The Week Before The Marathon...and some news

Hey everyone...
No I haven't forgotten you. :)
Things have been a little bit crazy for me recently as the big concert is tomorrow and the day after so every spare moment I have had has been at rehearsals. Anyways here I am with a bit of news for you. A few weeks ago I would have said that it's bad news...or the worst freaking news ever...but to quote Oogway, 'There is just news. There is no good or bad.'
If you remember, I was having some knee pain which I discovered was actually due to my IT band in my leg being aggravated from running so I took the week off and continued to cross train as was suggested. I figured by the following Monday I could ease back into my routine. The week off went very well and by the end of it I had no limp at all and I could race up and down stairs as usual. No pain during other workouts or anything like that was happening so I knew I was good to go!
Or so I thought.
Well Monday came around and I did some strength training and then bolted up the stairs at the gym towards the treadmill, anxious to start running again. I was going to do a 20 minute tempo run to get back into the swing of things. I started with my usual warm up mile happily, grinning from ear to ear to be running again...and all of a sudden I got this dull pang of pain in my band again...you know the kind of pain that is deep and feels like its hit you in the pit of your stomach? Well it was like it...it actually gave me a chill up my spine and I felt nauseated. But I'm stubborn so I kept on doing my warm up. I know its usual to be achey on a warm up run so I was hoping with all of me that it would ease up. It seemed okay for the rest of the warm up but once I started my tempo I could feel it more and more. My friend who was watching me said that he could see my 'gallop' getting worse and worse as I went on. I ended the tempo section a mile and a half in as I couldn't push it any further. I wasn't back to square one pain wise but I was faced with an unfortunate truth.
I can't run.
Its almost hilarious that I can do everything else with no pain but the moment I start to run my body screams. I sat in the car after my tempo run all teary eyed and feeling very sorry for myself...I had to accept that my band hadn't recovered but that's easier said than done. My friend suggested that I get one of these bands that go above the knee at the base of the thigh which stabilizes the muscle and I was considering it but after some real thinking I've come to the conclusion that its not in my best interest. The leg is begging not to be pushed and I have to listen. I could potentially make it worse. Even if the band alleviates the pain, it doesn't eliminate the real problem, the muscle is damaged and shouldn't be used for running.

When I tell people they get all wide-eyed and watch me like they expect me to cry or something. Haha. Everyone has been awfully sympathetic and I'm grateful for the amount of people that had faith in me to finish this race. How do I feel? Well I'm disappointed of course but I'm actually surprised at how little this injury has devastated me. I was very emotional when I had gotten off the treadmill on that dreary Monday...but when I sat in the car my inner coach decided to be my voice of reason again. It really isn't the end of the world. Its a race...and there will be more. I reminded myself that I'm not an Olympian who's life is geared towards nothing but race day but I definitely sympathized for anyone who trained like them and couldn't compete on the day. Yes, I trained hard...and I really wanted to do this...but at least I'll be able to run again once I heal up. I'm grateful that the injury hasn't limited my ability to walk and stay active. In fact I'm incredibly lucky.
Another thing that I am fortunate for is all of the friends that I have made because of this. There is actually a running coach that has seen me work and really wants me to train with his athletes! What a blessing! So I have something to look forward to! I'm very excited about the prospect of training with someone who actually does this for a living because then I can be pushed and pulled back accordingly by someone who knows the ropes and can spot things that I can't. Something that I have to consider is that even though an IT injury is typical of runners...its possible that I got it from doing too much too fast. As I mentioned when I started, I only ran now and again before I took up this program...and the program was intense. That could easily be why the muscle got so aggravated. So once I heal up and get a real coach, this may not be an issue anymore.

So...to conclude I'll leave you with my current state of mind. I'm not thrilled to be missing the race but I have to say that I've taken this pretty well. I know myself...and something like this would have shattered me before. I thought that I would have been completely devastated but to be honest I've kind of shrugged this off. Not too long ago if something like this happened I would have felt like a total failure...but I know in my heart that I'm not. I really tried. I can say with certainty that I gave it every scrap of me and my heart was in it 100%. My heart is still in it...I find myself still photographing my meals and thinking of things to post and hoping that my leg will miraculously heal up before the race. The difference is that I can handle it if it doesn't.
The day after I realized that I couldn't run I went straight to the gym and signed up. Over the past couple weeks I've gotten into heavier body building and discovered a different kind of strength that I had. Perseverance. I didn't let this knock me out of my game. I went straight back to training my body like the race didn't exist and I would be lying if I said that I'm not having a great time. My bodybuilding partner is insanely fun and has taken me under his wing, helping me out with weight adjustments, form and routines. He's been at this for a while so he's very knowledgeable and so it isn't hard to trust his judgment. We're a lot alike when it comes to drive and he knows how to push me. I'm enjoying the experience and I'm actually shocked by how much weight I am able to push already. All of my home training payed off! I'm already squatting more than my body weight and he's whipping me into shape upper body-wise. No more stick arms! Hahah! But I fully intend to get back into running again. Even with the pain...it felt amazing to run again on Monday. I'm missing this race...not missing my legs. You haven't heard the last from me yet!

On another note...I'd like to thank all of you who have followed this blog and supported me along the way. You don't know how much this means to me and I hope that you're not too disappointed. For any of you that still have questions on running, diet and training...actually questions on anything at all!...feel free to contact me because I'd be happy to help you out in any way that I can. I'm thinking of continuing to update the blog with my new training and diet so if that sounds good to you, let me know! I'll definitely start up again once I'm running again!
But thank you ALL so so so so much. You're all stars and I hope that you keep up your running while I resort to the bike! Haha! You're all in my thoughts. :)

More to come...eventually ;)