Monday

ITBS
Been running with a lot of pain in my hip. It started after the long runs a month ago and has been pretty painful. The pain is on my left side, right at the hipbone. It was to the point where I thought I might even have a stress fracture. So I took a couple of weeks off (not easy to do) and did as much research as I could. I found a few sites that helped me figure out that I had ITBS and what I could do to help fix it.

This article in Running Times shows a couple of stretches.

I wasn't really sure I had ITBS until I tried this stretch called the Walt Reynolds ITB Special. It was immediately painful when I tried it. I've been doing it 3 or 4 times a day for the past week and the pain has gone away.

So the major rule for me temporarily: no downhill runs, no running on canted roads where my left leg (which is the hurt one) is downhill of my right leg.

So I'm back in business, running-wise, BUT i thought I was doing OK until I went to a meeting in Atlanta and talked to a guy who runs 7 miles in the morning, then 7 miles again in the evening 6 days a week. He's been doing this for the past 4 months.

So now my revised plan is to run 10 miles per day but to split the runs. Last night I ran 4 miles, and tonight I will run either 4 or 5, depending. Then I'll start adding the morning run. I can easily do 5 miles in the morning on a flat route with no hills.