This has definitely been a learning experience, the ole IT Band adventure.  Thankfully, things continue to improve (knock on wood) with regular rolling, stretching, icing and ibuprofen consumption.

My runs have gone like this: 7 miles Wed and Thurs, then 8 miles yesterday and today – the hope being that each run would be a little better than the previous, and if not, stay on that distance till it is.  I’ve also been leaving my Shuffle at home, the better to hear a whisper of hurt before it becomes a yell.

That 2nd 7-miler on Thursday was a nail biter, I was just about holding my breath the whole time, so afraid it’d be unchanged or even worse.  What a relief to find it only required 2 stops to stretch, instead of Wednesday’s 3.

Yesterday, I got to 4.5 miles before I needed a stretch and today it wasn’t till 6.5 miles and only required the one stop, so I’m in high spirits, like I dodged a bullet (though I get the feeling that I’ll be wearing a permanent target from here on in).

I can see how this injury would knock you out horribly if you didn’t have a foam roller.  Took me a couple days to realize I should roll both legs, too, not just the injured one. I also ordered a Pro-tec IT band strap, which I’ll hopefully not need by the time it gets here, but I’d like to have it around just in case.  Also, it wasn’t till a couple days ago that I realized how long a stretch should actually take – 30 seconds is a lot longer than I thought.  Lol, I’m such a newbie with this crap.

So with this precious improvement, I decided not to do any speed or tempo till I’m back to 100%, which is a shame because I have a 5k next weekend.  But if this thing is lingering midweek, I’m going to skip the race entirely, I’ve got nothing to prove by doing it.  And about those racing flats, they’re not even on the shopping radar right now, last thing I want to do is introduce a new pair of shoes to the mix.

Away from injury talk, I temporarily put aside the drudgery of remaking products for The Gifted Runner to creating a handful of brand new designs.  I forgot how much I enjoy the creative part of it.  And you know that test shirt that got printed on the front instead of the back?  I wore it couple times already and it’s so satisfying seeing people try to read the thing while running the opposite way.  It’s the PRs and Sunshine one, so I guess the 13666 stands out pretty well.  Cool.

And that ends this weekend’s one-sided jabber fest.  Hope you guys and gals are whooping it up with beautiful weather and fine running adventures.  Till next week, run on!

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