Don't forget to include those supplemental workouts

Eric brings up an excellent point on strengthening and weightlifting. I truly believe that my ITBS was caused from a lack of core/strength exercises, weightlifting and stretching. I'll admit that I've neglected to include these supplemental workouts with my running over the past 6 months. Not intentionally, but mainly due to limited amount of time to work out during the deployment. In most cases, I would have about 90 minutes to work out, so I chose to use it entirely for running.

Many folks may think that I raced too soon following my deployment. I personally don't think so because I've been able to put in some quality running (60-80 miles/week) from Nov - Mar. It was mostly base mileage, but I did include at least one fartlek workout and/or a 20 min. tempo run. Now what I didn't mention in my earlier post was that I ran an 11-miler at 6:30ish pace the day after the race (which was a total of 18 miles for the day). I definitely knew it was a mistake when I finished that run. In fact, I wrote on my runlog "What was I thinking!".

So, what was the cause of the injury? I'd say a lack of core/strength exercises, weights, and stretching, lack of recovery from a race, and stupidity. A lesson learned. Don't forget to include those supplemental workouts.

Good and Bad News!

(Good) I ran my first race (Inside-Out Sports Classic Half-Marathon) last Sunday, only 10 days following my arrival from Iraq. I'd say it was a 13.1M time trial vs. a race. I placed 2nd overall in 1:15:45 running just about the entire race alone from mile 2 to the finish. The course was very challenging as it was mostly rolling hills. I had a hard time getting out of my comfortable zone and pushing myself as I knew there was noone close behind me. My splits were 11:46 (2M), 5:39, 5:45, 5:53, 5:59, 5:49, 5:49, 5:39, 5:30, 5:47, 5:41, 5:55, & :33.

(Bad) I would write more about my race, but I'm not so much motivated to. The reason being is because I'm in a depressed mode due to an injury. Two miles into my run on Tuesday I felt some pain on the outside of my right knee. The outside of the knee would hurt each time I bend it or push off. It turns out that I encountered an Iliotibial Band Syndrome. For now, I'll take a few days off of running and hope to get healthy very soon.

(Good) In other brief news: I signed up for Grandma's Marathon (21 Jun). I also have about 3 more months (till end of June) remaining stateside before I head out to my new duty assignment (Brunssum, Netherlands). Can't wait!