I took the cold and nasty winter off. My body is simply not willing to be subjected to runs at well-below-freezing temperatures. That said, I have made a few runs in snowstorms and I got sleeted on once, but I generally don’t run below 30 degrees.

I started up again in early March, quickly ramping up my distance from 2 miles to 6. I managed to pull an 8-miler one Saturday. That 75 minute stretch was probably one of my worst runs ever. Feeling the pain from that, I turned to the Runner’s World website and got myself a decent half marathon training schedule.

Having a set, planned schedule has really helped. Previously, I would just go out and run whatever number of miles seemed good - and I had no restrictions. I should never have quadrupled my distance in only 4 weeks - I was just asking for injury.

And I got it.

Combined with running in shoes that were way past their prime [almost 4 years old with hundreds of miles on them], I have developed ITBS - iliotibial band syndrome. Put simply, my leg muscles have developed to be unbalanced. This causes the iliotibial band [IT band], which runs from the hip to the knee, to get all out of whack and alignment. If I lay flat on my back with my legs outstretched and my feet relaxed, instead of pointing at the same angle [like 11 and 1], my left foot points to 11 and my right at 2:30.

So what’s the big deal? Well, aside from getting all bent out of shape, the IT band rubs across the bone and that HURTS. A LOT. I would go out on my runs and after a mile or two, my right knee would start getting pretty painful. The pain would just increase to the point where I wanted to stop moving. I couldn’t though - usually by that time, I was miles from home. So like a fool, I kept going.

ITBS can’t be fixed by resting, like most running injuries. Even if I took a break for a week or two, the very next run I tried would suffer the same pain.

Lucky for me, two runners here at work have both had ITBS and they told me that for most cases, some simple stretches and a nifty strap that goes around your knee can usually fix you up.

Last night I ran 6 miles with the strap, and had no problems. Today I have only minor pain, pretty much what you’d expect from running, you know, six miles.

Now, you might be thinking, “dude, go see a doctor!” Well, unfortunately, a doctor is going to tell me three things: stretch, get a strap, and stop running. I can’t do the third thing, and I’ve already got the other two, so I’m going to keep on this way for now.

Thirty-eight days until my race!

Some things I’ve learned so far [all these times are solo, so I might be faster if I had someone to race]:
I can run a hard mile in 6:42
I can run 2 miles in just over 15 minutes
I can run 4 miles in 33 minutes
I can run 6 miles in 53 minutes
I can run 7 miles in 62 minutes

One Response to “Lady (lady) knock me on my knees”

1. val ewing, on May 15th, 2006 at 1:07 pm, said:
   

   Find a good running partner and your times will go up drastically. Plus when you are tired your partner can help pace you…and vice versa.

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