Sunday, January 21, 2007

A Cautious Re-Beginning

ORN: Saturday: 2 miles, no watch

A couple weeks ago, I described my Plan C, a route to running again using rest, massage and ibuprofen. The rest portion called for a couple weeks off, targeting running again on Saturday, January 20.

Late last week I was at meetings in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. While it was very cool to be able to see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in the span of only 3.5 weeks, it bugged me to not be able to run on the many scenic (and flat!) bike paths all over that beautiful, lush, green island. I took a long walk on Friday during a break in the meetings and it was a bit discouraging to feel my ITB acting up, even on the walk.

I flew home on Saturday, shoehorned into back-of-the-bus seats on two very tight aircraft…not a way to loosen up the knee. Finally, I got to go for a run after supper.

In short, the run went OK. The ITB was still there. It cropped up early. Stretching seemed to help. I utilized buddy Darrell's plan of “run a mile, walk a minute.” That seemed to help; the ITB did not get worse during the second mile. In fact, an amazing thing happened towards the end of the run…I actually forgot about the ITB and just enjoyed the run.

So, I’m started.

The schedule cooperated to get me a sports massage on Monday. Ibuprofen seems to really knock down the pain when it creeps up. I’ll know a lot more a week from now. The schedule calls for 3 miles on Monday, 2 on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday and 3 on Saturday. What will happen on those back-to-back days??

I’ve learned much during the lay off. And thanks so much to all of you for your encouragement.

And, yes, I’m persevering.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe, I'm not an expert, but all the Triathletes say you have to use a foam roller on the ITB band and roll out the muscle. If you haven't already gotten this advice, you might want to at least take a look at it. Glad your run went so well. I'll keep you in my thoughts as you start to expand a bit.

Anonymous said...

Joe, You've got a good plan in place. Hopefully easing back into it, with the run/walk will help.

I bet it was really hard not to run in Hilton Head, I'm glad you got out for a walk anyway. Way to persevere!

Anonymous said...

Forward motion with a positive outcome, this is very good news. I think the key will be to not rush things. I never thought about walk breaks in terms of this issue but I'm glad it helped out.

Not running in Hilton Head, that's torturous just to read. Maybe you'll get back there someday. I think I'm going to go research a marathon there right now.

Good luck with the runs this week.

Anonymous said...

Keep hanging in there. You will be back.

Anonymous said...

Joe, Take it easy and keep up the walking if that helps. Good luck! : )

David said...

Tell us how it feels on your ITBs when the massage therapist puts his/her fingers to the connective tissues. Do you feel/hear the popping?