Where Do I Go From Here?

     Which sure is a great question, I just didn't know how to answer that until today.  Well answer part of it today.  Since some time in January I have been working with Alisha from ELITE Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapy to get me back running again after suffering a pretty bad case of runner's knee that developed after my marathon.  With her guidance and expertise not only was I able to get back to running, I feel stronger and faster than ever.  After my needed therapy ended she created a personalized training plan for the GCM Owens Corning Half Marathon that consisted of running, cross training, stretching and strength training exercises.  The plan was completely flexible to accommodate my ever changing work schedule and worked great based on my 12 plus minute PR at the race.  Since I wasn't doing the Indy Half Marathon (click here for that story) the next scheduled race on my calendar is the Detroit Free Press Marathon in October, which forced me to ask the question; where do I go from here?

     I had decided, for now, that I would continue to run and strength train, but after I sat down a couple times to put a plan together I just felt lost.  Nothing seemed to click in my head and I got the feeling that I was way in over my head.  I contacted Alisha and set up an appointment for my day off so she could help me with my problem.  The first thing we discussed was goals, which turned out to be pretty tough for me.  I just can't seem to zero in on what my goal is for this year anymore.  I set some goals in january, but because of my injury most of them were DOA.  First it was all about mileage, then trail running,  which lately turned into wanting to qualify for Boston and now I've been thinking about a life goal of running a marathon in all 50 states.  For now my goal it to just keep trying to get healthy and stronger so my knee doesn't become an issue for whatever my goals become.  Alisha worked out a plan for me that is on a four week cycle that keeps me running while I build up my leg and core strength.  She pretty much made it idiot proof for me and flexible enough to work with in my work schedule.  In a couple of months we'll meet again to set up the transition to my marathon training plan for Detroit.

     After my appointment I headed out to Oak Openings Metro Park to give trail running a try.  To my knowledge, Oak Openings is the only local park with a true single track natural trail vs. most other parks that have a paved or crushed stone path.  Once I got there it took a little time to get my bearings and figure out where I could jump on the path, but once I finally did, it was a very different experience than running on the road.  Within the first quarter mile a deer jumped out about twenty yards in front of me before stopping to keep an eye on me.  I quick snapped a photo and continued on. To be honest I thought it would change my whole outlook on the sport, but to be honest it didn't.  It actually felt all wrong and that is probably because for two years now running on pavement has conditioned me that anything but a good steady pace is not right and the words steady pace and trail running didn't seem to go hand in hand.  The constant changes in pace and my stride just felt all wrong to me, which is why I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I thought or was hoping to.  Now don't get me wrong, the change in scenery was really nice while running into a few critters too while I was out there.  

Wednesday Weigh In, on Thursday??

     Wednesday weigh in coming to you a day late and a pound or so heavier.  Normally I weigh in on Wednesday mornings, which is usually my day, and makes it a little more convenient.  I can take a little extra time to make sure I have cleared my system of any unnecessary weight, or in other words, use the bathroom!  Since my schedule has changed, which I am afraid, looks to be permanent for the foreseeable future.  I was still planning yesterday to get up and weigh in before I headed to the gym, however, when I woke up I went straight to the kitchen and took my two bee pollen pills and drank a half bottle of water.  Needless to say my weigh in would not have been accurate at that point.  I decided that it would just be easier to act like network TV and move your favorite show to another night, so I am switching Wednesday Weigh In to Thursday.

     Since my last weigh in I have struggled a little bit with my food intake.  Mostly it has revolved around my snacking and my portion sizes.  Whenever I have made something to eat I almost always would eat a little extra and not add it to my tracker.  For example if I was measuring out some cereal I was take a small handful and toss it back or if I was having popcorn an extra handful before and after I weighed it out became the norm this week.  I have done this before, but this week it was happening more and more.  I am not stressing about it; I mean shit happens and I would rather eat a little extra popcorn or an extra triscuit or two than binge on sugar and candy as the old Dean would do.  With regards to my portion size, I have just been eating a little more and allowing my calories to go above my daily limit, but not by much.  Some days it’s by 50 calories and another day it was like 200, but at the end of a week it all adds up.   The one positive in all this is my running has come back on line and being able to get back to my regular routine allows me to be able to at least put a dent into some of those extra calories.

3/12/15 official weigh in

176.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  140.5 lbs

Current BMI:  27.6 (overweight)

     Like the Wednesday Weigh In my long run day has changed as well.  In my training plan for the GCM Owens Corning Half Marathon I had an 8 miles to knock out.  We have finally gotten out from under old man winter and a pre-spring warm up is on.  Mandy had the day off from work as well, so we took advantage of the time to sleep in.  After we got up we were playing with the dogs and enjoying the morning as I waited for the sun to kick in and warm things up a bit.  While we were playing around I snapped a cool shot of our older dog Widdle enjoying the warm sun spot in the kitchen.

     The run went alright, but could have been better.  I had strength training yesterday and it was all about my weak hamstrings, and boy did they pay the price.  I was sore all day yesterday and I could still feel it this morning.  The first six miles were fine, but my hamstrings were letting me know they were not happy.  Miles seven started off with a climb up an overpass, and about half way up I got some pain in the outside of my "bad" knee.  I immediately slowed to a walk till I reached the top before I got back in running stride for the decent down.  From that point on I had some light tightness and very mild pain for the remainder of the run.  My physical therapist warned me that this would occasionally happen until the strength in my legs have built up and are use to all this.  Anyway it was great to get outside to run and off that wretched treadmill.  #deathtothetreadmill
  

Hello are you there? It's Wednesday Weigh In

     Hello All!  It feels like forever since I have written a post, let alone a Wednesday Weigh In.  It is mostly due to my life becoming very busy and a little complicated lately.  A couple of friends of mine run a regional publication and due to some unforeseen circumstances need some graphic design work done to help them out.  Needless to say that has added to my responsibilities when I get home from work, which has left me minimal time for other things.  I had a little extra free time today and I had some great news that I wanted to share. 

    

     First though, let us get to my weigh in.  I don't want anyone to think I was hiding my weight because it was going up, but it did start to tick up and last week it was up to 177lbs.  It was nothing to freak out about, but I was getting pretty laid back with my nutrition and portion control.  I decided last week to really try to buckle down and get it right this week; combine that with how well my training has been going I was able to drop two pounds and get back to 175lbs.  Now if I can just get those last to freaking pounds to hit goal.

2/25/15 official weigh in

175 lbs

Change: -2 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  142 lbs

Current BMI:  27.4 (overweight)

Change: n/a

Here are the weigh in pics from the last couple of weeks

 

      Now for the great news!  I was officially released by my physical therapist today!  She feels that with all my hard work I have put in at home and what we accomplished during our visits I have been able to correct the issues that were causing me all the knee pain.  Now just because I don't need to see her anymore doesn't mean my rehab is over.  To continue to run pain free I need to continue the work that I have already put in.  She has given me 7 new strengthening exercises and finished my training plan for the GCM Owens Corning Half Marathon.  It feels so great to be back to how I felt before all this came about.  I have learned so much that will pay dividends for years to come.  

     Anyone in or around the Toledo, Ohio area that is suffering from a sports related injury or is in need of physical therapy that is not sports related, than get in contact with Alisha at:

 Elite Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapy

6919 W Central Avenue

Toledo, OH, 43614 

Telephone:888-294-1089

E-mail: Alisha@toledophysicaltherapy.com

   

Wednesday Weigh In / Rehab Run

     We got two inches or so of snow this morning and when I let Jedi out to go potty that was the last thing on his mind.  He seems to love playing in the snow so I went out to join him.  Now two inches of snow doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are a chihuahua dachshund mix and your legs are only like two inches long, that is a hell of a lot of snow.  Anyway I snapped this pic of him and had to share it because he looked so stinking cute.

     I was excited to get to my PT appointment because I really wanted to get some new things to work on because the static stretches I have been doing three times a day, every day was getting a little old.  Well I still have to continue the stretches, but got some new stuff to work on including yoga.  Yep that's right I said yoga.  I will give this yoga the old college try, especially because if I do I can skip two of my stretching sessions.  Today she also gave me a variation of a single leg squat to build strength and promote good running form.  Basically I do a single leg squat on an elevated platform and swing the opposite leg in a running motion.  It was quite difficult at first, but I was getting the hang of it by the end.

     Since this week we concentrated mostly on my running form to try and correct my issues that have been adding to my IT Band related pain, Alisha had me on the treadmill for most of the session.  While working on my cadence, she noticed that my left leg form seemed to be really good, but the right leg, the problem leg, isn't extending enough in the push off and isn't bending enough when I bring it back forward.  This is causing my leg to kind of swing out to the side to help clear the ground.  She had me get off the treadmill and do a few static movements that will aid in the muscle memory for proper form.  My form improved quite a bit after just a few minutes of drills.  Alisha then had me hop back on the treadmill and try it again.  It is amazing how much better you feel when you are running with proper form.  

     We finished with all the running drills, I cooled down and we talked about a few thing and scheduled my next appointment.  When we were all done with this session I hoped on the treadmill and banged out another 2.5 mile run, since I hadn't run since Sunday.  I concentrated on my form trying to keep my right leg in the proper position.  Now this may be due to being on the treadmill versus the road and after my therapy treatment, but I managed to only get a small amount of light tightness and pain for a short time around two and a quarter miles in.  I don't want to get my hopes up to much yet, but I came away from today's visit and run feeling very optimistic.  I would say I am right on track for starting my training for the Owens Corning Half Marathon at the Glass City Marathon in April!  

     Since it is Wednesday I need to post my current weigh in to hold myself accountable.  Sorry I skipped last weeks post, I just ran out of time.

1/21/15 official weigh in

176.5 lbs

Change: +1 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  141.5 lbs

Current BMI:  27.6 (overweight)

Change: +.1

Rehab run

     Up until Sunday, I have only tried a one mile run that didn't really go so well.  I made it to a mile, but just barely as my knee pain had started to return.  I attempted the run right after my first physical therapy visit and at that visit I asked her if it was ok to run.  She said yes, but I could tell she really didn't want me to.  After that run I could see why.  My knee pain had come back, it wasn't to severe, but enough that I decided I wouldn't run again till Alisha gave me the go ahead.  My second PT visit went quit well and it was obvious that Alisha thought I had made some good progress.  She instructed me to give a two mile run a try and report back to her how I felt.

     Do to the frigged sub zero temperatures I waited until Sunday when things got a little warmer out.  Its funny to say that 28 degrees was warm, but compared to what it had been, it felt like a heat wave.  I headed down the bike path for an easy out and back route.  Other than some jackass that plowed a pile of snow right on the path that I had to walk through, the path was pretty well clear of snow.  I kept the pace around a 10:30 for the first quarter mile till I was warmed up, then slowly increased my pace to right around 10:00 per mile avg.  I obviously have been obsessing over this injury, so my senses were hyper sensitive on this run thinking every little thing is the onset of pain.  The thoughts quickly died down and I was able to make it to the turnaround pain free.

     Once I was headed back, I got about a quarter mile in and I started to feel a little something.  If you asked me on a scale of 1 to 10 on pain it was a one, more of an aching feeling than pain.  I slowed my pace slightly and the aching went away.  This feeling would come and go as I finished the remainder of the run, the pain never getting above a two.  I walked a few hundred yards to cool down then headed in to do my Therapist prescribed stretching routine.

     In previous running attempts the pain would get stronger a lot faster and my knee would ache badly for the remainder of the day.  This time no extended aching after the fact and I was feeling pretty confident I am on the right track.  I emailed my therapist with my notes and she sounded happy and encouraged at my results.  She gave me a go ahead to attempt another 2 mile run.  Now it may be awhile before I go out again anyway, we just got more snow and the temps are going to plummet again.  I really hate this time of year.

Wednesday Weigh In / PT Visit

     Hello from cold Cold COLD Northern Ohio. It's been in the single digits the last couple days and wind chills have been almost unbearable.  When its this cold I usually do something stupid like shave my head, but it's a new year so I felt like I needed a new look.  Actually I was just looking pretty shaggy and really need to clean it up some so instead of just shaving my head I headed to the local barbershop to get a trim.   I decided I wanted to continue to grow the top, but wanted to trim down the sides and the back.  I am digging the look and I think it will lay a lot better when it gets longer.

     

     As you know I haven't been running due to what I have self diagnosed as IT Band syndrome, or better known as "runner's knee", so it has been difficult trying to maintain the weight loss let-a-lone try and loose any. I had a slight up tick this week, but that is not bothering me at all.  With how my weigh ins have been going recently it doesn't shock me what the scale said today. 

1/7/15 official weigh in

176 lbs

Change: +1 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  141lbs

Current BMI:  27.5 (overweight)

Change:+.1

     Today was my second visit with my physical therapist and I have to say it went very well. We reviewed my gait analysis, which gave a glimpse into what my problem is. Running itself without doing any other strength and stretching exercises can cause a muscle imbalance. For me, running is all I have been doing for two plus years now, so it was no surprise to my therapist as to what she was seeing.  Essentially, as things got tighter and tighter on my right side and my right leg was pulling inward and kind of crossing in front of my left. When my right leg would land it was putting torque on my IT Band and irritating it. Eventually it got to bad and my leg said "I give up" with pain on the side of my knee. 

     After we finished the analysis we moved on to the actual physical therapy part of the visit.  After a lot of stretching, bending, pulling, twisting and deep massaging she gave me my homework. I am still to continue my stretching and foam rolling 3 times a day, but she added 3 stability/strengthening exercises to do once a day. 

     As for my running future, she has asked me to attempt a two mile run and email her how I felt.  If things go well she will allow me to attempt 3-4 more runs before our next visit in 2 weeks. If things continue to progress positively then at my next appointment we will talk about where my training will go from here.  

Wednesday Weigh In / PT Visit

     Well Happy New Year to you as I type this at 1:32am January 1st 2015.  As you all know I have been in a bit of a funk lately with my binge on cookies and buckeyes, my IT Band issues and my weight gain last week.  Today, well actually yesterday, I finally felt like I was on my way back up from the depressed lows I have been feeling.  I managed to have a solid week of eating my usual stuff without any major slip ups.  I also tried an apple for the first time in years.  It was only about a quarter or a little more, but that is more than I have ever eaten before so I call that a success.  The scale snapped itself back to where I was hoping it would be.  I really think the gain last week was more of a fluke than a true weight gain, but the scale is all I have to go on right now.  

12/31/14 official weigh in

175 lbs

Change: -4 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  142lbs

Current BMI:  27.4 (overweight)

Change: -.6

     As my regular readers know I have been battling a horrible case of IT Band syndrome.  I have been doing a lot internet research and trying to solve the problem myself with no luck.  After talking to Hilary, my Ragnar teammate, she suggested I visit a sports physical therapist for some professional help.  I did some research and found a place in Toledo, Ohio that has impeccable credentials and she is geared to athletes of all skill levels.  I had an appointment next week, but I was really getting impatient waiting so Monday I asked if she had an opening on Wednesday and she did.

     With my first visit Alisha made me very comfortable and asked me what seemed to be all the right questions that helped her narrow down what might be causing my issue.  After a physical exam of stretching, twisting, pushing and pulling she had me running on a treadmill while video taping me for a gait analysis.  She gave me her initial diagnosis and a few stretching and foam rolling things for me to do till my second appointment next week.  At my next visit, we will review my gait analysis in detail and go over my treatment plan and time frame for it.

     I know it has only been one visit and I have to be realistic about this, because this injury takes time to fix, but I feel so much better about my situation.  I need to be diligent and do all my "homework" that she gives me, add in some prayers and time and I think I'll be back to running long distances in no time.

     To add to what I wrote last night, I got up this morning to a very cold and windy new year.  The temp read 30 degrees, but with the heavy winds the wind chill made it closer to 15 degrees.  Alisha has allowed me to continue running but I am restricted to no more than 1 to 2 miles as long as I don't have pain.  After seeing everyone getting out and running today on Facebook I felt compelled to get all bundled up and head out, even if it was only for one mile. 

     

Wednesday Weigh In / Tattoo Day!!!

     If you were to ask me, there is no better way to spend a cold windy day off from work than all day in the comfort of a tattoo artist's chair. Since I finished my first marathon, I new I was going to get a tattoo to commemorate my achievement, so it was just a matter of time before I got it done. My tattoo artist is quite sought after in my area, so I had to make my appointment over a month ago. My plan for this appointment was to get my race medal on my leg to go along with my first half marathon medal and get a memorial piece for our dog Stinka that passed away. I have been trying to come up with ideas of what I wanted to get since the day it happened, but I couldn't settle on what I wanted till literally the night before. My appointment wasn't till noon so it gave me time to get my chores and my weigh in out of the way. Since the whole reason for this post in the first place is my weigh in, I'll get that out of the way now.  I gained a half pound from last week, but no complaints here.

12/17/14 official weigh in

175.5 lbs

Change: +.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 141.5 lbs

Current BMI: 27.5 (overweight)

Change: +.1

     I got to Lucky Luke's Tattoo Studio, 1610 West State St. Fremont, Oh 43420 (419-333-8282) in case you were wondering, and Luke and I started mapping out the day. First he would draw up the race medal and then we would knock that out because it would take up the majority of the time. Once that was finished, he would draw up the memorial tattoo and lay it on me. Mandy was getting her memorial tattoo for Stinka as well once she got off of work.

     The race medal had a fairly simple design to it, especially compared to the Detroit Half Marathon Medal that he did for me previously, but sometimes looks can be deceiving. The medal had subtle details stamped in it and a metal flake blue inlay that proved to be a slight challenge to recreate. Other than it taking just as long, if not longer than the marathon was for me to run I think it came out AWESOME.  Luke managed to capture all the details to make a two dimensional image look three dimensional. No matter what happens in the future with my actual race medal I will always have it with me to remind me I am capable of some incredible things.

      With Stinka's tattoo, I didn't have a lot of room to play with on my arm and my original design was to tall for the space I had available. Luke looked at the space and reimagined it perfectly. I wanted something simple and basic, but still had some character to it. I love old school designs and that is what we came up with. We took the cross and banner from the original design I had and added a paw print and a little cloud shaped filler to complete the look. I think it came out amazing and Mandy loved it so much she ended up ditching her idea and getting the same piece.

      Anyway, to give you a quick update on my knee injury, my friend Hilary from my Ragnar SoCal team gave me a few ideas and also suggested I meet with a sports physical therapist. She has been struggling with the same issue and said the therapist made a big difference with her recovery.  With my tattoo fresh on the leg I won't be running for a couple weeks anyway, so I have been researching local therapists and plan to make an appointment with one for the first week of the new year.

1000 Miles and Depressed

     Today's run was my first back in two weeks due to my continuous IT Band issues.  I went out without using the IT band isolator strap.  My ultimate goal is to get back to original form so I wanted to see how I would do without it.  I headed out keeping my pace quite slow and just trying to concentrate on my form.  Somewhere around the mile and a half mark I was starting to feel the tightness in my knee with some minor pain.  I hit the turnaround and ended up stopping so I could stretch out the IT band.  I walked for maybe 20 yards and then got back to it with no problems.  As I suspected The pain crept back and I ended up stopping again to stretch things out and walk it out.  Again I was pain free for a little while, but like I was expecting, pain came back.  once I hit the 3 mile mark I gave up and walked the last mile home.

     When I got home I was feeling frustrated and depressed, and realized I was only 1.1 miles away from hitting the 1000mile mark for the year.  I finished my stretches and thought to myself, I am not going to run again for the rest of the year so fuck it I am gonna go out and at least hit the millennium mark for the year.  I geared up and headed down the bike trail for a half mile and turned around to head back.  The whole time I was thinking this a stupid idea to continue to run, but I wanted a victory of some kind today.

  
     Now where do I go from here.  I am officially done for the year.  I have a tattoo apt in a couple of days and combine that with the knee issues I am just going to hang up the shoes till January.  I am also going to seek professional help in the form of a sports physical therapist.  I found out today that in Ohio you don't have to see and get a doctor's note before you can see a SPT, you can go directly to them.  I am going to contact a couple of places and see what I need to do to get started.

Wednesday Weigh In

      Sorry for the lack of posts the last week or so.  My intentions with this blog was to talk about my ups and downs with my running and weight loss, but both of those have seemed to have stalled for now, which has left me with little to say. 

     Today marks ten straight days without a run and it has been awfully hard to wake up every day and not go for a run.  Especially when that's all you have been doing for the past two years.  The hard part with this injury is that it only really hurts when I am running or just finished running.  Right now my knee feels great, but unless I run I won't know for sure and I can't heal the injury without restraining from running.  Its a frustrating challenge to say the least. 
     
     I have to say though, I have been quite impressed with myself sticking to my homemade workout routine.  Every time I say to myself I think I'll just skip it tonight I remind myself this is all I got and I need to continue till I can get back to running full time.  Also, it is the only stress reliever I have and right now boy do I need it.  Work has been super crazy.  For reasons I am not going to go into we had to let one of our employees go and I am the only other person on staff that has the skills and abilities to do the job he was performing, so not only am I doing all my duties I have a whole second job to accomplish as well.  My boss has been great, understanding and thankful for my willingness to step in and do what is needed for the company, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little stressed out.  

     Sunday will be the 14th day of my non running recovery and I think I am going to lace up the shoes and head out for a short two mile run.  Nothing fast, just let my body tell me how fast to go.  Then I'll take another week or so off and continue the leg strengthening exercises.  I am scheduled to get tattooed next Wednesday and running with a fresh tat on your leg doesn't go very well together.  I'll let the tat heal up and then try another two mile run and see how things progress from there.

     Now for the weigh in.  I was able to have a nice little victory this morning with the scale.  I managed to squeeze out another half pound, which I was quite happy with.  With today's number that puts me only two freaking pounds away from goal!  It seems like such a long journey to get to this point, but am I glad I started it.   

12/10/14 official weigh in

175 lbs

Change: -.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 142 lbs

Current BMI: 27.4 (overweight)

Change: -.1

I am in I.T. Band Hell

     Those of you that have suffered from I.T. Band syndrome know exactly what I mean when I say I am in I.T. band hell.  Just when I think things are on the up and up, I have a set back and it throws me into a depressed state.  

     

     I know that I have to get all my muscles around my IT band stronger and stretch the ITB out in order to win this battle, but there are so many opinions and routines I haven't been able to settle on just one.  I was trying a hodgepodge of different things and I don't think I was really making any head way so I decided I needed to settle on just one.  I finally settled on a stretching and strengthening program from a guy on YouTube that suffered from ITB issues and put up a video of his routine that solved his problems, so for the past couple of days I have been trying to follow it.  Basically I perform side leg lifts and holds, single leg raises and holds, a leg lift with a horizontal swing out, mini single leg dips, a cross leg IT band stretch and a bent knee IT band stretch.  I am going to give this routine about two weeks and see if it is making any improvement to my situation.  I don't really want to get into promoting it if it doesn't work so until I get a couple of weeks in and see how I am doing before I give out all the details.

     

     I read about a compression strap that can help with ITBS, and it has helped me so far, at least on short runs, is the Pro Tech IT Band Compression Wrap.  The wrap is made up of mostly neoprene and has two velcro attaching points.  It has a small square of padding that when wrapped and compressed to the leg will isolate the IT band and keep it from moving across the knee and becoming irritated.  I have used it on three runs so far and has worked wonderfully until today's run.  The first two runs were 4 milers and I had no issues, today's was 6 miles and once I hit mile five the pain slowly came back and I had to shut it down at mile six.  This product seems to work, at least for me in short mileage situations so far.  I will keep using it and give a follow up review after a few more runs.  I picked it up online for around $25 bucks (including shipping).

And no that's not my leg :)

  
     I am not ready to give my full review and full endorsement of my new Altra Paradigms, but after almost 12 miles I am loving them.  The wide toe box is AWESOME!  It gives my feet room to breathe and the zero drop platform allows me to feel like I am running on my feet not on my shoes, if that makes any sense.

     After I uploaded my run info from my Garmin I noticed another reason why I keep having these set backs with my injury and it boils down to me over doing it.  I took a week off from doing any running and the next week back I did over 17 miles.  The last six weeks have been back and forth like that and that cannot be a recipe for success.  I think I will take this next week completely off followed by the next three weeks of 5, 8 and 11 total miles.  Hopefully with the slow easy build up and the stretch and strengthening routine I can kick this crap and get back to enjoying my runs.

The Self Loathing Ramblings of a Frustrated Runner

     When I started running I had no thoughts of running races or setting personal records (PR) all I was trying to do was lose the weight.  As my mileage increased and my per mile times decreased, the idea of actually running a race seemed like the thing to do.  That first year I tried to run every race I could get my hands on.  I was constantly scouring the internet looking for races that I could fit into my schedule, which I know was annoying Mandy quit a bit.  This past summer I put all my training eggs into one basket for the marathon and totally skipped out on a bunch of other smaller local races that I did last year.  I had planned on doing a 10K right in the middle of my training, but thanks to my knee pain I was having at the time, I skipped the race so I could continue to rest my knee.  In fact if it wasn’t for my sister being involved with that 5K a couple of weeks before the marathon, I wouldn’t have even done it.  I put all my focus and energy into preparing for the marathon which is why, I believe, I had such a great race day experience.  I loved every minute of that race and to be quite honest I can’t wait to do another one, but every since that race my running life has been a frustrating chain of events. 

    

     First I have pain in my ankle, then my knee pain comes back while running anything longer than 2-3 miles at a time.  I keep telling myself that I just didn’t let my body heal up enough after the marathon, so I gave myself almost two weeks worth of time to rest and what happens my first run back, freaking knee pain.  Because of this issue, I have missed out on a half marathon I wanted to do and at this point there is know way I am running the local turkey trot on Thanksgiving.  It has really thrown me into a funk right now, mostly because I don’t know what to do.  I know it is my IT band acting up again and I have read every little thing on this issue and no matter what I try nothing seems to work.  Rest seems to be the number one prescribed treatment, but I have read so many stories about people who have rested for 6 months and on their first run back the pain returns.  I have been icing, foam rolling, stretching and no matter what I run two to three miles and the pain returns.

      

     This shit is so frustrating because all I want to do is run.  I keep thinking do I really need to worry about getting faster and setting new PRs?  The primary reason I fell in love with running is because it worked so well in aiding my weight loss.  I would not be anywhere near where I am at with my weight loss if I couldn’t run, that I am sure of.  The thing that I can’t stand is that I can’t run long distances right now, even if I slowed down to a turtle’s pace I would still have pain after a couple miles and long distance is what I am into right now.  Hell I even started researching ultra marathons, but that is a freaking pipe dream with this knee pain.  I had been thinking hard these past couple of weeks on my goals for 2015, I have even started writing about them and was planning on posting it this week, but at this point I don’t even know if consistent running is in my future little lone setting a pretty aggressive time or distance goal.  If I can get this knee pain solved, I think running and having fun doing it will end up being my goal for 2015.  Maybe get back to my attitude from 2013, were I was running any race I can get my hands on. 

      

      A couple of things I have read that can cause IT band syndrome is weak quads and core, shoes and running form.  With this in mind I have started a body weight exercise routine that will hopefully help my entire body get stronger.  I am also going to go this week and look into a new pair of shoes.  I have been hearing great things about Altra brand shoes helping to correct and promote good running form with their zero drop design, so I am seriously considering  going them a try as well.  The last thing I am going to do after I give myself a little more rest is keep my runs short, 2-3 miles max.  I think if I keep my IT band from getting irritated while getting stronger eventually I will be able to get back to long distances again.  At least I hope so, I got a lot of important races coming up in April and early May.

Wednesday Weigh In

     Not running for a week has really had me worried about my weigh in this week.  I did really well on what I was eating this and I kept my calorie intake in check as well.  Even when we would have had to go somewhere to watch the Browns on Thursday night football, Mandy and I decided to spend the night at home instead of heading to the bar.  I really thought a pound or two increase would have shown up, but to my surprise I stayed right where I was.  In fact, if you want to get technical I lost .2 of a pound from last week so little by little I am gonna get to my goal.

11/12/14 official weigh in

177 lbs

Change: 0 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 140 lbs

Current BMI: 27.7 (overweight)

Change: 0

     After my weigh in I got ready and headed out the door to visit my friend Katie from my Ragnar SoCal team.  With not running for a week to rest my I.T. band I have been jonesing to go for a run and I haven't hung out with Katie or her husband in while so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.  Katie and I met at a local state park that had a nice five and a half mile lollypop route through the state park nature preserve.  With my knee and Katie just running a half marathon on Sunday we kept the pace nice and easy.  The temperature, which was a nice 60 degrees yesterday, was a breezy 34 degrees today.  Once we got going I warmed up enough to make it tolerable and the trees provided enough protection from the breeze for most of the run.  Once we finished, we headed back to her house to meet up with her husband and hang out for a while before I drove back to town to meet my sister for a late lunch.  While we were talking, one of their cats sure did take a liking to me.  Estelle buried her head in my lap and  didn't want to let me up when I had to leave.

     While I was there we had talked about our goals for next year, which I have been thinking a lot about lately and I think I have them figured out, so I will be posting those pretty soon.  Also Katie had shown me a picture that she also posted on her blog of a comparison photo of her brother.  She had made the suggestion I should put one together of my first race and my marathon, which I thought was a great idea.  I look at them and the guy on the left, running the 5K, never ever thought he would be doing what the guy on the right was doing.  

 

     It just so happened that I saw this quote today and I thought it fit quite well with how I feel when looking at these two photos, so I thought I would share.