We did our training run in Boulder on Saturday. It was possibly the worst experience ever. I've been having some knee issues the previous week and was nervous to begin with for this scheduled 16-miler. We ran out in the "boulder backroads" which was actually quite pretty (horses, hot air balloons, nare a CU football fan in site). My knee (diagnosed as ITBS...a common running injury that involves the IT band that runs from your hip to your knee...it isn't attached to bone so it doesn't really tear, it just gets stretched and tight and it impacts your knee) felt fine until I stepped out after the 6-mile water stop. PAIN! EEK! Needless to say I gimped back 6 miles and had a lot of time to work up some serious emotion and anger and yes, I even shed a tear. You see, I'm not a person who is used to working really hard towards something and not having it work out...I've been doing everything right! Its not fair!
My running coach prescribed the following actions:
That would be a foam roller to stretch (painfully i might add), ice and drugs.
Skip to Sunday....during my gimp back on Saturday, in my 6 miles of having a lot of time to think about this whole scenario, I realized how much money I've spent on training and the marathon. I had just registered for a 10k on Sunday called the "Fans on the Field" 10k...I'll be darned if I wasn't going to get my moneys worth. I was able to run the full 10k with little to no pain until after I finished (then the knee hurt like a mother) but I could see that hopefully that crazy foam roller will work if I keep at it.
The race was actually really awesome...You started at INVESCO Field at Mile High and ran to Coors Field (baseball) and into the field running the warning track to home plate (high-fiving the mascot Dinger on the way) then you run to the Pepsi Center (basketball, soccer, arena football, etc.) and across the field (i think it was set-up for lacrosse?), high-fived some mascot of some team, and then ran back to INVESCO to run along the field (including a live video of you running on the jumbotron) and high-fiving mascot Miles right before the finish. I'll post pictures if the photographers managed to get any of me and Laurie!
So I guess the moral of the story is we'll just have to wait and see...I've come too far so hopefully I can keep the ITBS situation manageable and make it through Chicago. I don't have to worry too much apparently that I missed my 16-mile training run...but the next month and a half should pretty much suck ;-)
Another random thing...while we were running in Boulder a bunch of professional Kenyan runners were out there training...those dudes can HAUL...they had a support vehicle following behind them and I wanted to ask for a ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment