So tonight will be speed work and either Sunday or Monday I will do a long slow distance. Trying to build that distance back up to where I was a month or so ago. I also have to be careful and really pay attention to how my body feels. Overtraining may have been a factor in the injury so I need to make sure I’m allowing myself enough time for recovery inbetween the workouts. I also want to do some work on my diet and make sure the foods I’m eating and when I’m eating help with recovery as much as possible. I had NO idea how happy being able to run again and not have to worry about pain hitting halfway in would make me. WHOOHOO.

Happy Friday everyone!

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!

On Sunday I went out for my long run knowing in advance that I may have to cut the length down if the IT started to hurt. Sure enough about 8K in – just as I was approaching the bottom of the long hill – the knee started to hurt. Just a little but it hurt. At this point I had a choice – push through until it REALLY hurt (at which point I would have to stop, stretch and then most likely walk/run the rest of the route) or turn back. From the reading I’ve being doing on this “issue” hills (more the downhill than the uphill) can aggrivate it so I decided I would turn back. Back I went and I was able to complete just over 17K without having to stop and walk it out.

Afterwards I popped into the gym (which is my starting point) to burn out some cardio on the bike and elliptical. This was strictly to keep my endurance up – I don’t want to lose cardio while I’m trying to fix the problem. The good news is that my knee did NOT hurt after my run (there are days when I have to ice and hobble for hours after I finish) and it didn’t hurt yesterday either. The bad news is that I didn’t do nearly the distance that I SHOULD be doing if I want to do that marathon in June.

So the big question: If I continue like this – cutting the distance short when needed and really paying attention to how my knee feels will the problem go away? Or will it immediately come back as soon as I try and do a long distance? I don’t know – this type of “injury” (alright I said it) is new to me so I’m learning as I go. Fingers crossed that it IS improving and that each week I’ll be able to go a little bit farther pain free and come June that marathon really will be in the cards.

This week after my long run I noticed a bit of knee pain (it would come and go in the hours after the run) but nothing compared to what it had been the week before. Luckily I had an appointment with my physio yesterday and was able to have it looked at. The physio poked and proded and then advised me that it was an it-band issue (which is what Devin had predicted it was the week before). It was SO tight that it was pulling me knee out of alignment causing pain. This is another face to my previous hamstring issue – two sides of the same problem. And likely magnified by the fact that two weeks ago I did my long run entirely on pavement.

The good news is that it’s not a lasting problem, or really anything I have to worry about all. I’ll need to be careful for awhile – making sure to warm up well before my long run (both adding heat as well as riding the bike for 10 minutes or so before I head out), stretch well after and ice ice ice when I’m done. I will also see my RMT this week as well as use a foam roller. If I keep all this up it should be problem solved. And the best news? I can still run! yay!

So in the end the “injury” isn’t so much an injury as a minor setback. whew!