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.