Hi everyone – this will be the last post before my big race! I can’t believe I have made it through 18 weeks of training and my race is just a few short days away. I think my training has really slacked in these last few weeks, but sometimes that is what life brings. My Dad keeps telling me I have built a good base and I am going to be fine. I hope he is right because I sure deviated from my plan.
Let me show you what I did the last 2 weeks.
Week 17:
Week 17 started off with the super fun, delightful task of running on the treadmill at my physical therapist’s office. I hate running on the treadmill. Then add in running with people staring at you while you run and analyzing your run and talking about it all…ummm, not very fun. The most frustrating part is that I ran 8.7 miles and never had any pain in my knee/IT band. I haven’t run that far and not had pain EVER! It was so frustrating! The point was for me to run to the point of pain at which time the PT would check my strength and flexibility levels. Sometimes they see patients who appear to have ‘normal’ strength and flexibility, but under the stress of the long runs those levels deteriorate. They were checking for that, however, they couldn’t really because I never had pain.
For the rest of week 17, I didn’t get any exercise but running in. I had Pumpkin’s birthday party coming up and that took precedence over other things. It also meant some late nights and I opted to sleep a little bit in the morning rather than get up to exercise.
I had 13 miles on the plan for Saturday. It was also the day of Pumpkin’s birthday party. I decided to run 9 rather than 13 so I would be functional and on time for her party. I had also gone to my Physical therapist on Friday and had my knee taped to see if that might help. It did seem as though it helped slightly, but at mile 7, I started feeling pain in the center of my knee rather than the usual side pain of the IT band. At mile 8 I took the tape off, wondering if it might help me extend the time until the IT band pain would begin. It still hurt by mile 9, though not as bad as normal.
The good for this week is that I hit the total number of miles I had planned for the week. I just broke them up differently than the plan.
Week 18:
Week 18 started with a visit from Hurricane Sandy. We were not in the hardest hit areas and for us, the storm did not end up being as harsh as was predicted. Still, it is not the kind of weather in which to go running. Then Mr. T was out of town, which always means later nights for me and less sleep. It also most often means I sleep in a little bit in the morning and don’t get in my exercise.
Running Tip: This week I was hoping to hit 16 miles or 75% of my max number of miles. The goal for the last two weeks before the half marathon is to decrease the number of miles but increase the intensity The recommendation is to reduce the distance by 25% 2 weeks out and 50% the week of the race. Along with those reductions, the goal is to increase your intensity by either doing more speed training and/or more hills.
I hit about 14 miles and I definitely hit the upping of the intensity. I had to run the 5.75 on the treadmill. Sometimes, you just have to because there is no other option.
I was able to fit in a longer run outside on Saturday. I had really only planned to run 6 miles, but I went back to the physical therapist and got taped, this time with KT Tape(affiliate link) and a different method of taping than the week prior.
Here is what the KT Tap looked like. Sorry for the bad picture, it is from my cell and it is hard to take a picture of your own knee. |
My knee/IT band actually felt good for this run with the KT Tape! I had no pain! I kept running to really test it out. I very much so taxed my IT band for this run as my goal was to up the intensity. I did the hilliest run I could. In addition to that, I planned to really hit the speed training. Every time my Garmin(affiliate link) beeped at me that I hit 1 mile, I would pick out a spot up ahead and sprint/run as fast as I could to that distance. I purposefully picked longer distances to really challenge myself and push my intensity. It worked. I finished the 8.4 in 1:13:53 with a pace of 8:48 per mile! That is great for me for this distance as well as the fact that I had hills involved. Not only that, it is great because usually the speed and the hills really aggravate my IT Band…nothing. No pain! I will be wearing the KT tape for sure on race day.
I am so happy I figured something out that will work to get me through race day.
IT Band Tips:
I have some final tips for you – especially if you suffer from IT band problems.
- Oftentimes, IT band issues are related to weakness in certain muscles. Seeing a physical therapist can really help. They can access these weaknesses and show you exercises to strengthen those areas.
- Foam roll! One of the best ways to help reduce the tightness in the IT band is to consistently foam roll(affiliate link).
- This is a video on YouTube made by KT Tape, showing how to use their tape for IT band. You may want to try it, it may help you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76B0j_bz5E
- My cousin, who is a physical therapist, has had great success with ASTYM both with her patients as well as personally. I would love to try it as it seems like a fantastic long term solution. There are no providers in my area, which I am super bummed about. Here is their site, so you can see if there is someone in your area. https://www.astym.com/Main
Have a great week! Good luck to all my friends and followers that I know are also racing this weekend. I’ll be back next week with my race results and I may add in what I completed as far as training this week. Happy Running to you!
P.S. If you are just joining in on my training, you can view my half marathon training plan here or view other weekly updates here.
If you don’t want to miss a thing subscribe via email to get the latest. I would love to have you join me on my journey.
good luck! cheering for you!
Thanks! I’ll be cheering for you, too! Good luck!
Good luck on your run! You will do great, it is an amazing feeling. I did a charity half marathon a couple years ago and never was a runner. I became addicted and went on to do a couple more half marathons and last year the full marine corps marathon. While the marathon was great I am going back to the half marathons. Have a great time enjoy the moment and you can do it!
Thanks so much! I am going to work on enjoying the moment…not always easy for me as I tend to be competitive. I need to savor the moment, so thanks for the advice.
I am just stopping by to let you know I nominated you for the Leibster award. Swing by my
post to see your feature. Andrea @ http://www.OneCreativeHousewife.com
Gook Luck on you run!
Thank you so much!
Good luck on your run!
Thank you so much, Libby! It went great! I’ll blog about it later this week.