I am in the doldrums.  I officially stopped any sort of training plan last November 1st, planning to take a couple weeks to let my sore glute heal up.  I have run a total of 6 times since then, no more than 2 miles each time, and I still sit here with my sore glute.  I’ve been to a great running doc, and done about 9 physical therapy sessions.  I have a whole battery of physical therapy exercises I can/should be doing according to my PT to strengthen muscles that were weakened by injury, or overstrained by injury compensation.  PT convinced me that I need to cross-train seriously, which I never did.  But I’m also convinced that PT exercises are exceedingly boring!  And I’m hearing from more and more athletes that they don’t think long term PT is an answer – they suggest chiro, osteopaths, acupuncture.

But I’m climbing the walls and want to run.  In my search for something interesting to do besides PT, I discovered Yoga, which is a Good Thing.  I also re-discovered lap swimming.  My upper body strength is better than it’s been in several years.  All of those are good, but none of them scratch the itch that running scratches.

My 2009 race plans are now just race dreams.  The Sawtooth 100 is definitely out the window for 2009.  The Superior Trail 50 is probably a fantasy, but I can’t quite let go yet.  I will be lucky to get a 50k in this Spring.

My only plans at this point are to get a few more pool sessions in to build up a bit of cardio, then starting running again but very short easy distances – maybe 2 miles, maybe a few times per week.