Too Much Running

I started running, very slowly, in 1977. Within a year I did my first marathon. I did a half dozen marathons before cutting back to shorter distances - marathons weren't getting any easier and I wasn't getting any faster. It also took a lot of time training. I was running about 70 miles a week which, at my running speed took quite a while.

So, I settled into a routine of running 30-40 miles a week. I kept that up for nearly 25 years. Hmm, that adds up to over 35,000 miles - the equivalent of running around the world one and a half times. Then, just for fun, I started playing basketball 5 or 6 hours a week on concrete courts. It was indeed a lot of fun so I did it for about 7 years in the '90s. The last year or two I started having some pain in my right hip. It would usually go away after I got warmed up so I didn't pay much attention to it. And I thought it was some muscle-related pain - it never occurred to me that the actual hip joint could be wearing out.

Doh!

Finally I saw an orthopedic surgeon about 7 years ago. It took him about 30 seconds to diagnose the problem - most of the cartilage in the right hip was gone and there was bone-on-bone contact. Now that I understood the problem, I ... continued running for about another year, albeit less often and fewer miles. It hurt.

About 6 years ago it had become too painful to run and I started doing yoga instead - about 3 or 4 years too late, I fear.