Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Psychological Impacts of Being Injured

Well, I tried another run last night with the same results.  If I run, at any speed, I have immediate pain in the lateral side of my right knee.  Classic ITBS.  Eff.  But, I seemingly can walk forever without any issues, and this certainly isn't as bad as the ITBS I had in my left knee.  But, it's also frustrating at the same time.

I look back on what I've accomplished, at how many miles I've run, and it now angers me that I can't run at all without pain.  I've got a secret goal in mind of keeping a 100 mile-per-month running streak going.  Last month, I ran 145.5 miles, without any pain at all.  Now I can't even run a block.  Is my 5-month 100 mile streak in jeopardy?  It could be.

I'm doing what I need to do to get this better.  I'm using my home ultrasound unit to zap it whenever I can.  I'm stretching.  I'm taking anti-inflammatory meds. It's just going to take time, but time is something that's not on my side.  I had hopes of starting a new marathon training cycle on December 28th, to run the Lincoln, NE 2010 marathon in early May.  And, I've registered for the Surf City HM in early February, hoping for a chance at a PR.  So, ITBS in my right leg may have sidetracked those plans.

I've got 3 weeks. In that time, I hope to baby my right leg along, and hope to continue to strengthen it to the point that the ITB becomes flexible enough, just like my left leg has. I intend to do more walking than running.  I intend to do some pool running.  Bottom line, now is not the time to go for long or hard runs, that will only make the situation worse.  A dose or two of dexamethasone would should feel nice, so I may give the PT a call to see if they can get me in. 

Simply put, ITBS sucks, and it's a huge psychological hit when you want to run, but can't.

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