Injury Week

This should be my glory week of more training but turns out I am not an injury free person. Well, you see I've got two injuries this week. One minor, one probably major but let's see what we can do with it.

Well, to tell you good news, I was able to run and swim. I ran earlier and swam yesterday. And yes, I was able to visit La Mesa Ecopark and the place was jampacked with people. To my disappointment, I was not able to lap well due to the number of people in the pool. But nevertheless, I enjoyed swimming. My good friend, Mavic, taught me how to do the freestyle. The day was supposed to get even better when my pinky finger was almost cut in half. This is the "minor" injury I was talkin about.

My hand after being cut :(

The good ol' lifeguard from the Pool area helped me since it was bleeding nonstop. We were supposed to go for 500 m but since this happened, well we have to stop and prolly continue next week. (Hopefully, there are less people by that time)

There's my minor injury, my other injury is hopefully not a major one but it really needs to be treated. This started last RU1, thanks to my new shoelaces, where the left side of my knee hurts when I run. I thought this was the dreaded runner's knee but the symptoms lead me to believe that I have ITB Syndrome or the Ilotibial Band Syndrome.

Anatomy of ITB credits to the owner of this illustration

I would like to see the doctor to see if I am correct. But for the mean time, I have researched some probable remedies for this.

1. No icing and stretching - it is said that the Iliotibial band hurts due to muscular imbalance of the glutes, hamstrings, etc., improper footwear, anaerobic exercises, even stress and doing these things only makes this worse as it does not heal the muscle. What we want is to heal it by making sure the muscles are intact. (You may wanna check out the Sock Doc's site for more info - http://sock-doc.com/2011/03/itb-friction)

2. Given that, I think I may have to rest. (And I am writing this with a sigh), I will still run though, but I will have to decrease intensity and probably the mileage. I know there will be times where I can't help myself but run (yes, like earlier, but my knee got really really hurt after I will still run tomorrow though - 100km per week goal - yes, I am a hard-headed stubborn gal)

3. I've read that increasing glute and core strength may help in decreasing the friction in the band, so I am thinking of doing regular Strength and Core exercises. My Core is badly weak, I am thinking that it may have a large contribution to this. I already started earlier so, I hope I can continue.

I don't want to stop running. This injury will not stop me, I love running, I get cranky if I don't do it in a week. I hope I get well soon. Cross fingers!