Archive for August, 2010

Latest Run

I completed a 4 mile run tonight. I used a knee brace just to help support me knee. I was really nervous about my IT band.

My muscles felt really sore especially my quads and my glutes. I was really nervous about that. My current theory related to my IT band issues is that I do fine until my legs and glutes get tired and then I start to put too much strain on my IT band. I’m not sure if my form breaks down, or if it is just a fatigue thing. At any rate, the fact that I had sore muscles out of the gate was a bad sign. I feared the worst.

The whole run I tried to focus on form. I tilted my hips up and held in my abs tightly. I’m not exactly sure how one is supposed to breath with their abs tight, or lean forward with their hips turned up. More and more I am thinking that runners must be disfigured freaks because I can’t seem to do those things. To tangent on the tangent, wow that makes my head hurt, running is starting to feel like golf where they tell you to do a million things at once in a process that is a second long and then tell you to relax. Yeah right.

Anyway, I figured if I could go 2 miles without pain I would make it. I know that was wishful thinking, but still.

The good news is that I made the 2 miles without incident. The even better news is that I made the whole trip home with no pain at all. When I took off the knee brace my knee felt fresh and my IT band felt fine!

I am going to keep up the PT on my own. I have incorporated a bunch more exercises into my PT to try to strength my legs completely. I now do stretches and foam roll my IT bands every day. My IT band feels much looser now, and I hardly have any pain at all when I foam roll. A couple of weeks ago I was in agony, so that is good news.

On my off days from running I do a whole slew of exercises including 100 squats, 50 each of 5 different leg lifts hitting all different angles, and several other kinds of exercises and jumps. I think it takes me 45 minutes or so to get through all of the exercises and stretches and I hope it pays off.

I’m currently in survival mode, so I plan to continue wearing the knee brace and doing 4 minute run/1 minute walks for the rest of the year. I know that it will probably result in less strengthening benefit from my runs, but I think that the benefit of a healed IT band and no pain while running far outweigh the risks.

On Thursday a 6 miler, that should be interesting.


My recovery!

So wow, what a couple of months.  I took May through the beginning of July off from running completely to let my left knee recover. I did tons of physical therapy and stretching and starting running again at the end of July. I started with a 2 minute walk, 2 minute run. Every 2 days I would adjust. I followed that up with ART treatments. By August I was ready to run non-stop. I completed the Petit 5K taking it easy, and have continued to build up my mileage for the Hartford half marathon in October.

Things with my left knee are really pretty much perfect. A couple of weeks ago, while doing a 6.5 mile long run my right IT band started acting up at mile 4. I made it to mile 6 and walked the rest of the way. It was pretty painful. I did my short runs through the week and everything was fine. During the following weekend’s long run I started feeling pain at mile 3 and had to walk the last 3 miles home.

I took a full week off, doing only PT and stretches, and tried for my 8 miler this Sunday. I decided to go back to 4 minute runs and 1 minute walk intervals. I made it 6 miles completely pain free and then started getting that familiar burning. I stopped to stretch my IT band and kept on the run/walk, walking more as needed. I made it to a few yards from home before I had to stop running completely.

Now I am pretty nervous about the half mary. I have been doing everything I can think of including alternating from one side of the street to the other, doing the run/walk thing, lots of stretches, foam rollering, and PT. I’ve even changed my running form to have shorter strides and lower impact. My next step is to get new shoes. I haven’t really liked the Asics that I have, so maybe they are causing some problems. Hopefully I can get out to Fleet Feet this week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I’m continuing the work though, and I think that is what is most important. I don’t want to give up on this. IT band issues are curable, I just have to work at it. I refuse to give up.


Podium Finish

No not me, my son!  He competed last weekend in the 5th Annual Kids Who Tri Succeed Triathlon.

He finished 2nd place in the 4-6 group.  He was the fastest 5 year old by 30 seconds and was just out of first by the same 30 seconds.

The race was a 20 yard “swim” a .8 mile bike and a 1/3 mile run.  I don’t have all of the splits, but he did a really great job on the bike and rocked the run.  He was the only person actually swimming, well at least for a little while, and rocked all of the transitions.

I couldn’t be more proud of his determination and focus.  The fact that he came in second is just icing on the cake.

Congratulations to all of the kids who competed at the triathlon, they were all great!


  • The Narcissist Section (a.k.a. Me Me Me)

  • August 2010
    M T W T F S S
    « May   Sep »
     1
    2345678
    9101112131415
    16171819202122
    23242526272829
    3031  
  • Categories

  • Copyright © 1996-2010 My Triathlon Adventure. All rights reserved.
    iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress