Rest. Ice. Stretch and foam roll (yeah, I made it a verb. What?). Pop glucosamine tablets. Pop anti-inflammatories. Get a massage.
I’ve tried all of these remedies to soothe my sore hip. I’ve also spent way too much time searching for helpful tidbits online, and I thought I’d share some of the best links here.
This Runner’s World story provides some great tips for getting your head in the right place, and offers real-world experience from Kara Goucher, who says being injured made her realize that she is more than a runner — she is a person who loves to run. If she can wrap her brain around that, certainly, I can, too.
Other take-aways: Almost all runners — some research suggests 70 percent per calendar year — end up with an injury at some point. Almost all runners recover from those injuries. Stay positive. Focus on recovery, using it as an opportunity to strengthen weak muscle groups. And if it helps, hang out with your running buddies off the road.
Other resources I’ve found helpful:
Runner’s World Injury Prevention Guide: This link takes you to the mother of all injury-prevention pages, with links to everything from exercises to strengthen weak muscle groups to a “What Hurts” database that helps diagnose aches and pains.
Running Times guide to injury prevention and recovery. This offers insights from MDs, professional marathoners and others, and explains why things like ice, massage and stretching help.
This Running Times spread about cross-training explains how cross-training can actually make you a faster runner, starting with an anecdote about how Alberto Salazar qualified for the Olympic team after a two-month hiatus from running, relying on swimming as his primary activity following an IT band injury.
This Amby Burfoot blog post about coping with injuries offers some great tips and insights. Says Burfoot: “We all get injured eventually. Like, 100 percent of us … it’s no big deal, since 100 percent of us also recover from our running injuries.”
Playing the Pain Game from active.com
Have a great injury-prevention link? Share it by posting a comment!
Looking for inspiration to cross-train — or just to train? Read about Runner, triathlete and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty who Men’s Fitness has named in its list of the 25 fittest men. This is no small feat, considering “fittest” includes Rafael Nadal and Tim Tebow.
Amy Reinink 
Yeaaa reppin’ DC as one of the “the fittest”! I love that! Also love that quote from kara “she is a person who loves to run”. Looks like you done a lot of research – I hope that hip shapes up and starts to feel better! I have yet to experience such an injury from running (knock. on. wood!) – so nothing to add to the list, but wow, this is something I’ll look back on when needed!
injuries teach us a lot about what we love and enjoy, ourselves, and how to take care of both. hope you don’t have time to learn too much though so you can be back out running! 🙂
What a nice sentiment. I think my hip might hurt a little less now. Thanks. 🙂
Great resources. Who needs doctors when you have the Internet anyways?! Seriously, the Internet is a great resource for minor aches and pains along with prevention of major injuries.