Hernia!

Well, I vowed to stay injury-free, which I have. Running injuries anyway. But...I developed a hernia! It's an inguinal hernia, which is a small bump in the groin area - basically, the intestine coming though a hole in the abdominal cavity.
Men are susceptible to this as they get older (8 times more than women).

Sounds bad, but it's not, really. I'd had this bump for a while, which I thought nothing of, then it began to hurt a bit on a run about two weeks ago, and I realized, Oh, that's a hernia.

I had been running six days a week, and had ramped up the mileage the previous three weeks. So I cut back to five days a week, and it didn't hurt anymore. Even during a 5k time trial and 1000m x 6 interval workout.

The problem is, hernias don't heal on their own. They might not get worse, but on the other hand, they might. And I didn't want it to get worse in October or November when I have races (especially in the middle of a race!), or in September when I have to train harder for those races.

So I decided to have surgery to fix it. It's minor surgery - they make an incision and cover the thing with a piece of mesh. (There's also another type, but this one is simpler).
I need to lead our Kamakura beach run on the 28th, so will go into the hospital on the 29th, for a 3-4 day stay. Then the doctor says I can't run for a month (web says 3 weeks, so I may try it then).

So basically no running in August, although I can walk and bike. I'll try to walk a lot.

If it ain't one thing, it's another!

If anyone has had experience with a hernia, let me know.

Hope you don't get any bumps.