Stopping By The Woods

I have decided to take both today and tomorrow off from running. This pains me in spirit, but I need to address the physical pain in order to get back to the activity level I am currently pursuing. I feel a significant pain in my right outer hip and thigh area. From what I understand after reading about it so far, it’s an overuse injury of the hip flexor variety. I suspect that on the right side, my tensor fasciae latae muscle and possibly the iliotibial band near the hip have become inflamed. It could also be bursitis at the hip. I will need to address this with ice packs and anti-inflammatories, as well as stretching. Stretching is the area I need to focus on most, I think. I have so not paid the attention to that. I have a race on Thursday I am signed up for, and I intend to run it. (I will be doing some serious but gentle stretching before and after.) But I may scale back and not run on Friday or Saturday after the race.