I guess that I will never be a serious athlete

Because my stupid ITB has flared up again. And I cannot become a serious athlete if I cannot train properly.

I do not know why it flared up. Running? New PT exercises I did on Monday? Massage PT gave me on Monday morning?

Since I am very biased, I think that it was the massage. I do not think that it was running. Because I ran on Sunday and it felt good until Monday afternoon.
So I have not run since Sunday, stop doing new exercises, PT stopped giving me ITB massage and we will wait until it calms down again.

She told me today that she can feel a little bump above the knee tendon, which means that it is inflammated and swollen. So I am icing it (although I have always iced it) and I decided to start taking anti-inflammatory medicine doctor gave me. That should help to calm it down sooner.

So I am not going to do the race on Sunday. Although I am 90% positive that I could have been in top 3 (and 60% positive about winning) and thus win money, even 100 bucks is not worth it. Although it would be nice since I need to buy a new commuter bike because the one I have borrowed from a college is unusable now and I am not going to ride my road bike to work. It is a nightmare. But I have decided to put a long-term goal over a short-term goal!

Hm, any other suggestions about what I can do?

Maybe I should get an MRI, maybe it is something worse than ITB. I need to look into it. Although I will probably wait until they kick me out of the country and send me home because I cannot afford it here.

But you know what? I am not stressing about it. I did only 1 month of PT sessions and PT told me that my ITB is still very tight and needs work. So I probably should not have start running just yet and I should have waited until the imbalances are cured. But I wanted to do the race so I started running. Now I have no mor races planend until Aug 19 2012. And that' sthe big one.
So I am going to do the PT and I will not start running the moment ITB feels good. I will wait longer. Even if it takes 2 motnhs. Hopefully, by that time, imbalances will disappear, ITB will loosen up and then when I start running again it will be ok. That's my plan.
Until then, I will continue biking (because it does not bother it at all!) and swimming, maybe elliptical (depends on how it feels).
Because IM is all about being an ubercyclist. Better cyclist I become, faster I will be able to run a marathon. I believe that I have enough miles in my legs to be able to survive the run even if I did not run as much as I probably should. Or when I start running, I will be able to regain fitness fairly quick.
I am staying positive.

So, PPC, when I tell you in 2-3 weeks that my ITB feels great and that I am ready to start running again, please yell at me, call me an idiot and don't let me run! Do not send me a training plan no matter how much I beg. Ok?

It felt pretty bad yesterday while I was at work. Then I went biking and swiming and as I was standing in shower afterwards I realized that it feels awesome. No pressure, no pain. And I started thinking again that I might be able to run on Sunday. Then again, I am at work sitting on my butt and it does not feel that hot. But I made a deal with myself, no more running until it feels great for 4 weeks. 4 weeks of no pain, no pressure, no tingling. Then I can start runing again. Hopefully it will be sometime in late November, mid-Dec, no later. Wish me luck.