Any particular reason for an elephant Tik?
Mel is your daughter canadian? And are you for that matter?

Sorority mascot. Little cute one with the trunk up.

Tiki

IC, with the trunk up it's also good luck!

I've always wanted one as well, but am also to chicken. Although, I may do it yet this year. Considering a fleur-de-lys, but not sure where yet. Maybe on my hip? LOL!
Cindy

Hold it a sec...we're all girls here - how can we be Numb Nuts???

No tats for this girl...no desire for one - Jim has one and I just share it with him. (it's Ozzy, BTW - he had it done back in the VERY early 80's...)

soooo true Karen! Numb Nuts

Lanaii: I get this type of pain a lot, always have. My chiro said it was a combination of small tears in the muscle, ligaments, and tendons around the hip/pelvic girdle, and some trauma to the bone. It gets worse if you pound on pavement more. It's also aggravated if you have wide hips and your leg bones attach to the hips at a slight angle, with your feet close together. If you consciously hold your feet a little farther apart when you walk and jog (shoulder width), it may help. Ditto the thigh machine, as the lady above suggested, but not if the area is already in pain, let it subside and heal first.

My chiro and my doctor both told me not to keep on aggravating it by pounding every day, especially as I get older. So some completely non-traumatic cross-training exercise like elliptical or swimming is good. They also warned against cortisone, it can be a miracle, but it's a hormone, and it can really mess up some people's endocrine systems. They only want me to take aspirin. Hope that helps.

Thank you Seek, that makes alot of sense... I do run every second or third day... It's not the running that hurts the most... but it makes a lot of sense to me about the biking and having my feet close together and my hips are wide...AND walking or running on pavement...Thank you so much for that info....

Do you, or anyone else, know of some good stretches? I could do before and after a workout. Something different because I already do some, maybe I should do more...

The first thing that comes to mind is: DON'T BOUNCE! But you probably already knew that. Also don't stretch until AFTER you have warmed up, because that just causes more tears. It's like a rubber band: if you put it in the freezer, and tried to pull on it, it might snap, but its easy to stretch it at room temperature. So maybe get on the elliptical, NOT the treadmill, for five minutes at a very gentle low level, get the blood flowing, then stretch.

Forget the "hurdler's stretch" and anything else that pulls your body too far out of alignment-- that went out with the dark ages. Stretch very, very slowly, and do a little less stretching rather than a little too much. It's easy to tear things stretching.

Stretching is great, but it won't cure injuries you've already got. For that I'd say "active rest" is best-- and considering how much you're stressing your legs, how about some swimming? Taking a load off your feet and releasing them from gravity could really give them a good chance to repair properly. And you can stretch your hips in the pool in three dimensions, without putting weight on them.

That really, really helps me and it's not possible on land. Personally, if I didn't get in the pool every few days, I couldn't do this at all, I'd be in too much pain.

Ilene- Husband, daughter and son are Canadian. I'm the lone murcun in the family. He grew up in Welland, and we lived in TO for about 5 years before moving south.

Mel -- So the Yank in you pulled away a few good Canuck?

Seek -- Thank you for the advise... Swimming is not my favorite activity at all, I take a water aerobic class in the summer and enjoy it, but by the end of the summer I've had enough... Even with our own pool I have the same feeling.... This is really silly but what I dislike about swimming is being wet and taking off a wet bathing suit! I know it's stupid but I really hate rolling off a wet bathing suit. I love swimming at night in the dark KWIM? I will TRY to take it easy...

Tatoos! I'm 45 and decided I'm going to get one. After I gained and lost weight, committed to consistent exercise, and deleted donuts from my diet for oatmeal and cottage cheese, I'm getting something very similar to the Turning Leaf wine logo on my shoulder blade. A small, pretty turning leaf to remind me that these changes are permanent.

Mel - You are WAY cuter than the weight lifting chick you had on your first avatar!

Geoducky, that sounds really nice. That's kind of what I want to do - get one that means something like that to me. My problem is that although I like the shoulder blade or lower back locations, I want to be able to see it too!
Cindy

I second that, Tiki!