Friday, September 7, 2012

Thank you ITB


I am more and more convinced that „likely just phantom pains triggered by that part of your brain that is responsible for making sure you not do anything stupid” exist.

Of course I was not going to do that “mad race” in next three weeks to get that awesome beer-filled glass (I would do it if I have not spent the last three years cursing my ITB, but I do have some common sense), I was just dreaming about it. The same way I dream about doing a half-ironman next year… I will put that glass on my imaginary bucket list and I will get it one day. 

However, my ITB might not have been entirely convinced that I have a common sense and just to make sure that I do not do anything stupid it has decided to rebel a little bit. Nothing too bad, but just enough to scare me enough to shoot a freak-out email to my PT to get an appointment and to not even entertain a thought of racing in next three weeks. Yeah, point taken ITB!

I do not know whether it really hurt or whether I was imagining it but I think that it was real. For a second or two I was contemplating to scrap my run yesterday but I knew that would classify in “lazy” category, not in “being careful” category. I have had these little pains before and I knew that it is nothing serious. Interesting thing about it is that although I can feel some discomfort in ITB area sitting at work or in metro, it goes completely away during the run and everything feels great again after I run. Weird. 

By the way, I had a great run yesterday. I did my workout on a dirt track near my house while soccer practice was going on. Hit a runner and get a double score! Not really. They hit me only once and it was not too bad because you are able to react when twenty+ men all at once scream “Vorsichtig” at you. I used my best volleyball move to prevent the ball to break my nose and continued to 1:28 400m split.

Anyway, workout was great. 4x400 @ sub-5k pace, 15min @ little slower than 10k pace, 4x400 again with 90sec jog. 
First 400 felt quite challenging (1:25, 1:26, 1:27, 1:26) and I started to worry about the last 400s.

Then I decided to pretend that my current 10k pace is 4:00-03 (6:25ish in case any North Americans are reading this) and thus wanted to do 15min at 4:05 pace. I was also determined to check my splits only at each kilometer mark because I must learn to “feel the pace” if I want to become a distance runner! Went through first k in a notch faster than 4min (too fast), then second k in 4:06 (slow, although 1sec plus or minus, I do not care), third in 4:05 (perfect) and then the rest to finish 15min. It felt like jogging! I mean, it was really jogging because holding 10k+ pace for 15min should feel like jogging, right? I also suspect that having a whole men’s soccer team watching me might have added to my motivation.
As I was doing this I overheard one of the players telling to his teammate that I looked happy to be running. And I thought to myself," man, you have no idea!!!"

Then the last 400s. These surprisingly felt easier that the first set: 1:28 (that’s when I got hit by that ball), 1:26, 1:26, 1:26. Must be because I was warmed up enough by then.

So everything is good. I am not doing any running races in next three weeks and my ITB is happy. Not as happy as it was on let's say Saturday, but happy enough.

2 comments:

  1. was going to write something about your it band but lost my train of thought after reading twenty plus soccer men....
    anyway be good (w the soccer men and to your it band)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am always good! With both men and itb.

    ReplyDelete