Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Running In Shorts

I guess I didn't live up to my previous post when I said that we'd get up Monday morning and run. We both had been tossing and turning all night (due to warmth for me....anxiety with the big game for David) so when the alarm went off it was close to impossible to wake up. My legs we still kind of sore from Sunday too. Then when we did get up I was kicking myself for not getting my lazy butt up. Thankfully, I got out of work early due to our schedule being empty. I went home and immediately went out for a run in 65 degree weather. Yeah, in shorts, sasquatch legs and all. Forgive me for not shaving my legs in a month...when you go outside it all grows back almost immediately when it's cold out. It was dark out, no one could see. Back to the run....Ooh, the wind was harsh. So harsh I wanted to stop, but I kept pushing and it felt great.

I'm still having the nagging right hip pain. I just attributed it to being my "bad" leg. But after discussing it with Erika she thought it may be my Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITB Band) and told me I better nip it in the bud now. The ITB is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. After doing some research on my symptoms I believe she's right on. One of the causes of injury is running on banked surfaces. When my problem originally reared it's ugly head (this time) it was after we had run on the street a few weeks back (after the bad snow where we had to wait almost a week, then when we did go out we had to run on the side of the road). So I'm working on stretching it and Sita worked on me last night. She also observed that I look to be out of alignment which could also be a problem. I dunno. I'm working on it but the nagging pain sucks. Even though I attribute this to running I think the running only flared the problem that was already present. As time moves on I find that I'm less and less able to do things with my bad leg. In evaluating my mobility I'd say I have 1/4-1/3 the flexibility of my left leg. Now, my left leg is quite flexible mind you, but I'd still like to have more flexibility in my right leg. I definitely over compensate for the leg too. If you look at the treads of my old running shoes the left shoe is bald compared to my right having little wear. As of now I'll continue to do my stretches and hope that the pain goes away as it has done in the past.

1 comment:

erika said...

Hope the stretching helps. My running partner had IT band problems and I'll ask her what she did to take care of it.

As I was running errands with the kids yesterday, I kept thinking how nice it would be to go for a run in the eerily warm weather. Glad you were able to take advantage of it.

Thanks again for the run on Sunday. It's always good to see you!