I have had an incredible run of my body feeling well. Then the other day my hip flared up. If you are training hard, it's unreasonable to think your body will not betray you.
Going back a bunch of years when I started to work on my conditioning I saw a guy running a trail that I was struggling to simply walk. My jealous interal voice screamed "A$$hole!" Fast forward over a decade and I am now one of those a$$holes who runs the trails.
Thursday I was halfway through one and I felt a little something something in my hip. In retrospect, I should have stopped and walked the rest of the way. Although I have gotten much better at pulling back when I need to, I clearly have not mastered that skill.
Presently, my hip is pretty jacked up. It's not my first rodeo. I need to give it rest. I have learned enough that I need to take a week off from lower body training even if it feels ok. That's the point. This whole training thing is a learning process.
I have stopped searching for training nirvana. Improvement happens through adaptation. If you are not pushing yourself you're not going to improve. And if you are pushing yourself hard, you're going to have setbacks. It would be unreasonable to think otherwise.
With all this in mind, I have stopped beating myself over the feeling that I should know better. Although I am not perfect, I am getting much better at mitigating damage. Aim for progress, not perfection.
