caution whining ahead!

     I want to preface this by saying I have changed my tune since writing this earlier.  After I wrote this I couldn't think of a title so I left it till I got home from work to create one and publish it.  In that time I came to the realization that all I was really doing was whining about my stupid situation, and that I am sure their are millions of people out there that are so much more worse off than I and would beg to be in my situation.  There are people that right now are being told they will never walk again, little lone run and I am bitching about a sore knee.  Yes I am still bummed but I am determined to not let this little set back ruin all my hard work up to this point.  So with that said feel free to read below but just remember:

 CAUTION, WHINING AHEAD! 

     At this point I am not sure if I should change the name of my blog, I mean I can’t call it running in the fat lane if I’m not running right?  Of course I am just being facetious because I am dealing with this F-ing injury.  I feel like I was on such a roll with my running and weight loss that if I am forced to stop now, all may be lost.  I haven’t had a professional look at it yet, but after some research online it would appear that I have an IT Band issue.

     My wife has been wonderful with trying to keep my spirits up and telling me the sky isn’t falling and I have come so far that I won’t revert back to my old ways, but truly it is tough.  From all the suggestions and support from my Facebook community the most important things I need to do is stretch and rest; rest being the key to this injury and also the hardest piece of advice to follow.  Every day I am not running is one day less I have to prepare for my first marathon. 

    Now, I am overly in tune with my body and I am questioning every little tweak, twinge and ache that I feel.  To add to my misery we have been rearranging some of the furniture in the house to make room for the new hutch my wife got and last night I felt a little pain in the other knee, which has really depressed me.  Now I have issues with both legs, WTF!  I just can’t believe it, two weeks ago I felt great and now I feel like my whole body is over worked and deteriorating.  Really the only thing I can think of is I was way to aggressive with my strength training to early while keeping my running intensity up and all that contributed to it.

     So, my plan going forward that I have told myself, but need to convince myself to do is a full week off from everything, running and my strength workout plans, a total body rest to get things back to an even keel.  After that I am going to head to the gym a couple of times and hit the sit down version of the elliptical and/or the stationary bike, all low impact stuff.  I will spend this rest time doing a little more research on a proper daily stretching plan and a runner specific strength training program that I will very slowly incorporate.  The week of Monday June 2^nd I will hit the gym for some low impact stuff and I won’t attempt a run of any kind until Monday June 9^th.  If things do not feel any better or seem to be worse I will then make an effort to seek professional medical help.

     Now for the good news, I got an email from the head race ambassador for my local marathon, The Glass City Marathon.  She was asking me a few questions and if I had any intentions of running it next year, and I told her I plan to run the event next year, but I haven’t decided if I will be doing the full or the half.  I have to see how Columbus goes before I make that decision.  The main reason why she contacted me is because she is looking for others to also be race ambassadors.  I told her I would be very interested in helping to grow my local race.  She said she would get back with me, so we will see!