Alright, alright, slow down...

Went up to Philly to race an 800 yesterday. Didn't go exactly to plan...ran 1:57 which is better than I've done in the past but I know I'm faster than that right now. Race went out slow, about 58-59, so I decided to make a move with 300 to go. I think in retrospect I could've waited another 50m before making the move but at the time I wanted to be aggressive.

Continuing with the hindsight aspect I probably shouldn't have even raced on Monday. It didn't really have to do with the race on Thursday, I felt recovered from that on Saturday. It was more having to work both days of the weekend, plus working the Pacers Running Festival on Sunday before working the store just wiped me out. Then on the drive up my hip started to bug me and felt a little tight before the race. I decided to shrug it off and figured it would warm up as the race went on. Well when I went for that move at 300, it felt a like it tweaked a bit, then when I went to go a little harder the last 100 it really messed it up. I basically limped around the rest of the time up in Philly. The 3 hour drive back didn't help it any, had a rough night of sleep. Was still limping this morning, luckily, Julie (who I probably should have listened to in the first place and just not raced) got me in to see Dr. Beck.

My hip probably popped about 15 different ways while I was there. It definitely felt better after he was done but it's something I'm going to have to be very diligent about. I took today off just to rest it. I'll take it fairly easy this week and just make sure I'm 100% for my next race.

3:55 was a big step, and I think I let it affect my decision making on this race. I should have been comfortable enough knowing I'm in good shape now and that if my body is telling me its tired, beat up and hurting, then I shouldn't be lining up to race. I also need to make sure I'm setting myself up to do well by doing more of the little things to improve my running. Getting more rest, creating less stressful situations for myself, and being a little more selfish. Selfish doesn't mean being an ass to people, but more aware that if I'm racing, I can't be doing a million different things for people the day before the race.

Thanks to Heather for letting me borrow her car to get up there, and to Wade for setting the work schedule up so that I could go up for the race. Next time I travel for a meet I'm definitely coming home with a better result than this one.