True "Recovery" Run

OBJECTIVE
3 - 4 mi. SLOW

ACHIEVED
4.02 mi.@ 9:07/mi.

5:24 AM

Between yesterday's run and physical therapy, I was feeling pretty beat up before I even started this morning. There was muscle soreness in my hip flexors, abs, and legs. Over the first half mile, I was wondering if I could make it based on how my abs were feeling. Apparently, I must be shifting the weight in one of the PT exercises off of my quads and glutes over to my abs. I suppose this is a form of cheating. I don't notice that I'm doing it but I don't think my abs should be feeling like they do today. I had the same thing but to a lesser degree on Tuesday.

I rolled out the 4 miles at a pedestrian pace. Somehow I've convinced myself that if I never run slower than 9:17/mile that the miles are still "good". I think I've read something about that before but may have misinterpreted what I was reading. I then coupled my reading with the recovery pace found at runbayou.com to determine I can avoid junk miles if I'm under 9:17.

I think I solved a mystery while running this morning. My initial right IT band problem last November subsided after a couple weeks rest. But later the left IT band became the problem and is now a much bigger issue than the right ever was. This has always baffled me. I didn't even tell Dr. Cianca about my right because that isn't what I was there for and it was no longer a problem. I thought it would just cloud the picture. I mentioned it to Dani in my initial PT evaluation but I under emphasized it and she didn't seem to give it much consideration. Since then, I've tried to listen closely to Cianca and Dani to see if something they said could offer an explanation. Of course, I looked for my own explanation and also skimmed around the internet looking for a reason.

I think I've got it now thanks to something Dani said yesterday. I've somewhat been in denial about this "muscle weakness" and even Cianca and Dani were surprised that I could "even run a marathon". So something about their separate diagnosis just didn't sync up with my experience. Being in denial about the muscle weakness, I harbored some kind of weird hope that ... I wasn't weak. I didn't feel weak, did I? Through PT, Dani has repeatedly put me in positions where I feel incredibly weak. At first I think I subconsciously believed this was some kind of trick. Of course she knows which muscles are naturally weaker and could put anyone in a "comprising" position of weakness. But yesterday Dani commented that she sees people with IT band problems all the time. What I have isn't any different than the typical cases. However, she said a compounding issue for me is that my ankles are weak. Okay, she's alluded to this before but I haven't considered it. I thought Cianca said it was my glutes and that my knees and ankles looked good. I think Dani even said in my initial with her that it was my glutes. So that's where I've been focused. Whatever she said about my ankles to this point didn't hold much stock with me. Even yesterday when she said it, I passed it off but it least we openly discussed it this time.

While running this morning, I was considering all of this. This isn't going to seem like much of a breakthrough ... like a preschool dot-to-dot. But my stubbornness has caused me to miss this for sometime now. Dani is right. My ankles are weak and so are my glutes. I'm sure I have other muscle weaknesses too. My right ITB was caused by this and so is my current left ITB. The difference not running at Memorial Park on a softer, flatter surface.

After St. George last year, I started the Furman training program. I was running more in the morning and a lot more on the track at Klein High. My hard running loops on the track were almost always counterclockwise making my right leg, the "longer" outside leg. Once I stopped running for a couple weeks and came back with no track running, the right ITB problem disappeared.

What about the current left ITB? Well, when I started training for Ogden in December almost all of my running was on roads. Very rarely did I go back to Memorial Park's trail where I did most of my running in preparation for St. George. Almost all roads are crowned and I run against the traffic. This makes my left leg the "longer" of the two. I think this is it. It's why I can't shake the problem with my left. The physical internal cause is my muscle weakness which has always existed. But shifting from Memorial Park where I did almost all of my running last summer, to the track then later to the roads seems to be the external cause of my ITB problems. I really think this is it. I should find softer surfaces and/or get back over to Memorial Park.

PRE RUN
nothing

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin, oatmeal w/flax, turbinado & skim milk