4 mile easy lunch run - 3/7/12

I started this run wanting to do my normal midweek six miles, but knowing that I have been in the range of 22 miles per week, and having already done 19 on Sunday - I also knew that I might end up being better off being flexible about expectations.  Turns out, that was probably a good move, because I started feeling the IT band rubbing a bit almost right away.  However, once again it was with no pain - just kind of like the feeling if something lightly rubs across your skin - you know its there, but it of little other immediate consequence.  But I still treat it as a precursor - so I'm cautious with it.  As a result, I ended up cutting the run short and limiting it to 4 miles

I employed the same mechanics trick I did during the 30k to try to minimize or eliminate that rubbing feeling.  It was somewhat helpful - it didn't completely go away for the entirety of the rest of the run, but it didn't get worse either.

Later that afternoon, I did some googling and stumbled across this on the Chi Running site, regarding the IT band (http://www.chirunning.com/chi-library/article/it-band-syndrome/):

"Here's what you can do about it:
The first thing you can do to help your IT band feel better is to focus on keeping your pelvis level, front-to-back and side-to-side. To get an idea of how this should feel, try walking a few steps "runway style," and really let those hips rock! Notice how your knees collapse inward when you walk this way (don’t do this for more than a few steps; we are just trying to exaggerate the hip rocking feeling so that you can sense when you are holding them stable in the next step!) Now establish your posture and level your pelvis by lifting up the front part (pubic bone) with your lower abdominals until it is level. Imagine your pelvis is a bowl of water and you want to keep it from spilling. Walk forward holding your pelvis stable and notice that your hips do not move laterally with each step, and that your knees do not collapse inward."

"Once you get the feel of holding your pelvis level … add in this second component: Allow your pelvis to rotate around a vertical axis running through its center. Here's an easy way to get this to happen: every time your leg swings to the rear, let it pull your hip to the rear along with it. Your entire lower body will then be swinging in the direction of your rear leg while your upper body remains facing forward. This will allow your stride to become longer and more fluid, without letting your hips move laterally."

This caught my eye immediately, because it was almost exactly the mechanics change I had to employ - especially the part about allowing the pelvis to rotate around a vertical axis.  I had done this exactly thing during the 30k, and while I didn't know whether it was proper or not, all I knew was that it seemed to be an improvement IT band wise over what I had been doing.

This had two immediate effects - the first being confirmation that while my running form may generally be pretty good, it still needs improvement.  And not just micro-adjustments to make it more efficient - it needs at least one pretty major adjustment so that this IT band issue can go away for good.  Second, the fact that what I found empirically matched what the article mentioned pretty much convinced me that if I was going to look into improving my form, Chi Running might be the best place to look.  Combine that with the facts that there is a Chi Running instructor in the area also named Ryan Miller, who placed 2nd overall in an indoor half marathon in January with a time of 1:19:03 (assuming it was the same Ryan Miller), and whose running motion was described by a friend who also ran the event was: "the thing that stood out to me when he was running was how effortless it looked for him...  his stride flowed like he was running on down a smooth grassy field... and it appeared (to me) like there wasn't an ounce of energy wasted... no motion that didn't benefit forward progression..." 

And it seemed to me like looking into Chi Running was something I should look into.  So, I looked at the Chi Running site, and sent Mr Miller an email asking about the possibility of a private coaching session.

I also decided to pick up the Chi Running book.  I feel as though I have a pretty good degree of physical self awareness, as I've been able to learn a large part of Total Immersion swimming via the book and the DVD.  So I'm also hoping to pick up a good amount of general information from the book as well - although it can never replace the benefit of having a 3rd party analysis.  

I did wonder briefly whether doing something like this was wise at this time, with July not too far off.  However, I ended up deciding that pushing the envelope on a week to week basis with the IT band was not a wise course of action either.  So, while spending a good chunk of time in the immediate future working on form rather than base building or quality workouts might be somewhat of a shame - I'd rather do what I can to improve my odds of showing up on race day uninjured, even if it ends up costing me some time overall.