Monday, June 24, 2013

RNR... Rest and Rehab

Haven't posted anything in a while. Honestly though, not a whole lot has been happening.

May was filled with absolutely NO RUNNING as I tried to recover from my IT band woes. Instead, I found myself filling my time with rest mixed in with low-impact workouts like cycling, indoor rowing, and even some yoga. Cycling and rowing have particularly piqued my interest and in particular, rowing seems to provide a more balanced approach to keeping my body healthy. Regardless, there's something missing from all those activities that running seems to fill.

On Sunday June 2nd, I went for my first run in 5 weeks. I definitely was excited and had adrenaline flowing through me as if it was race day. The first mile went a lot faster than I anticipated, but I could tell the lack of running had really taken a toll on my conditioning after the second mile. I made it through a little over 3 miles and the run went ok overall. A couple of hours later though, my left knee/IT band was hurting. Great.

I was frustrated and upset. 5 weeks had gone by and nothing had seemingly changed. What was I going to do next? Thanks to a suggestion from my friends Brian and Chris, I checked out some hip strengthening exercises based on info like this: http://news.menshealth.com/it-band-syndrome/2012/07/27

I gave the hip exercises a shot. I performed a couple sets of the exercises daily and went out for another run four days later.  I ran a little over 3 miles again, but this time, no pain was present afterwards! Amazing! I can't believe how fast I saw the results! And it was just in time for my next race.

On Saturday June 8th, my family and I ran in our town's annual race, the Mountain House Kite Run. The race was under new management by the Mountain House Flag Football, Inc, a local non-profit organization that provides numerous sporting opportunities to kids and adults in our community. Our local running group, the Mountain House Running Club, also played a pivotal role in organizing this race.  Kudos to the race directors Andy, Corey, and Matt and the countless number of volunteers in making this the most successful race in our young history!

My wife was running the 10k that morning and I was signed up for the 5k. Race day first started out though with both of my kids running in the kid's fun run. This was my son's first race and maybe my daughter's last??? She claimed she's retired from running. We'll see about that :)

Given the hot conditions and my general lack of running fitness, I ran the 5k a lot better than I anticipated. I ran the flat course in 21:51, good enough for 7th overall and 5th in my men's 30-39 age group! Better yet, no IT band pain afterwards! Yay!!

After the MH Kite Run


Unfortunately, since that race, I've only run twice with the last time out resulting in a calf strain. Hopefully, this is only a minor issue since my 16 week training for the Chicago Marathon has officially kicked off. Also, as part of my training, I have a handful of races to prepare for in the coming months including running the Double Dirty (back to back 10k and 5k races) at the Brazen Dirty Dozen, the half marathon at the SF Giant Race, and the Tri For Fun Triathlon Series, a set of beginner-friendly triathlons locally.

I'm hoping to stress more cross training during this round of marathon training (thus the triathlons), so that I'll be in better overall shape come October in Chicago. Hopefully my body will oblige.