Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Before the Buffalo Run, I was worried about the soreness in the IT band on the outside of my right knee. But since the race the pain has been on the inside of my right knee. I took almost an entire week away from running after the race, and then I went for two long runs (by my current standards) on the trail. I felt okay during the runs, with a few twinges, but now my knee hurts again.

And I don't know what to make of it this time. I usually feel fine when I'm just walking around. But when I sit, my knee tightens up and hurts when I move it or stand up. But once I'm up and moving again, I don't really notice it. It makes me wonder if what I've got is some sort of a sprain, and I'll be fine running as long as I stay off the trail for a while. Or maybe I have something just waiting to explode. When the semester is over, I hope to get into see a doctor. In the meantime, I hope I can keep moving forward in my Squaw 50 prep.

What bugs me most is that I've now had four knee injuries in less than a year. And although all four have been on the same knee, there have been three different types of injuries: the runner's knee (behind the kneecap), the ITBS (twice), and now this new one on the inside. I hate to think that my knees just can't handle running, but you have to wonder.

Anyways, I'm seeing a doctor on Friday. But for now, it's infuriating, really.

As for my workout: I spent about thirty minutes at the gym this morning, pumping my guns and strengthening my IT band. In teh evening I went back for an hour while I watched the first half of the NCAA championship. 45 minutes on the stairstepper, followed by 15 on the treadmill, I figure I can get more out of limited mileage if I soften my legs up first, Fritz-style.

I was going to do 75 minutes tonight--60 on the stairs and another 15 on the treadmill. But then I decided to try to do it all on the treadmill. But then my knee started to hurt after a mile, so I decided to go to the stairs after 15 minutes. But then my knee stopped hurting completely, so I stayed on the treadmill for 10 miles. Some things make no sense.

Anyways, for the first 8 miles I alternated between one mile easy (about 8:00) and one mile faster (about 5:52). Then I finished with an easy two.

1:12:20

Here's a story that helps explain why I'm prone to overuse injuries. During our run on Friday, Jun and I talked about switching to a midfoot stride as a possible solution to my knee problems. I'd though of that before (a great deal, in fact), so when Aaron K. suggested the same thing on my blog yesterday, I was all ears (especially since he seems to have had such great success with the switch). So, I was determined to run my entire ten miles yesterday without hitting my heels. After about six miles my calves and ankles were starting to hurt. By eight miles they were screaming. Even so, I refused to listen to my body and quit, pressing on until the end, when my calves and ankles were in absolute agony.

Anyways, I'm not injured as a result of my stubborness. Just very sore. The plus side is that because of the soreness, I decided to cross train instead of run today. So even if the whole forefoot thing doesn't benefit my knee directly, it may end up doing so indirectly by forcing me not to run for a day or two. Good deal.

One hour on the stair machine. Law and Order Special Victims Unit sucks.

So, my left ankle hurts more than I thought. Serves me right, I guess. It feels better every day, but I may not be running as much as I'd like for the rest of this week. I guess that's good for my knee.

Anyways, Catherine and I did a one hour spin class led by Stan the Man. Actually, his name is just Stan. He is a man, but I can't say for certain whether he's the Man. But we did enjoy his class.

Afterward, I ran one very slow mile on the treadmill. As in 9:45 slow. At least there was some hilarious show called Winter Wipeout on the TV.

Also, check out this video. (Thank you Catherine for finding a subtitled version.) I think it's hilarious. If you don't, you have a bad sense of humor.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I decided to go ahead and take care of my running and my lifting this morning. Of course, my lower legs are still pretty trashed, I decided to hike on the treadmill (12 percent grade) instead of running. I did throw in one easy mile of running on the incline at about 13:00, with the result that my IT band was protesting for the rest of the morning. (Fortunately, it seems to have quieted down as of this writing.)

Anyways, the good news from the doctor is that there don't seem to be any real problems with my knee. Apparently, however, while the stretching and strengthening I've been doing are good, what I really need is to strengthen my glutes, quads, and core (which is kind of strange, since I thought all of those were pretty strong). So, it looks like it's back to PT for me, as soon as finals are over.

The best news from the appointment is that the only limit to how much I can run on a sore IT band is my tolerance. In other words, as long as I can deal with the level of pain, I can keep running without worrying about causing further damage. It's nice to know that I don't have to stop running just because my IT band wants to bully me around.

Also, this is the show that Catherine and I saw at the gym last night. Anyone who saw that old Disney movie about fat camp (Heavyweights, I think) might remember the Blob--a giant airbag by the lack that one person sits in while another person jumps on the other end and bounces him into the water. But on this show, instead of one obese adolescent bouncing another, they have one not-so-fat person getting bounced by a 1,000 lb. weight dropped from about 50 feet. The results are pretty much what you'd expect.

Catherine and I went to the temple this morning, and afterward we went down to Provo so I could attend a review session on campus and she could do some grading in her office. We planned to stop at Kneaders on the way for all-you-can eat French toast, but we got there just a few minutes too late and missed it. So, instead of late breakfast we started looking for early lunch. On a whim, we decided to eat at the Taco Riendo, a Mexican place we saw along the way. As far as I can tell, it was pretty authentic. The food was very good, so it's two thumbs up for the Laughing Taco (unless we wake up with Laughing Diarrhea tomorrow).

Anyway, I did my workout at the gym tonight. My lower leg feels better, although it still hurts, so I thought I'd try a little running. I was okay for about a mile and a half, but then I got some sharp pain in my left ankle, so I decided not to push it. I left the treadmill and went over to the stairstepper for a couple of hours. For the first 90 minutes, I cruised steady at 200 watts with ever sixth minute at 400. For the last thirty I followed the same pattern, but at 180 watts and 340. So once again, the mileage I'm recording doesn't really reflect the workout.