Apparently, I'm now on another break.

Pain over the weekend post runs was so bad I decided to call a doc. My strategy of hoping things would get better if I just ran more - like I do. Every. Single. Time. - failed again. Who can understand these things, anyway?

I found a sports med guy who came highly recommended, called the office Monday and asked for an appointment.

"Sure! What's your birthdate?"

"1-17-59."

"Oh...sorry, sir, Dr. A. doesn't see patients your age."

"Excuse me?"

"Let me schedule you with our hip specialist, Dr. P."

"Um, this is a sports injury and it's not my hip. It's my upper IT Band. I need a sports med specialist."

"Yeah, well, Dr. P. is really good with older patients."

"OK, fine." It wasn't fine, but I'm nothing if not a pushover. But our first conversation was going to be about running marathons, not arthritis. If he wants to give me a new hip, I'm outta there.

As it happened, Dr. P. had an opening the next day, so I took my old hip and went to see him. I made it as clear as I could to Andy, the guy intaking me, that I wasn't some cranky old guy with a bad hip (OK, the cranky old guy part was true), but an athlete with an injury who needed to get back to running marathons. He seemed to get it, and assured me that Dr. P. was a good guy for me. They took some x-rays of my pelvic area, including the upper femur where the problem is, then I sat down to wait. It wasn't too long, so there was one in the plus column.

Dr. P. was about 40, I'd guess. Tall, slim. Probably a basketball or volleyball player in his younger days. He payed attention when I told him my history and the fateful day last September at the Ragnar. We looked at my x-rays together and he showed me where there was some very slight narrowing in the right hip, but nothing that would explain any pain and certainly nothing for him to do anything with. He moved my leg around, pinpointing the upper IT Band spot that's at the root of this whole mess.

Sadly, there's no magic bullet. I'm off the roads for six weeks now while I do another round of PT. This time focusing on the IT Band. Last time my back and hip were hurting so much I couldn't get there.

In other news, four weeks on Metformin now for my blood glucose, and three weeks of testing every morning. I was averaging 142, with a low of 128 and a high of 160. This morning was 114. I went from once a day to twice last week, so maybe it's finally starting to work.

The kids in Idaho are moving this week. They found a place for $300 less than the first place they were looking at, just a couple of miles from where they work. The previous tenants left their washer and dryer. The dryer wasn't working but they get to keep the washer. This also means I am driving out with a pickup load of furniture for them next weekend. Last time I had a long solo road trip was 2006 or 7, I think. This'll be great.

Finally got around to rotating the tires on Mrs. Dave's CR-V. Stripped the threads on one of the lugs putting them back on. So that turned into a 2 hours job getting a new lug and nut and replacing them. I hate working on cars. So much.

I also hate not running.