Bad me, or rather, busy me.

Sorry I have sort of dropped the bomb with this training blog. The more intense my training regime has become, the less I have felt a desire to document it.

My half marathon is in less than two weeks. I ran my final "long" training run yesterday and amazingly it went pretty well. As you know I've been struggling with on going knee issues, especially as my mileage started to ramp up. So, I finally got serious about it and did some investigation into what the actual issue was and how to treat it. Luckily what I have is fairly common with a lot of runners, so diagnosing wasn't too difficult. I have ITB syndrome. I know I have struggled with this issue on an off for several years. It is the type of thing that has flare ups and when I start training for a distance that includes lots of running that is usually when I start to have problems.

So, I investigated and found lots of info on how to keep this condition in check. Most professionals recommend lots of stretching, icing and the use of a foam roller. I ended up buying a nice foam roller from Road Runner and rolling my legs three times a day. Add in stretching, icing and ibuprofen and I seem to be making some headway. My 11 mile run yesterday was the first long run I've done without knee pain in who knows how long. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

This week is the very start of a small amount of tapering before the race. I plan on continuing my normal workouts this week (bike and swim), just lessening my running a bit. I think Saturday we will be heading down to Champoeg State Park to do a shorter run at the actual location of the race.