Update

So......it has been over a year since I raced. That was the 1/2 Run to Remember, where my groin finally let go and I was subsequently sidlined for about 2 solid months. I have been struggling to get back at it, averaging a little over 20 miles a week. I think my biggest problem now is weight. I raced the marathon Fall of 2011 at 175lbs and I weighed myself last night at 190. I've had a bunch of calve issues and all around soreness. On the plus side I started doing a weight/circuit type class about once a week-I think this will help w/ some of my flexibility issues etc. I don't have any real specific goals, just to get my weight down, crosstrain for flexibility and log consistent miles.

3 milers back to back to back....wow?

I've been averaging about 24 miles a week for 3 months now, running 5-6 days per week. So must of my runs have been 4-6 miles. I still don't think the groin/ab issue is solved, but it is manageable for now. I may try to check out a sports (running) specialist at Tufts if this thing flares up again. But for now keeping my mileage low and mt frequency up seems to be doing the trick. I ran 7.5 mile runs 3 days in a row this week, mainly because I had the time off from work during Christmas but it will be a good test to see how the mid section holds up. Maybe I'll even pencil myself in for a 5k or 4mile race to push it in January.

PLODDING

Been running close to daily now. Haven't pushed it more than 5 miles at all and so far so good. I need to lose some weight!!!! At around 3-4miles I feel my right (and sometimes both) groin start to tighten up, nervous as hell not to reinjure  it. Figure when I get to a point where I run 4 without any incidents I'll start to push a little longer. I've been mixing in some situps in an effor to build some core strength and flexibility.

Am I still a runner?

30 days off and it sure doesn't feel like it, will I ever get back to relaxing runs?

5 weeks of PT

After a trip to my primary care, referral to my surgeon, referral to a sports dr and forward to a PT, hopefully I'm making progress. After the 1/2 I basically could no longer do a situp or get out of bed without pain, I had pain radiating in my lower stomach and right groin. So I stopped running and for the last 5 weeks have been going to PT  twice a week. 15 minutes of electrodes followed by 30 minutes of hard message, not particularly enjoyable. But I have no pain getting out of bed and just went to a 2 mile run yesterday and a 3 mile run today pain free. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but I am hoping I can get up to speed. This might take a while.

Run to Remember 1/2 Marathon

Nothing great to report about here. Still struggling with the groin pain and plodded through this one in 1:35. I ran the first 11 miles with my college friend Mike, a former UMass rower, I ran the last 2 miles hard and put some distance on him, just to see what my body could do. But not feeling the flow here, 7:20 pace should feel a lot better than that. The pain in my abdomen is back, I visited my primary care who said ice and ibuprofen and see a surgeon to rule out inguinal hernia. I keep reading about sports hernia and all these surgeries keep coming up, not good. Hoping it doesn;t have anything to do with the appendix cancer i had a few years ago. I'll schedule an appointment with my surgeon to check it out. Originally felt it after the 1/2 I ran last fall, summed it up as week muscles from my lack of core work and the back to back surgeries I had down there. Did some fall racing and marathon and backed of for a few months, started back up and seems like whenever I try to run hard it comes back.

East Boston Track.....kind of 400-800-1600-800-400

Did a little more track work this week. Mostly because it was windy and the airport loop I usually go on suck when it is windy. Fortunately the track in East Boston is somewhat sheltered. So here it is, 1 mile warmup, 1.5 cool down, 400 jog in between intervals:
400-1:37
800-3:31
1600-7:00
800-3:37
400-1:32