Been a while since I last updated this blog, so lets dive in! A few weeks back I started having symptoms of a IT band injury on my left leg.  I cannot pinpoint the exact cause but I have a few theories.  One could be the heavily crowned road I run on for long runs or possibly the concrete sidewalks.  Either one is no good option for running, so I will have to be very careful about choosing to run on those surfaces. Regardless, I have made changes to my training, most importantly adding stretching into it.

I ended up taking a full week off of running, though with a 3-day backpacking trip of 20-miles mixed in. The backpacking trip went well, the knee was a little stiff, but no pain.  Then came last night and my first attempt at a run.  Plan was a 1-3 mile run depending on how everything felt.  I ended up running 3.25 miles with only a little stiffness in the left knee about halfway thru the run.  I ended the run with a cool down walk of a few hundred feet and then right into IT-Band focused stretches.  After a cool shower, I had some ibuprofen and iced the left knee.  This entire post run recovery worked as I am pain free and not stiff at all today.

I am 10 weeks out from my first half-marathon, and paying attention to all aspects of my training is of utmost importance to me now.  I really need to increase my longest run up into the 10-12 mile range before the race.  Next step this week is for a detailed week-by-week training plan that I will follow into the race.

Enough for now…good running to all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.