenging. But it was nice to get out, and see some different scenery on our runs. And my child only protested slightly when I needed to take walk breaks. 

I also got in one glorious and lovely run by myself at the beach. With the blistering hot weather, it's been pretty much impossible for me to run over my lunch breaks these days, so it was nice to have a morning where someone else could stay with the kiddo and I could get some much needed solo run time. 

My endurance had been slowly coming back. The week before our beach trip, I did a 3.5 miler. It's a distance I never thought much of before, but these days every slight uptick in mileage is a big win in my book. 

But then the morning I got back from my wonderful solo run, I bashed my pinky toe into a baseboard at our beach house, and I haven't been able to run since. 

I've only been able to wear open-toed shoes (thank goodness it's summer). I got it X-rayed at urgent care when we got back and the doctor told me it was broken, which unfortunately was what I expected given the amount of swelling and discoloration. 

They taped it and gave me a walking shoe and told me to follow up with an orthopedic. 

I left a message for mine, but then the following day, urgent care called me back and told me the radiologist reviewed my X-rays and actually didn't see a break. So maybe it's not broken.

It's been a few weeks now and my toe definitely feels better. I think I'm going to still follow up with the orthopedist even though urgent care told me I didn't need to. 

I still haven't tried to put on a closed toed shoe and I definitely haven't attempt to run. 

I've taken two full weeks off any sort of exercise, and my toe does mainly seem to be doing better. It's less swollen, but if I push on it where the "break" looks like it was in the X-ray it definitely still hurts. 

So just when I was making some major progress on the running front, I have a stupid injury and I'm back to not running. We'll see how long this injury sidelines me. I'm hoping not for too long. I really, really would like to race in the fall, and good fall race times come from tough summer training runs. 

It's been a little over a year since I was medically benched from running because of complications discovered during my 20-week ultrasound when I was pregnant.

I remember how hard and disheartening it was at the time to get scary news about a pregnancy complication and in the same breath find out that all my favorite ways to manage stress (running, working out in general) were largely wiped off the table. 

I cried a lot, but eventually with a few weeks of space from the news, got to a place mentally of knowing this was just a temporary setback. I started plotting my postpartum running comeback. 

But that comeback has been so humbling and not at all what I imagined it would be. 

Originally, I had a target half marathon in mind for March. I figured I had all summer to heal and then in the fall could slowly start building up my mileage and by winter, I'd be back to my normal training volume. 

Then I had all those postpartum health issues and needed surgery again in September, and I threw the idea of a March 2024 half marathon right out the window. 

I set my sights on a five miler in December 2023 instead, thinking maybe I could do a run-walk situation, under the impression from my doctor's initial thoughts that this recovery would be quicker. It wasn't quicker, and that race got thrown out the window too. 

Ever since then, I feel like it's been one step forward and a bunch of steps back trying to get back to regular running. 

I got an initial clearance to slowly work some running into my walks around six to eight weeks after that second surgery. I proceeded cautiously, introducing running in 1 minute increments. Then bumping to 1:30 and 2 minute increments. 

And then I had some more surgery setbacks and more doctor follow ups, and finally, finally in December, I think I was really cleared. 

All that time healing meant, I was unable to run for almost my entire maternity leave, and that was rough. But I told myself that once I was back to work, I'd be able to get back into a running groove. 

Pre-baby, I either worked out before work or over my lunch break. I knew before work was largely going to be out of the question, at least for running, while I'm still breastfeeding. That's a level of discomfort I'm not really into. So I was ready to really embrace lunch time runs. 

And then I went back to work and was so overwhelmed by trying to catch up that for the first three weeks, I don't think I took a single break of more than five minutes. 

As I've settled in more, I've managed to run about once a week, sometimes twice. It's not what I envisioned, but it's better than nothing. 

And I'm finding a new problem cropping up with my toes, that I think is related to perhaps some slight foot growth I had during pregnancy. I got it checked out by a podiatrist and he told me I didn't need to stop running as long as I've adjusted my shoe size.

Now the only other main barrier to getting into a really good running routine is the constant daycare sicknesses that seem to be cycling through our house. Every time I get in a string of consistent runs I feel like we knocked out with another illness. As of now, it's been about two weeks since I've run last because I've had some combo of strep throat, some other upper respiratory virus, maybe bronchitis, and who even knows what else. 

The baby has been home sick from daycare for over a week too now so that's been rough to juggle. 

I'm hoping we're coming out of this phase soon. I'm so antsy to get back to running, especially as the weather is getting nicer. I'm eyeing races for the fall, and I'm hoping I'll get this huge part of my life back soon. 

It's been nearly a year and half since I first started experiencing my hip issues, which then turned into hamstring issues. The last race I ran before shifting into rehab mode was the Rehoboth Beach half back in December 2021. 

That is a long time for me to not lace up my shoes for a race morning starting line.

Recovery from this injury has been slow and full of set backs. I spent several weeks trying to rest, and then do my regular mobility/rehab routines at home. I'd make some progress, but never fully recovered.

After being frustrated with my own lack of progress, in June I visited my orthopedic doctor and got myself into PT. 

This is hands down the longest amount of time I've spent in physical therapy, and let me tell you that is hard for me. I am not patient. When I felt like I was suffering setbacks in August, I was so disheartened. 

But I stuck with all the PT. I've done a million and one balance and stabilization exercises to help provide support for my loose joints. My PT focused on building stability up the entire length of my body. My hips are in a better place and so are my knees. My right ankle is still really wobbly though, so I'm still working on stabilization exercises for that. 

By building all this balance and stability, my body is better able to support me through the motion of running without having to overtax muscles or recruit muscles that really should have anything to do with running and then causing injuries. 

I've mentioned in previous PT posts that I was on a run walk plan starting back in the fall. 

Over time, I've been building up my running stretches and reducing my walking. Yesterday, I felt like I hit a really big milestone. I ran for a full 30 minutes with less than 90 seconds of walking over the course of the run. (See Garmin pic at top of post).

I've also managed to increase my distance from the 2.5 miles that I had been doing during most of my recovery up to 3 miles. 

That might seem like such a small thing, but to me it's a huge sign of improvement. These runs, while so, so much slower than I used to be able to go, have been fairly pain free. 

I definitely feel like I'm starting over, which is hard, but I'm also really grateful that I might finally be seeing the light at the end of this injury tunnel. 

I know I still have a lot to do in terms of maintenance of everything I've been working on in PT as I slowly rebuild my endurance, and then hopefully my speed. But I'm finally seeing some progress, and that's huge.

It's been a little over a month since I first tested positive for Covid, and getting back to running has been kind of tough. 

I got pretty sick with Covid. I was in bed for two days straight, and then on day three and four, it felt like a real victory when I could venture downstairs to the sofa. I had a bad headache, horrible sinus congestion, a mild cough and major fatigue. 

I felt bad for a full week, and it took a solid two weeks for the fatigue to go away, and even then I got winded walking very short distances. 

After all the progress I'd been making in PT slowing building my running back up and getting my hip and hamstring to cooperate, it was so demoralizing to have all that wiped out by one really bad sickness. 

But alas, here we are. 

I attempted my first run about three weeks post-positive test. It was really painfully slow, and involved a lot of walking. Honestly, not really sure you could even call it a run. It was probably more of a walk with some running intervals mixed in. But it happened, and my hamstring was grouchy, but not as grouchy as my lungs. 

I gave myself some more time to recover before trying out a run again. 

The second time I went out was maybe four weeks post-positive test. It was a freakishly warm December day, and I was excited to be outside. But running was hard, and slow. But I did a bit more running than walking this time. It was a good baby step. 

As time has passed, I've tried to increase my number of runs from one per week to two per week. The first week I did that, the first run felt pretty good. But the second run a couple of days later was really hard. 

Just this past week, I ran three times and increased my distance to three miles on one of the runs. (I'd been sticking with a 2.5 mile loop for much of my PT recovery). My times are still really slow, between an 11 and 12 minute mile, and that is so humbling and really hard. When I first started running seriously back in college, I was clocking 12-minute miles. And after years of dedication and persistence, I'd settled in around a 9-9:30 minute mile. I'm no speed demon, but I always felt good about those times. 

To feel like I'm starting over again from the very beginning is just tough. I'm happy to be running, and I know with time my pace and endurance will come back. Right now, this feels like a crappy phase that I need to get through, and I know there's no way to rush it or else I'll just get another injury. 

So that's where things stand. Covid took a big toll on my running. I'm glad to be back to it, but it feels like I'm starting all over. 

Last month when I checked in on my PT progress, I was dealing with a set back, followed by the start of some very early signs of progress. 

One month later, I'm really happy to say, the progress seems to be continuing for the most part. 

Literally turning a corner

At my PT appointment on Tuesday, we did a repeat evaluation of some different exercises that I really struggled with at the start of the summer. I made big improvements in all of them. 

My therapist reminded me that I'd been in therapy working with her since June, and over the course of 14 appointments and many weeks, we have built a lot of stability back into my joints, specifically in my hips. 

Unfortunately for me, my PT starts a new job next week, so Tuesday was my last appointment with her. We'd both been considering whether or not I should "graduate" from PT when she finished since I had made some really good progress.

But last week I had a pretty bad flare up in my hamstring. I can't really pinpoint what triggered it. I largely followed my PT plan and hadn't been pushing it too hard on my running intervals. My PT assured me that sometimes this happens on the long road of recovering from an injury, but it definitely made me not want to graduate just yet.

The main reason being, I didn't want her to close out my case and if things weren't resolving, I'd have to go back to the doctor for another evaluation and then start with a new PT that had no context. 

Instead, our plan is to keep my case active and transfer me to another PT. We're still trying to figure out the exact cadence of appointments going forward. I've been going weekly for a while now, and since I am making progress, I'm hoping we may be able to decrease the frequency.

I got to meet my new PT on Tuesday, and she seems to be really nice, though I will miss working with my current one. After all these months, I feel like we're finally seeing the pay off of all this work, and it's a bit of a bummer we won't be able to finish it out together. 

But in trying to focus on the positives, my hip joints are way more stable and are better able to support me in day-to-day activities. I still have a bit of instability in my right ankle that is likely playing a role in all of this, so we've added in some exercises to specifically target that.

And today for the first time in over a year, I went on an almost pain free run/walk. My running intervals have increased slowly over time and are between 3.5 -4 minutes now, with a two minute walking recovery in between. I didn't feel any real soreness, tightness or pain until the very end of the workout, and it dissipated as soon as I finished. 

I'm holding on to some cautious optimism that maybe I'm finally getting to the end of this very long and drawn out recovery.

So I've officially been in PT for about 2.5 months now, and the last time I checked in, I mentioned that I didn't think I was making too much progress. 

Well since then, I suffered a big set back, and it felt like we had to start all over. 

Sometime in mid-August we were ramping up some of the intensity of my PT exercises, and I was doing a new move where I had a resistance band around my waist and my PT was holding it behind me, and I basically had to walk around the room pulling her behind me. 

At the time this didn't seem to bad and was kind of even fun and funny. 

But the next day, I started feeling a lot of discomfort in my knee. And the day after that, I could barely walk down the stairs I was in some much pain. I emailed my PT right away and she had me back off several things before I came in to see her again. 

I also was waking up in the middle of the night in terrible pain, so I scheduled a follow up appointment with my doctor. I was terrified I had torn my meniscus. I couldn't get in to see him for two more weeks, and when my PT did an assessment at my next appointment, she didn't think I had any structural damage. 

By that point some of the pain had started to ebb, but certain movements still bothered my knee. We basically threw out everything I had been doing in PT up until that point and had to start over. 

I was devastated. There were many, many tears. 

This hip pain has been going on for over a year now. My hamstring has been about 9 months. To have given myself another injury in PT, forcing us to start all over and feeling like I lost 1.5 months of work was beyond frustrating. 

This was the last time I raced, last December, and I was dealing with these issues well before then.

But we started over. I had a new set of exercises that focused first on continued stabilization of my hips and knees. After a couple weeks of that, we added in a few more weight bearing and balance exercises. 

Running was off the table again, and honestly, I was OK with it because I was so scared of another set back. 

About two weeks ago now, I had an assessment at PT to gauge progress. I didn't feel like I had made many gains, but I performed better on all the tests than I had back in June at my intake appointment. I had better balance and less pain. 

At that point, my PT started to add in some trigger point work to specifically target the areas where I was having continued pain. In my hamstring, that seems to have made a significant difference. About a week after that I walked 9 minutes before I felt a single twinge in my hamstring. 

That might not seem like a lot, but it was a really big win for me. I haven't been able to walk without pain in over a year now. So 9 minutes was a lot. 

At my appointment last Monday, she told me it was time to bring back the running intervals. To be honest, I wasn't ready, and I told her as much. I'm afraid of another set back and having to start all over again. 

But she said the only way my body would learn to run without pain again is that if we reintroduced that movement pattern. I have very specific parameters I have to follow. A 10-minute walking warm up, followed by 4-5 sets of two minute intervals. I have to monitor my pain levels and my form, and I'm not allowed to run on consecutive days. 

The first run I did was uncomfortable, and my hamstring didn't feel great when I got home. But I did my PT exercises and the next morning it actually felt pretty good. 

I am still nervous about all of this, and very scared of another set back. But as of now, things actually seem like they might be moving in the right direction finally. 

I know I still have a long road back to where I was running wise, but after a crushing disappointment with August's setback, I'm feeling a bit more hopeful. 

 The last update I shared on my hip/hamstring saga was that I have scheduling an assessment with my orthopedic doctor and guessed I would be sent to PT. 

That's basically what happened. Both my doc and the PT don't seem to think there's major tissue or ligament damage or anything like that, so that's a positive. 

At my first PT appointment, I was prescribed 30 minutes of walking per day and one exercise with a resistance band.

After my week at the beach with my family earlier this summer, my hamstring seemed to be moving in the right direction, and I was feeling cautiously optimistic. 

So my PT let me add in short running intervals to my walks, and we started gradually introducing more strength and balance exercises. 

After watching me do a variety of movement patterns, my PT thinks my issues are stemming from stabilization challenges. Basically that means I've got really loose/flexible joints, and my muscles, ligaments and tendons needs to work a lot harder to keep me stable so I don't topple over. 

She suspects that over time my stabilizing muscles got weaker and that other muscles jumped in to overcompensate since my body didn't want to fall over regularly. 

It's an interesting diagnosis because I've always thought I had decent balance, and I do if I just need to stand on one leg in a stable position for a while. If I have to add in any sort of movement, I topple over quickly. 

Single leg deadlifts -- just with body weight -- require insane amounts of concentration to not fall over. I wobble a ton from side to side and can feel every little muscle in my legs gripping hard. 

So that's what we're working a lot on. My hip seems to be responding well. I really haven't noticed much pain in my hip other than tiny little flare ups here and here. 

My hamstring has been more sore since we've started going down this path. My PT says that's normal, but it's still frustrating because I just want to be able to run again without pain. She says the most important thing right now is managing any pain. So I'm allowed to continue with my 1-2 minute run intervals during my walks as long as the pain stays below a 5 out of 10, and it doesn't change my running form. 

The other key thing is that the pain isn't allowed to linger into the next day. If it does, I need to cut back. So I'm trying to monitor for those things.

I have PT appointments scheduled through the end of the month, and then we'll assess where I am. 

So that's the update. I guess we're making progress, but it just feels really slow. 

I've ignored this blog for basically the entire month of May because I didn't want to write another, "I'm dealing with a nagging injury" post. I kept hoping maybe if I waited just one more week, I could write the "I had this annoying injury, but some time off fixed it and I'm good now" post. But alas, that is not the case. And since this blog has been heavy with book and house updates, and seriously lacking in running updates, I didn't have much to say. 

So here we are, about a month later, dealing with the same hamstring injury I had at this time last year, plus that nagging tight hip flexor that cropped up last summer. Basically I'm falling apart from the waist down. 

The hip thing I've waxed poetic about over the last several months and all the stretching and strengthening work I've been doing to try to alleviate that issue. 

And wouldn't you know it, while I was focused on building strength to help fix my hip issues, I tweaked or pulled or in some way hurt my left hamstring again. I can't place exactly when I first noticed the hamstring tightness creeping in, but by early of May it was pretty clear this wasn't just a tight muscle that needed some extra TLC. 

After my last attempted run, sometime in early May

So for the next several weeks I backed off big time, no running, no lower body strength training, and then eventually even my walks around the neighborhood had to go because walking hurt. I added ice, I took anti-inflammatories. 

But now I'm headed back to the orthopedic doctor and likely another round of PT because I feel like I've got a bit of a chicken and egg situation going on here. What kind of rehab stuff do I need to be doing for my hamstring and my hip? Did my hamstring issues last year, that eventually seemed to heal with time, cause my hip issue that started last August? Or are those things unrelated?

Did my hip issue cause this most recent hamstring issue? Am I messing with my form really badly to accommodate one of these injuries and that is causing the other to worsen? And how in the world do I treat two different injuries on different sides of my body?

Normal PT stuff usually focuses on correcting the muscle imbalances I have on one side to fix the other side. But when I have stuff on both sides what do I do? What do I prioritize? And how in the world do I not lose all my strength and general fitness in the meantime?

I'll be curious what the doctor says, and I really look forward to when I can stop sitting on an icepack every day while I'm working. 

The last time I checked in with a running update, I said I was planning to spend winter focusing on rehab and mobility work for my hip flexor so that I could have a solid base and hopefully pain-free start to spring running season. 

I'd say I had mixed results. I took six full weeks off running after the Rehoboth Half Marathon, and I built in regular foam rolling and PT exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding my hip flexor in order to relieve the tension. 

Digging into my hip flexor with a tennis ball really seems to help, so I've been doing that most days too. 

I've also been far more conscious of how often I get up and move around during the work day. Some days that's easier than others depending on my meeting scheduled, but I'm pretty sure these problems started because of too much sitting tightening my hip flexor, and running just exacerbated the issue.

My pain levels are far lower than they were back in December, which is the good news. The bad news is the pain never completely went away. 

After the six weeks of no running, I started building light amounts of running back in to see how it went. My goal was to see how strong the correlation between running and my hip issues was. And I haven't really been able to tell much. Some days I think they're linked, some days I don't. 

But with good foam rolling, tennis ball rolling and PT exercises, the pain seems manageable. 

So a few weeks ago, I decided to start a half marathon training plan. I've been toying with the idea of running the Frederick Half Marathon or the Baltimore 10 Miler (or maybe both). I love them both as races, and I was eager to get a spring race on the calendar.

The first few weeks of training went well. Hip pain was minimal. I was feeling strong after tempo runs and hill repeats, even though I hate them both.

And then by week four, which is the cut back week that I'm in right now, everything sort of went to heck. I bonked horribly on a six mile run. So much so that I suffered through 1.5 miles and then had to walk the rest of the way home. I think it was a fueling issue, but it was really severe and not like any level of bonking I've experienced before -- especially on a run of that distance. It was a cold and miserable day and I couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got home. 

I've had pretty low energy levels in the few days since, even though I've been intentionally eating a lot more calories than normal to get me out of whatever calorie deficit I accidentally got myself in, and trying to make sure I get a decent night's sleep.

But my motivation for distance running right now is just completely in the toilet. It's normal for it to dip at times during a training cycle, but not normally this early, and definitely not this badly. 

So, I'm taking some time to reassess. In theory, I'd still like to run some spring races, but I've got to get my energy levels and motivation back and figure out some fueling so I don't ever bonk as badly as I did on Saturday.

Now that my race season is officially over, I'm settling into the offseason. My focus for the offseason this year is to finally get to the bottom of my hip and hamstring issues and build a solid foundation to move into spring and next year's training cycles. 

These hamstring and hip issues have been a bother since basically the spring. It started with my left hamstring, then that seemed to heal. But immediately after my right hip flexor flared up. By the time I ran the Rehoboth Half, I was dealing with both my right hip flexor soreness, and my left hamstring was back causing problems too. 

I'm fairly convinced these two things are linked, and I'm assuming I changed my form in the summer to address the hamstring issue and that likely caused the hip issue. 

So, the offseason is the time to fix that. Despite that fact that I've been more focused than ever on strength training to conquer muscle imbalances, I think the culprit here is still weak glutes. 

I've scheduled an appointment for next week to get both my hip and hamstring worked on. I'm hoping if I can start by releasing some of the built up tension and soreness, I can move forward with a focused regimen of targeted glute strength and hip mobility work. 

I'm also putting myself on a forced hiatus from running until after that appointment. It's been killing me inside because we've had some unseasonably warm days lately and I've really wanted to run, but I can tell these two weeks off have definitely helped my hip. So walks and strength training only for now. 

After next week's assessment, I hope to be able to focus on building a solid foundation to eventually layer running back in. My first step is finding a mobility plan that I will actually commit to doing on a daily basis. This has always been a struggle for me. I tend to be really good about it for a week and then fall off pretty quickly. 

The second element of my offseason training plan is to dedicate one of my strength training workouts to runner-specific moves that target the glutes and hips. Most of my strength workouts are full body efforts, so those muscles definitely get hit. But it's proven to not be quite enough, so I want to take a more targeted approach. 

And the last thing will just be maintaining a steady base of running -- as soon as my hamstring and hip allow. The best part about winter running is that you don't have to get up before the sun to beat the heat and humidity, so I plan to enjoy lunch time runs and later morning runs on the weekend. 

My hope is that with this focus on rehab and building this strong foundation that when it comes time to pick races for 2022 and start training, I'll be ready to go.

I'm officially through the base and build phases of my training plan, and I'm just starting my second cut back week. 

The less intense, lower volume week of training couldn't have come at a better times. My legs were definitely starting to feel some of the cumulative fatigue of training. I had a nine mile long run on Saturday, and it was a bit rocky. 

I felt really sluggish going out, and didn't seem to find any energy until I took in some more fuel around mile four. I started feeling a better, but the hills in my neighborhood really beat me up over the course of this run. 

Living in a hilly neighborhood is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to training. It's great for building endurance, but man on those long runs they just really destroy your legs. 

Training by heart rate is still going really well.

It's still humbling how slow I have to run to keep my heart rate in zone two for my recovery runs, but I can tell my legs really appreciate when I run my easy runs at the easier pace that I'm supposed to be doing them.

I'm also still really enjoying this training plan overall. I like the variety of workouts between the base and build phases. And looking ahead at the peak weeks I have coming up, I like seeing those workouts are varied too. 

Typically, by this point in a training plan, I'm a bit burned out and really bored of the repetitiveness of a lot of the plans I've used in the past. But I'm not experiencing that just yet, and I'm still mainly looking forward to my runs, even when my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m.

My first of two half marathons is five weeks away. All I have left after this cut back week is two weeks of peak training and then some taper. 

I'm super excited to have an in-person race to look forward to. This training cycle has been so much more enjoyable than last year, and I think it's because I have a real live race to look forward to. 

One of the things I'm so excited about this fall is that in-person races are back! I was pumped over the summer, but also a bit hesitant to pull the trigger on any registrations because I was having all those hamstring issues.

But by August, my hamstring issues had faded, and I signed up for a handful of races.

I'm running the Bay Bridge 10K on Oct. 31, the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in DC on Nov. 13, and the Rehoboth Seashore Half Marathon on Dec. 4. 

All these races were far enough away that I figured I'd be able to build a solid training base after not racing for a really long time. 

I also decided to try a new-to-me kind of training plan for this training cycle. This training plan bases all your workouts on heart rate rather than on set mileage or set time goals. I thought maybe a heart-rate based training plan would help me avoid over training and potential injuries.

Granted, my hip/IT band/piriformis has been tight since before I started the training plan, but just about one month in, and I'm happy to report that I don't have any new injuries cropping up.

While overall I've been enjoying training in a different way, there are a few things that have been a huge adjustment for me.

First, all the workouts are based on a certain amount of time spent in each of the five major heart rate zones. I'm so used to a training plan that tells me how many miles I have to go out and run each day. This time-based method is a really big mental shift, but it's been good for me.

With mileage-based training plans, I always tried to push myself to get the miles done as quick as possible before I had to start my work day. That often meant I was running my "easy" runs at a pace that was way too fast. 

Now, my workouts are a set amount of time. I don't need to worry how many miles I cover in that time, I just know how much time I need to set aside to finish the workout. 

The second thing that I've realized is that running easy enough is actually really hard for me. My recovery runs are all supposed to be in zone 2, which is only about 65-75% of my max heart rate. For me, that means I need to run really slow to keep my heart rate that low. We're talking sometimes 11 minute miles here. That is really humbling because it feels so painfully slow to me. 

But if I start picking up the pace too much, I pretty quickly move into the next heart rate zone, which means I'm not treating the run as a recovery run. I've found a screen on my GPS watch/heart rate monitor that doesn't show distance, so while I'm in the middle of a workout, I can just see what zone I'm currently working in and the overall elapsed time of the workout. Not seeing my distance or pace per mile helps me worry a lot less on my pace.

The other thing that has been a major struggle for me is getting into zone 5 when I need to. Zone five is the hardest working zone, and I've had one workout each week that requires either hill sprints or some other kind of sprint where you are supposed to be in zone five for 60-90 seconds. But no matter how hard I sprint and no matter how steep the hill is, I have never been able to get my heart rate into zone five. I've gotten basically to the upper limit of zone four, but I'm failing to cross into zone five. 

I'm not sure that this is a huge deal since upper zone four is still really hard, and I feel like I'm still reaping the benefits of my sprints. But it's just one of those things that bugs me.

The last thing I really love about this plan is that I feel like each of my runs has more purpose. Tempo runs have become much more bearable when I only have to worry about holding a certain target heart rate zone for a certain amount of time rather than holding a specific pace. I always struggled to do pace-based tempo runs, but I've been doing pretty well with these heart rate tempo runs. They're still really hard, but I don't beat myself up if my pace wavers because my heart rate shows that I'm still working hard. 

So one month in, I'm really happy with this plan. I'm enjoying my runs more and hopefully I'll have a really strong training base when race day rolls around.