Back in the saddle
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Blogging has been light because I have been lame.
In the 4 weeks after Rhode Island I didn’t do much except for a few spinning classes, with varying degrees of discomfort, and a few 1 and 2 mile runs. But I have been a stretching machine, which has really helped out my IT band and I’m ALMOST back to running normal distances again without pain.
I ran 2 miles yesterday and just felt a little tight at the end. WAY better than the excruciating pain that I felt after one mile about 6 weeks ago.
I think one of the reasons that I’ve seen some more progress in the last few weeks is this new stretch that I’ve been doing a lot. After doing tons of my normal IT band stretches, the foam roller wasn’t even hurting anymore and it felt really loose, until I would actually run on it. I figured something down there was still tight and the stretches I was doing just weren’t doing the job.
I eventually poked around YouTube and found this stretch.
Trust me, I look just as hot in those little booty shorts. I swear.
Anyway, as soon as I started doing this new one and a few other glut stretches, I could tell I had this big ‘ol knot of tightness in my left but cheek that I hadn’t noticed before. Hot, right? After stretching it out every morning before work and at night before bed for a week or so, I’ve gotten pretty flexible and now my running is almost back to normal!
Just in time to squeeze in some training to get for a September Oly! Woohoo! There is a lobsterman race in Maine that is calling my name.
Now that I’m starting to get back in the groove after exactly one month off, I feel like my endorphin tolerance has completely dropped. As soon as I start running (without pain) I get SO PUMPED and am reminded why I love it. I got in the pool for the first time in a while this morning and my warm up was almost 800 meters. I just kept swimming because it was fun and completely forgot about starting my real workout. It was the most fun I’d had in the pool all year.
Nothing like a little injury to refresh yourself in the middle of the season, eh?
Oh, and my work had a caricature artist come in today to draw me and the rest of the new people. Everyone has a pic of themselves by their desk instead of a boring sign or name plate. Kinda cool. I think this was the first caricature I’d ever had done. He even gave me disk wheels without me asking. Sweet! I didn’t bother trying to explain to him how to draw aero bars though…
What do you think?
| Posted in Running, Swimming, Training Log, Triathlon, Videos | 7 Comments »
