Thursday, September 11, 2014

Tempo Run - 5 Miles easy. Definitely injured.

My left hip/buttock area has been talking to me (screaming at me) for 2 days now. I definitely have something screwed up. It is a pain in my left hip/butt area that gradually has a dull ache down to my knee. We're pretty sure it is iliotibial band syndrome or IT band syndrome for short, or ITBS for shortest. Anyhow, it is very common in runners -- better than half the runners I talked to had it.

The good news is that I likely won't make it worse by running. It will just hurt. And the better news is that as I run more, it hurts less during that run. It just hurts a lot more after the run.

Anyhow for today's tempo run -- since I'm racing tomorrow night -- I just took it easy. a 5 miler (8K) out and back. Here are my splits:

6:01
5:18
5:24
5:21
4:59
4:58
4:59
4:56

5:14 average for the run. Not bad considering I was taking it easy. I was looking for 5-minute K's on the way back, which I had no problem achieving.

We went to Runner's Choice and picked up a foam roller, which everyone recommends as a poor-man's massage therapist. It does seem to work well. Plus I found lots of articles online about stretches one can do to help strengthen the IT band area. So I'm going to work on doing those stretches 3 times a day and work with the foam roller 3 times a day as well.

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