Back to Running!

I am BACK running again. Whoohoo! I’ve posted a fair bit about the problems I had with my hamstring and then with my IT-band which eventually led to my having to take a full 2 weeks off running (a long time when you’re used to following a pretty strict schedule!) After the 2 weeks off Devin and I tested the knee in our session on Friday to see how it would hold up. The plan was to do an easy 60 minute run (normally Friday would be a speed work day) just to see if I would feel twinges on the distance. Previously I would start to feel the knee at the 8.5k mark or so and by about 15k be done completely. We set out on Friday and ran down to Stanley Park, through the trails and then back to the gym. We did a total of about 12k in the hour that we were out. The good news? NO KNEE TWINGES! Nothing! No pain at all! It was fantastic! The pace was pretty laid back and we didn’t push any hills or anything, just some great trails and grass, a little bit of contcrete to start and at the finish and that was it. But not feeling any pain or twinging at all was fantastic.

I had been scheduled to do my first race of the season on Saturday (the 5 peaks run in Golden Ears Park) and after the run on Friday I have to admit I was tempted. After thinking it through I decided that it would be smarter to skip this one and focus on getting ready for the next race in May and (hopefully) the marathon in June. Race situations are so different from training runs and I knew that if I felt pain in the race I would be more likely to push through it and end up sidelined again. That would be way worse!

So I skipped the race, did some gym cardio instead and then went out for my long run on Sunday. Devin had suggested I build my distance back up slowly to keep the IT-band from tightening again so I went out aiming to do a 20K. I ended up doing just farther than that (21.5) because I wanted to test my knee out on the big hill and that was at the run mid-point. I did one big hill and two smaller hills and again – NO PAIN! I can’t describe how excited I am about that after weeks and weeks of pain on my long run. My pace was slower than it had been and while the distance wasn’t tough I could feel it a bit. Will bump it up a few kms this comming weekend and hopefully the speed will come back fairly quickly. For now I’m just glad to be running again!