605 Series 4 Mile DNS

Last weekend was the first race in the 605 Series, and the only one of the series I planned to race! I ran long on Friday so I'd be able to race on Sunday. Buuuuuuut, my legs had other ideas. Friday evening my legs started to feel really tight. I foam rolled and sticked and took some ibuprofen before bed. When I woke up Saturday morning, I could barely move them, my IT band was so tight, my quads felt completely locked up.

I had lunch plans with a friend and just assumed they'd loosen up as the day went on. After lunch I realized, maybe that wasn't the case..... I spent more time foam rolling, took more ibuprofen, found some biofreeze, and took a two hour nap.... in the name of recovery, mind you.

I woke up, foam rolled some more and took an epsom bath. They felt a little better, finally. I texted Toni that I was going to try to do my warm up miles before the race, and decide if I'd race after that. I woke up Sunday and my legs were still super tight and painful. I turned off my alarm, mopey, and tried to go back to bed. Until I realized that I had picked up friends' packets and had to bring them to the race. Grr....

I did some more foam rolling throughout the day, but not as aggressively as the previous days, as they were still super tender to the touch and maybe I overdid the foam rolling a smidge. I really wanted to run that race, so I was doing everything I could to get there. Oh well.

I had another epsom bath and took a restorative yoga class. Monday my legs felt almost okay. I took a yin yoga class and 15 minutes of foam rolling, and my legs felt almost back to normal. I opted to take another rest day just to be sure.

So I'm back to normal, I think. This is similar IT band issues that I've had when my form is crappy during a long run or race. I think going to POWER for the first time in three weeks may have worked my glutes too hard, so they were just off completely during my long run. It's a good reminder to keep my foam roller nearby as the miles are increasing, and to make sure that my glutes are ready to rock during runs. Eeps.

Running Form

It has been made abundantly clear that I have issues with my form and/or muscle imbalances.  I had issues with my IT bands post-Green Bay marathon, and after the Sioux Falls half last fall.  I had hip issues shortly after Green Bay and during Vegas and Fargo, and I've had random knee issues........ for the last year or so.

Exhibit A-D:  The Heel Strike. Like Whoa.

A couple weeks ago I finally utilized my groupon'd massage certificate.  My first official massage!  I gave the masseuse a brief background to my running and injuries, and she got to work.  When she finally got to my piriformis, I almost started sobbing.  She said she hadn't felt that tight of a piriformis muscle in a long time.  Afterwards she showed me a couple of stretches to help alleviate some of the tightness and I was on my way.

A few months back I actually noticed that I had some tightness and pain in my piriformis muscle (left one) but didn't really give it too much thought because it never bothered me while I was running.  Rolling over at night, leading with that leg, OUCH!  Certain yoga across the body stretches, OUCH!

I did some research on the piriformis and realized that **shocker** when it's tight, it can pull the hip in the wrong direction and can cause knee issues.  Hmmm.... perhaps I should've given it a bit more thought when it hurt while NOT running.  One of the primary causes is over striding.

Next I took to looking at some race pictures.  It's very clear that when I'm tired/hating life while running my form starts to s-u-c-k.  I start to rest on my back side and have my legs do all the work.  The over striding evidence is very clear in most every race finishing picture when I'm tired, but still trying to do some work (see above A-D).

Another interesting factor is that it is almost impossible to not heel strike when you're over striding (hello knee and IT band issues!).  Back in high school when I would've considered myself a "runner," I only raced 13-27 seconds at a time so you don't think about form.  You just ran...hard. 

Since realizing this, I've made a very conscious effort to work on my form, particularly on my easy paced runs, because the form seems to be worse the slower I run.  My knee is almost to the point where I can ditch my knee strap, and I have had zero hip pain and only a little IT band pain.  Turns out the treadmill really brings out the over-striding in me... oops! 
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And clearly I wrote this blog post before I ran a 13.1 mile training run and failed to stretch after.  Uh... oops.  I took a rest day on Monday and did some hip opening yoga which got rid of the creakiness.  Phew.  Since the heat index was 112* I wasn't too sad I had to put off my run.  Eew.

IT Band Update + More Half Marathon Race Pictures

Uh... you guys are clearly tri experts.  Seriously.  Anyone interested in doing your first tri, feel free to stalk my comments of my last post for ideas/suggestions/etc.  Phew.

Back to running........... oh wait.... I'm not.  Last night in lieu of running I did a super girly night of diy facial, manicure, pedicure, and eating coffee flavored ice cream directly out of the carton.  I then logged the 75 minutes in my running log as intense cardio.  jk.  As I tweeted last night, my left IT band is almost completely back to normal where as the right one is hovering around 72%.  As of this morning, I'd say closer to 87%.  I could probably have done a short run last night, but I opted to rest (and gorge on ice cream).  I really want my last 20 miler to go well this weekend, and if that means sacrificing some "junk miles" in the process so be it.

And because you didn't see quite enough pictures of me taking on 13.1 miles on Saturday, here are more for your viewing pleasure.  Seriously... I think it's almost to the point that you could print them out, staple them together and create your very own flipbook of my race.  ::brb out prepping craft supplies::

This should answer my "why do my IT bands hurt so bad?!?!?" question.  Uff.