I stated in my last entry that finishing up my 15 mile long run on the 16th, I experienced some pretty severe IT Band pain around mile 12. Well the next day at practice, I couldn’t finish a 6 mile easy run, cutting back to 5 and was forced to stop and walk about 5 times along the way as I trotted along at 8 min+/mile. After limping back to the track and talking to Coach, I was instructed to lay low for awhile, and report back to him on how I was feeling daily. To make a long story short, I took off the next 6 days and skipped our scrimmage against Pompton Lakes that week. Ice and Ibuprofen became my 2 best friends during the time off.
On Monday the 24th, I decided to give it a go and return to practice. I told James (VanderWiele) that I didn’t want to push the pace or anything today, which he agreed too. Surprisingly, I was able to get through the easy 5 miler followed by 6x100 strides pretty well. About 3 miles in I had some ITB pain, but it subsided shortly after and wasn’t nearly as strong as 1 week prior. The next day, my coach was cautious and told me I did not have to run in the track workout he had scheduled for the day. However, I decided to at least give it a shot and see how my ITB feels again. Again to my surprise, I got through the workout with little pain. The workout consisted of 3x600, 3x400, and 4x100 strides (plus a short warm-up and cool down). James and I stayed very consistent, holding 1:45-1:46 on each 600, 65 seconds for each 400.
The rest of the week was pretty routine, 6 easy on Weds followed by strides. Thursday was a Scrimmage against Jefferson in which I sat out just to be safe and ran 7.5 miles plus 4x200 and strides on my own. James informed me that the meet was fairly routine, he was able to run 4:49/2:09 and cruise to the #1 spot in both the 1600 and 800 with little competition. Friday against was the usual distance day, with 6 easy and 4x200 for turnover. On Saturday morning we were all expecting a track workout, however Coach decided it was a little on the cold side for that, so again just sent us out for another distance run (6 easy + 6x150). Later that day I decided to tack on another 5.5 miles on my own, making it a 12.3 mile day. I closed the week with an 11 mile long run today (Sunday), which is cutback from my usual 15-17, as I don’t want to push it too soon still nagged by some ITB pain. Although this whole week felt a lot better than it did last week by far. This finished up a 54.6 mile week.
I’m feeling a lot more confident about myself now than I was a week ago, where I was demoralized and thought my outdoor season was in great jeopardy. From this point on, I’ll probably stay on the conservative side by limiting my two-a-day runs (no more before school runs for awhile), and keeping the long runs shorter until I feel 100% again. I should still be able to hold decent mileage in the mid 50s all season, which sounds like a good plan.
Now looking ahead, we have our first official meet on Tuesday against Montville and DePaul, looking forward to it. However, what our whole distance team really can’t wait for is this coming Saturday for the Ridgewood Relays at Ramsey HS. Our relay team consisting of myself, Josh Arnau, Steve Boyd, and James VanderWiele are ecstatic to see what were are capable of this season in the 4x1600 and the Distance Medley, will report back in detail of how the race goes next week.
-Rob A
I stated in my last entry that finishing up my 15 mile long run on the 16th, I experienced some pretty severe IT Band pain around mile 12. Well the next day at practice, I couldn’t finish a 6 mile easy run, cutting back to 5 and was forced to stop and walk about 5 times along the way as I trotted along at 8 min+/mile. After limping back to the track and talking to Coach, I was instructed to lay low for awhile, and report back to him on how I was feeling daily. To make a long story short, I took off the next 6 days and skipped our scrimmage against Pompton Lakes that week. Ice and Ibuprofen became my 2 best friends during the time off.
On Monday the 24th, I decided to give it a go and return to practice. I told James (VanderWiele) that I didn’t want to push the pace or anything today, which he agreed too. Surprisingly, I was able to get through the easy 5 miler followed by 6x100 strides pretty well. About 3 miles in I had some ITB pain, but it subsided shortly after and wasn’t nearly as strong as 1 week prior. The next day, my coach was cautious and told me I did not have to run in the track workout he had scheduled for the day. However, I decided to at least give it a shot and see how my ITB feels again. Again to my surprise, I got through the workout with little pain. The workout consisted of 3x600, 3x400, and 4x100 strides (plus a short warm-up and cool down). James and I stayed very consistent, holding 1:45-1:46 on each 600, 65 seconds for each 400.