A little update on my hip injury, in case anyone is curious. I visited a chiropractor for the first time ever today, hoping to get an actual diagnosis of my hip issue. I'll admit, I was a skeptic, but my husband swears by it and it was pretty cool! I DID get a diagnosis and also found out I probably need different running shoes. I have a hip flexor strain, which I keep re-aggravating by trying to run on it. It's definitely not a tear - whew!
It turns out that I have a slight pronation and somewhat low arches. To his credit, the chiro didn't condemn the running store folks who assessed me as neutral in both areas back in March. He also didn't go for the hard sell on orthotics, though did give me a basic 101 on them and told me to do some research. My foot issues are minimal enough that they probably just did not to affect me when I first started running, especially in brand new shoes. Now that I’ve been doing it a while, my stride and posture have become more consistent over time. Makes sense and no longer matches my original analysis when I was a brand new runner. I'm also to the point mileage wise where I was starting to look at replacing my shoes. All of the timing makes perfect sense.
So for now, a few more visits to make sure things are going in the right direction, heat/ice and rest, and shoe shopping. When I start running again it will be in new kicks. Huzzah!