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.