Ever since the IT band soreness from last Saturday, I've decided that I'm going to take this week completely off from running. The IT band soreness has been on and off for a couple weeks, and at this point (still more than 2 months away from the marathon), I'd rather just take the time now to get it healed rather than push it further.
In the mean time, I think the primary reason for it is the typical 'running on the same side of the road'. When you run against traffic, the left foot often has to stretch farther than the right due to the crown in the road surface. When this occurs foot strike after foot strike for long distances, it stretches the IT band. I also think that secondarily - just plain old overuse is a factor. I have to face it - the past couple months have seen much more mileage than I've ever run before. After running 20 miles on one day, I followed it up with 5 mile run and a 6 mile run after that, followed by the 8 x 1 mile repeat session the following week. So within 8 days, I had done nearly 40 miles. That is far more miles that I've done in such a short period of time before.
After Monday, I have not felt anything in my IT band - even when going up stairs. I suppose that I'm lucky in that things were not so bad to totally debilitate me. However, I have to be careful - because it was that false sense of being healed that I think played a major hand in continuing to train when I maybe should have taken time off a couple weeks ago.
In the mean time, I've been doing the IT band stretches and strengthening exercises.
As for the bicycle, I've actually continued to work on balance on the rollers. I'm not yet at the point where I'd feel comfortable with the clipless pedals, as I'm still working on balance. But in an attempt to hasten the balance skill development, I've been doing something a little unorthodox - trying to maintain balance while peddling slowly. When peddling quickly, the rotation of the tires creates enough centrifugal force to keep the bike upright relatively easily. But I want to develop balance above and beyond that - so by peddling slowly, I'm trying to further enhance my balance.
Finally, for swimming - I've really started concentrating on developing a two beat kick. It took a couple sessions in the endless pool to get a hang for the rhythm - I've been using the old rhythm for so many years that switching felt like trying to throw a ball with your weak arm. Just didn't feel coordinated at all.
Towards the end of the first session, there were a few moments when I felt the kick coming together.. and WOW - what a difference. It was fleeting, but I definately felt like I was surging forward in the water when I kicked. I'm not a naturally strong kicker, as my ankles are not very flexible - so I believe much of that power I was feeling was simply the legs (and all their weight and momentum) helping to snap the roll that much more quickly during the stroke. I've since done a couple more sessions in the endless pool to tighten up the form, and while more work still needs to be done - it has improved quite a bit already.
So thats the story with this week. This weekend is scheduled to be a 10 x 1 mile repeat workout. I'm not sure whether that will happen - I may just do a shorter run (5-6 miles) and see how the IT band feels, and punt on the speed work until the following weekend. Or, I may start with the repeats and go until I start feeling even minor discomfort, and call it a day. Or, I might do something real short like 3 miles on Friday night, and if all goes well, see how many repeats I can do on Saturday.
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