Rough End of Summer: Looking ahead

A lot has happened since August. There were big highs, and  very low lows. For the  first time in my skiing career, I have to really sit out, and more than just a couple days. And although things have been rough, it's easy to look ahead with a positive spirit when I have my amazing teammates around.
My hilarious teammates

The Cross Country season started off really good. The day before the season started I put in a distance ski, so when we had a 1.5 mile time trial, I expected to be a little farther back from previous times. I was pumped to tie my fastest time on that course and only be a couple seconds off the girl's course record. I continued to run and ski, along to fit lifting into my crazy schedule and by the time we raced on Thursday, our own little track meet under the lights, I still felt good and strong. I pulled off a good race, won the event by a minute and I had really pushed myself, even though I was running by myself. 
Mimi's Mile: The first track meet

The problem came after the race.I decided I wanted to put in more miles so I convinced my friend to do a lengthier cool down after the meet. We were just on the way back when I got a pretty sudden pain in the hip area, and walked back to the car. From then on it's been a lot of walking...... and there isn't really an end in sight right now. 

The first couple days I took complete rest days. The Monday after I raced in the annual Hoof & Bike a 13.5 mile half bike/running race our team always does. I was suppose to 'go easy' but once my competitive spirit got lit, I stupidly raced it. I took more days off, went easy, stepped out of race and finally after 3 weeks of not feeling better, I went to a Masseuse. After my first painful night I actually felt better and loose and decided to race two days later.
Hoof and Bike

The race went okay. I mean I felt out of shape, but that was really the only bad part of the race (I guess if you don't count the extraditing heat) . My hip felt okay, until my cool down where I started to get the pain again. The next morning I ran very easy. But it was one of the most painful 4 mile runs I've ever been on. 
Pain face on at Irish

Right now, it's really hard for me watching my teammates do the workouts without me. Not only do I miss the feeling and satisfaction of getting better, but the closeness I feel to my teammates after a hard workout, and just generally doing hard workouts. I'm going to a real doctor later this week, and getting an MRI soon, but hopefully this means I'm back on my feet again and working towards those hardy goals once again! 




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