Running and Squats and Stretches… Oh My!

After some thought, and talking it out with the people around me (or them coaxing it out of me), I think there are two major things that could be contributing to my IT band problems in my left leg:

• Need new shoes
• Lack of strength training

Recently I did get new shoes, but since my current NB Minimus shoes were still feeling good, I decided to wait until after the marathon to switch over to the new pair. I’m not sure that I have any good reasoning beyond that… as I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I was afraid that since the new pair was a slightly different style (the new ones are the trail version while my old ones are the road version) I could injure myself switching so close to Flying Pig. And when I say the old pair were still feeling good, what I mean is that it usually takes me a while to realize that the pain I’m suffering from might just mean it’s time for new shoes. Here I was worried about hurting myself with the new shoes when I’m hurting with the current shoes!

So this morning I tossed on the new shoes:

I also wore long tights and a long sleeved shirt… and gloves. Yes, gloves. That’s right… my body no longer remembers living in New York and I’m officially a Florida girl that wears long sleeves and gloves when the weather drops to this (in April in Florida nonetheless):

The run went well. There were only three of us this morning and we ran four miles at an easy pace. While I felt the familiar twinge of my IT band in my right leg, it wasn’t so bad that I was in pain or limping for that matter.

Here are the stats for this AM’s run:

• Distance: 4.06 miles
• Time: 50:21.45
• Avg Pace: 12:24/mile

Afterwards I came home and addressed problem #2: lack of strength training. I think I dropped my minimalist strength training plan that was working so well when I started up with yoga, thinking that was working the same muscles in a similar fashion and could just substitute yoga in. I think I was wrong, and need to be doing both, so back to squats, lunges, planks and push-ups I went! I tossed in some one-legged squats for good measure and finished up with some serious stretching of these hips of mine.

By the way, did you know you could download the Maxwell squeal on Geico’s website? Oh yeah. I totally just downloaded it.

Off I go to get my Tuesday on. Only 12 more days until the Flying Pig Marathon! Wee wee weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Tags: flying pig, geico pig ringtone, marathon training, new balance minimus, running, strength training