faster with age

     After taking Sat. and Sun. off I figured my ITB would be ready for some longer runs this week. I quit after running only 2 miles because it was starting to get sore. I'm not sure why it would be worse than last week unless a lot of extra stretching and exersises I have been doing for it has aggravated it. It was 12 degrees this morning and very windy with new snow from last night so I wasn't to excited about a bike ride [mainly the wind]. So I did 30 min. on the eliptical which didn't bother the ITB.

     Last night the IT band on the same side that's been giving me trouble in the knee area got quite sore up in my hip area [which is not the same hip nor pain I had a few weeks ago]. I woke up and couldn't even sleep with it and had to take some ibuprofin. It's been a little sore there since late last week but just got a lot worse. I've barely done any running in the past week so I don't know why this is getting worse. I've been doing a whole lot more ITB stretches this past week and also doing some self massage on it. I wonder if this has brought some of it on. None of the stretches are new to me, but I've been doing them maybe 4 times a day compared to once a week and sometimes missing a week or two in between that I was doing them before. I did the eliptical yesterday also [which I haven't done in a while] but I wouldn't think that would bring it on. I did a 15 mile bike ride today and it felt good until near the end when it got a little sore. I'm going to have to really be cautious the next few days and take it very easy on my stretching and see what happens.

     No running today. I'm not going to run the rest of this week and maybe some of next week. I'll do a little cross training but probably keep that to a minimum. My ITB [hip] was a little sore this morning but nothing like yesterday morning when it was painful to walk. It actually is feeling real good today. I haven't done any stretching yesterday or today and think I'll wait until the pain is gone and then start back up more gently. It's a good time for me to take 3 or 4 weeks extra easy anyway. I don't have any races planned until May.

     Another rest day. Last night I played basketball and got 0 pain from the hip or anywhere else for that matter [other than a spot on my calf that took a knee from somebody]. And I played hard too. I'd have never thought basketball would be good X-training for a running injury but I guess the ITB flares up more after a repetative motion done over time and basketball has too much stop and go. Everything feels good today other than the calf and just a slight sorness in the ITB [hip] first thing this morning but it was much less than yesterday morning.

     Hip and everything else is feeling pretty good. I started lightly doing some stretching again. also adding some core and pelvis strengthening exersises along with some foam rolling.

     Rest