Pain-Free Days, and an Injury

I am slowly getting back into civilization after being snowed in for basically two days. It was fun and cozy for about six seconds and then just boring. I am NOT one of those types who can cuddle up in my favorite pajamas and spend a Saturday in bed; I go totally stir-crazy.

Today was one of those relatively uneventful-but-nice days. I went to the gym in the morning followed by the DMV to renew the registration for my car; this errand had been hanging over my head and I am SO glad to have it done. Then I worked in a coffee shop for a few hours before getting an eyebrow wax (IT WAS TIME), and then stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner.

There are still moments when I have to pinch myself. I can't believe how much pain I used to walk around with on a daily basis. Like, gosh, for example: today when I went to pay for the wax, I realized that I'd left my wallet in the car. Six months ago, the thought of having to trek back across the parking lot to get it would have been overwhelming. Today, it didn't even faze me; I bopped back and forth across that parking lot like it was my JOB, even thinking how nice it was to be in the fresh air. Thinking how nice it was not to be in pain. Thinking: how did I survive that?

In other news, I think I've aggravated an old hip injury. Back when I was a wee thing of fourteen in my first season of cross country, I strained my hip flexor—the muscles connecting the thigh to the pelvis, in the groinal area—and it still acts up occasionally when I'm being lazy about stretching and stuff.

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This time, I am actually unsure of how I injured it; I haven't been running much this past week due to the damn snow, so if anything my body should be THANKING me for all the leisure time it's getting. (Hear that, body? YOU'RE WELCOME.) I just noticed the hip flexor pain randomly the other day while puttering around my apartment, and couldn't figure out how it happened. I am kind of frustrated that I seem to be so injury-prone, but I guess what with the weight gain, increase in mileage, the cold, and the lack of basic injury prevention (I'm terrible about stretching and icing and all that). My hips seem to be my trouble spot running-wise, although I have to say that this type of muscle/tendon pain is almost a relief compared to the nerve pain, which was so frighteningly unpredictable and baffling. I don't know how else to describe it, really, except that running injuries make sense to me while the nerve pain was this giant, never-ending mystery. It's kind of nice to type in "hip flexor strain" to The Google and get a bajillion hits, rather than having to track down doctors in the remote corners of the earth (or, in the case of Dr. A, a densely-populated US city).

Anyway, if I had a point, I forget what it was. For now I am just icing and stretching, and hoping this stupid hip thing will resolve itself quickly. Even with all the improvements in my eating and body image and general food-related logic, it still drives me up the wall to consider taking a week off, although it may have to come to that.