I've been having a little off and on very minor pain in my left IT band for the last few days. I'm not sure what's causing it. I've added swimming to my routine. Also I'm running in the cold, which is said to possibly irritate the IT band. I'm stretching it well before and after and it never bothers me during a run. I really only notice it when I've been sitting for awhile.
That said, I decided to shorten today's run slightly and I'll be taking tomorrow and possibly Saturday completely off all exercise. I don't want to have to take another month off to heal.
Since I was shortening my run somewhat, I decided to pick up the tempo a bit. That may have negated any healing that I hoped to allow my IT band to do, but I couldn't just let myself take it easy. That's just not my style.
I picked a spot in my head at which I would turn around. I ran the first five minutes at a slightly faster than normal pace (165ish strides per minute) and then accelerated to significantly faster (175ish spm) than what I'm used to for the next three minutes. I dropped the pace back down to the slightly faster than normal pace for most of the remainder of the run until I topped the final hill into the parking lot where I was barely able to push up to an all out run for the last 100 yards or so.
Today's Stats: I did 2.35 miles in 26:02 for a pace of 11:04/mile. That's over 10 seconds faster per mile than my best time. I was pleased with that, and hope to start varying my runs a little bit. Rather than just training to increase distance with each run, I'm thinking I'll try to work in a shorter/faster run in each week. Hopefully that will increase my pace over the longer distances as well. If nothing else, it's a good cardio workout.
Next Up: The weather is supposed to get pretty ugly here Friday night and into Saturday. I had hoped to be able to go for a run outside on Christmas day, but if the weatherman is right, I may be in for some treadmill time, as much as I hate it.
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