the good and the really freaking awesome

Two weekends ago I bagged a run because my hip hurt. That was a good thing. Pirate butt needs a rest now and again.

Last Wednesday I went out for a singularly horrible 8 mile run in the foothills. The venue was fabulous, the company was great, the last mile and a half were sheer agony - both of my IT bands were screaming at me, and not the good kind of screaming.

IT Band Syndrome has dogged me off and on for about a year now. When it first happened, it was operator error - I tried to do too much too soon, and I broke. I went out and got really excellent orthotics. I stretched like a crazy person. I reduced mileage, I got new shoes, I was a good girl. Overall, since then, I've had limited problems (except for that race up La Luz). These days, the IT issue starts in at the 6.5 mile mark, not at 0.25 mile.

Of course I started freaking out - a week before a race and suddenly I get that horrible sharp pain in both knees!

So, I traded the run legs that I had signed up for in the Colorado Relay. I figured if I'm having problems now, the last thing anyone will want is me walking my 3 legs of ~6 miles. I'm now in the "easy" spot - 3 legs of roughly 3 miles each.

Part of me is really pissed about it - I really wanted to go out there and do something hard - get my money's worth, so to speak.

The rest of me feels good about it - I can do 3x3 standing on my head, IT bands or no. We'll go with this part for today.

In the meantime, I have sought lots of advice on the IT issue. The shoe people were most helpful. They noticed that with my motion control shoes and my motion control orthotics that maybe the combination would be overkill. They suggested I run with no orthotics.

*gulp*

No orthotics? Understand, these little pieces of foam brought me back from the edge of depression the last time I couldn't run, and now you are telling me to discard them?

OK.

So after a 3 day rest from running, I got back on the horse (treadmill) for a little bitty four-miler to see if I could stop freaking out or really really get freaked out...I took out the orthotics, but kept in the little foam lift I keep in my left shoe to compensate for a leg length discrepancy. At mile 2, my right leg started up. I then removed the lift and within a minute the pain went away. I finished my run no problems.

Can it be that I no longer need my little foam friends? Can it be that my legs are now compensating on their own? More research will definitely be in order. But in the meantime...

Huzzah!