Ups and Downs

An IT Band injury is not like having a sore muscle where, if left with minor involvement, your body will typically repair the damage. An IT Band injury is like wounded pride. There's no ignoring no matter how busy you get. You must "baby" it and tend to its every need to make it "release" and unwind. Ask your leg for forgiveness every day! Stroke its ego if you have to....or in other words, massage the muscle daily and combine that with any outside therapy that money can provide. 

Yes, according to a couple of IT Band-related articles I've read, it can take anywhere from three to six weeks to heal, work on it properly, and not make it worse. One crazy website (written by a running enthusiast) was trying to suggest running schedules to stick to while the muscle heals. Forget that! I'm lucky if I can make it up and down the three flights of stairs to my apartment without a twinge of pain. 

In preparation for a vacation I just got back from, I worked that muscle and was dedicated to it to the point of madness and it paid off. In between continuous stretches, I had an enjoyable vacation. There was minimal walking compared to my usual gallivanting around on weekends, but I nary had even an ache. I received a Sports Massage during my time off and that really set the recovery wheels in motion (for a little while, anyway). The therapist remarked that my bones tended to pop a lot and while I agreed with her, in that I have been able to easily pop my joints since childhood, I had been noticing that my right hip (with the injury) pops a bit more than the other. Is this a sign of things to come?

Unfortunately, from the time I came home until now (about five days), I've almost gotten back to square one, simply because I stopped working the muscle daily. And why is that? I got lazy, or distracted. One of the two. As soon as the weekend came, I started to feel that all-too-familiar twinge in my hip. My knee seemed to be fine, which is where most people describe the IT Band pain. I'm not sure if mine is severe enough to have reached the knee, so the pain sits gingerly around my right hip. The one professional therapist I had inspect my injury said that it wasn't too bad because the entire IT Band was not damaged. Only the part around the gluteus was constricted and knotted. 

Now, as of today, I'm clawing my way back onto the recovery wagon and using the foam roller again with daily stretches. I've learned the hard way of what happens when you stop the regiment..you start feeling like your hip is going to dislocate.

Recovery Reeks

It's a week into my recovery from the TIR and things are...progressing. By Tuesday of this past week, my quad and arm soreness was almost gone. I owe that to the Epson salt baths, light stretching and walking, oh, and Yoga (for the quick recovery part). That's something I haven't really boasted about. There are a few things I did differently for this year's TIR that I didn't do last year. I worked on my running posture.  I working on my breathing (uh, while running, apparently you gotta do it a certain way). I did Yoga. I've been practicing Yoga off and on since college but got into "hot yoga" about three years back. I needed a distraction in my life during that time and it certainly was. Since then, as I can budget it, I've been taking classes here and there. Some days I don't want to go. Some days, it's the only thing I look forward to. And, I always feel better after each class. So for the muscles I stretched regularly in yoga, I think I gave them the upper hand for the race. As for my Iliotibial (IT) Band, I wasn't participating in the kind of yoga that stretches that muscle area too much, and given that I didn't really stretch it before and after my runs, it was about time something broke.

So, I'm kinda sad now...

No one is this happy when using the roller, come on!

Recovery time for the IT Band means pain and discomfort. The muscle parts that have tensed up or have knots that need to be worked out...by hand. Or, by the foam roller, which has been my newest purchase. I literally broke out into a sweat when I used it earlier today. Combined with stress of an upcoming vacation to prepare for and the fact that my hip start experiencing the sharp pains it had during the TIR, I'm feeling a sense of urgency to get back to normal. I have decided, though, if I'm still in pain after my vacation, I will seek a therapist's help...to...have someone professionally knead the knots out of my leg. Now THAT is something to look forward to!

On a lighter note...
I have seen some of the professional pics taken of my TIR team. For some reason, in ALL of pics taken when we crossed the finish line, my arms are in the air and I'm doing some sort of Rocky victory dance. Now, I remember doing something like that for a few seconds (moments), but I guess that was the exact same time the photographer decided to take ALL of our 'team in action' pics.

I Talk of Legs

So, it happened. The TIR, that is. All this time, I had doubted what turned out to be a pretty solid training regimen. I had the stamina. I had the correct posture. My breathing technique was down. My hill training made me strong. Where I suffered----- Not STRETCHING enough before and after my runs! During my training for the TIR, not only was I slacking on some of the mileage, but I stopped doing something that I knew deep down was important. So, this blog entry is about how that played out...ahem

My first leg - The 6.3 mile stretch into Schulenburg. It had actually been marked as the second most difficult leg in the race which thankfully, I found out after my run. This was the leg I was most worried about because of the distance and that it would fall on the hottest part of the day. The result? My personal best time! I finished the leg well under an hour, which came to a little over 9 minute miles. It was one of THE BEST runs I have ever had! I was more than ready in every way (ahh except one, we'll get to that...). I had tremendous support from my van mates (the team I shared a van with). The stars aligned, and I thanked God many times for the success of that run.

My second leg - An easy downhill 4.2 mile run into Wallis. It was just about 2:00 AM when I took this run. I hadn't slept yet. The temperature had dropped significantly to around 40 degrees. I was feeling a little "twinge" under my right knee before the leg, but I thought I was well enough to run without my knee brace (I had run my first leg with a brace because of some weird sharp pains I had experienced the week before). Not even a mile into the run...my right leg was engulfed with pain. I had...(dramatic pause)...injured my IT Band. It's a muscle that runs from your gluteus to your knee. It's a very common muscle to injure, apparently, and so I guess it was my turn.

Looking back on it now, it was a long time coming. I wasn't stretching it like I had in the past. I can't point the finger at anyone but myself. It was all I could do NOT to burst into tears during the second leg. I was frustrated with myself and was pissed at the thought that I wouldn't be able to run my third leg, the so-called "best leg of the race." Then I thought to myself, "I am long overdue for a cruel twist of fate. Life isn't fair and sometimes I need to be reminded of this." However true that was, I was able to finish the leg with a 10 minute mile pace which is on average for me. I was so upset, I couldn't exchange the same social graces with everyone that I had earlier. I just nodded my head and moved on.

Between my second and third leg, I tried a few times to tell my van mates that I was injured. No one seemed to pick up on it at first. Finally, one man into our third set of legs, someone listened and my van mates began making a back up plan in the event that I had to forfeit. Then I contemplated further, "I did work hard for this and now this last leg was being taken away?! (like I owned it or something) Try everything you can to get yourself in a race mode." I started stretching like I had never stretched before. Keep moving. Keep moving. I worked on that muscle to the point where I had minimized the pain.

My third leg - the 5.17 mile stretch from Memorial Park to downtown Houston. It is referred to as the prettiest leg and while I'll agree, its purrrty, it ain't got nothing on Town Lake. That's right. I ran it....err, jog/walked it. My van mates stopped to check on me for every mile. I had developed two styles of running during that leg that Frankenstein would have be envious of. While I was able to stave off the sharp pains for most of the run, my last two miles nearly killed me. If it hadn't been for the strength of my left leg, they may have had to carry me into the van. During my last mile, I was joined by a concerned van mate for company and it was on! I surfaced onto the downtown streets, in between the Houston high rises, and the adrenaline kicked in. I suddenly was able to run like I had in that first leg. So much so that someone commented that I overcame my injury. Not so, but I finished that leg in a blaze of glory, only to be met by my support group. It was a triumph I desperately needed and it was a true testament to sheer determination and blinding stubbornness.

The aftermath? Well, it's recovery. The muscle will hurt until it is fully healed. I know that I will need to mash on it to work the knots out, a pain not unlike getting a tattoo, but it is necessary to get better and be race ready again...someday.

And now for the home stretch

This is the week. The TIR starts this Saturday. A week after I ran it last year, I knew I would let myself get sucked back in. Was it because of the glory? Bragging rights? The pint of ice cream I will devour GUILT FREE when I get home (IF I make it back alive)? How about D, all of the above.

When I quit running track in high school, I couldn't fathom ever wanting to run competitively again. I was done with that mess. Then, almost two years ago, I was inexplicably available during the weekend of the TIR. I had wanted to try training for it, because I was around co-workers everyday who had done it. I guess something rubbed off on me. The nerves set in right away. I thought I would help my training along by signing up for a couple of other, smaller relays and 5Ks. All the anxiety I had as a Track & Field athlete in high school came back to me, but I was determined to see it through. Something magical happened after the last TIR. I still wanted to run. I worked my way up to a half-marathon before I had to start training for this year's TIR.

But honestly, I equate this relay to something between a half-marathon and a full marathon. I'm running more than a half, but chopped into three legs. You would think that time would a good break for the body but really it's not. The lactic acid builds up, you get stiff, you don't really sleep, and when it's all said and done with, you feel like you've been hit by a bus. Or, at least I felt that way last year...

So why do it again?
I ask myself that a lot. It's like I keep forgetting. I'm running it again for the experience of it all. It's not just about the running. It's about who you run with, the racing community, and all the support that comes with it. I sort of want the whole experience at least one last time, and I think that will truly get it out of my system. My desire to train may be lacking now, and I'm tired of running and then being TIRED. But, I know in the long run that I'll be glad I tried. That, and you get a really neat-o medal at the end of the race. It was shaped like a cannon last year!