Working out the bugs

I got my IT-band support yesterday at Runner's Factory, yet another great store that gives discounts to San José Fitters. I went running afterwards for 50 minutes and pushed myself to an 11:08 pace. The chiropractic adjustments and the support strap worked together beautifully. I felt not even a hint of pain in my left knee.

My right knee, however, did have a few micro-twangs just below the knee cap – by no means debilitating, but when compared with my smooth-running left knee, they were definitely noticeable. Dr. Mike had adjusted my right hip on Tuesday but didn't do any other part of the right leg, so it's possible my leg is responding to being only half-aligned. I'll ask him to do some more work on the right leg when I see him tomorrow. It's also possible I may not have recovered enough from chondromalacia to wear just a patella strap, so I'll try the knee brace again on my run today.

All in all, a good experience yesterday. Things may not be as serious as I thought. The only thing is, I probably still have some psychological hurdles to overcome. No longer do I have that sense of invincibility I felt on my 25K. This weekend, if all goes well, I'll hopefully regain some of that confidence.

Joint syzygy

I went to see Dr. Mike Tarr today at Ideal Health Chiropractic. He was a friendly, easygoing guy who explained things very thoroughly. He was very familiar with my type of IT-band syndrome and said the runner's version is almost invariably caused by misalignments in the foot, knee and/or hip joints. He pointed out that the calluses on the bottom of my left foot are thicker on the medial side, and pointed out a pronounced bunion on my left foot – common symptoms of overpronation. It was likely not the sole result of overexertion since my right IT band had no similar problems. Bracing the joint last Saturday probably made it even worse since it caused the ligament to rub against my knee even more. Dr. Mike recommended Powerstep orthotics for extra arch support if I could find them, as a step above Superfeet. He particularly recommended wearing orthotics in my street shoes, so that I'd always have arch support wherever I went.

Dr. Mike adjusted all the joints in my left leg, from my knee to my hip. He also stretched the IT band and hamstring to make sure they were good and loose. My leg was a little tingly afterwards as I felt a rush of biochemicals streaming through.

I'll be running again tomorrow and Thursday to see how my leg fares. On Friday I'll be visiting Dr. Mike again for one more adjustment before my Saturday run. If his assessment is right I should be able to run further than I did last weekend. I'm crossing my fingers!

Moving forward, 800 milligrams at a time

My doctor gave me a bottle of gigantic 800 mg Motrin tablets. (By comparison, Advil tablets are 200 mg.) He didn't discover any major problems with the knee itself. He of course recommended scaling back my training schedule, but didn't say the marathon was out of reach. He ordered knee X-rays just to be sure, plus some athlete-specific lab tests (sodium, potassium and creatinine).

Deanna says it's still possible I can run the Silicon Valley. Tomorrow I'm going to the chiropractor to see if he can alleviate my ITBS. A lot of my running buddies swear by him, so we'll see what miracles he can do. In addition, I opted to try sports therapy at Kaiser – we'll see how that goes. An IT-band support is also on my shopping list.

In other news, I hit 169 pounds this morning. After two weeks at a frustrating plateau, I'm shedding weight again. Just four more pounds to go, and I'm loving my size 34 pants!

A job in IT

Based on my web surfing, it looks like I may have developed IT band syndrome. The iliotibial band starts at the top of the hip bone and connects all the way down to the upper lateral side (outside) of the tibia (shin bone). If overworked, the ligament that connects to the tibia can tighten and rub against the knee. The IT band is responsible for stabilizing the knee by counteracting adduction (inward or medial forces) in the leg. This would explain why I can dance without aggravating the problem, since Latin dance motion (with weight on the balls of the feet) naturally pushes the legs and hips laterally (abduction) and thus lessens the strain on the IT band.

Hopefully it's not too serious but the literature isn't very promising: recovery can typically delay one's training schedule from two weeks to a month or more. I will find out more when I see the doctor tomorrow, but this could mean having to drop out of (or at least hopefully walk) the Rock-N-Roll Half and Silicon Valley.

But getting to this point has been rewarding so far and giving up is not an option. I dare say that now I'm addicted to running and don't want to stop or even let up. If therapy and rest become necessary, I plan to run a different marathon:

• Dec. 3, 2006 – California International Marathon (Sacramento)
• Jan. 7, 2007 – Orange County Marathon
• Jan. 21, 2007 – San Diego Marathon
• Feb. 4, 2007 – Pacific Shoreline Marathon (Huntington Beach)

I will cross the finish line yet!

What's happening to me?

As I write this, I'm at Los Gatos Creek County Park waiting for one of my running buddies to pick me up. Even after skipping Monday's run, jogging extra distance on Thursday, getting a thorough leg-focused massage on Friday and bracing my left knee for a long run, I had it buckle on me again. This morning I was only able to manage 8.3 miles. At least this time around I slowed down at the first sign of trouble. It's still painful but I can walk on it right now with only a mild limp.

I'm really upset because this is the only thing that's keeping me from running further. My mind feels fresh, my heart and lungs are churning, and just this week my right knee was liberated from its brace. I was moving along so nicely and now this – it's true that you really are only as strong as your weakest link. I don't know what's going on. Maybe my knee is misaligned. I'll be going to the doctor on Monday to get it checked out.

I've come too far to give up now.

Off the cliff

I weighed in this morning at 170.2, finally breaking through the 173 barrier that's been dogging me the past two weeks!

I drove six hours from Southern California yesterday while downing six cups of water, munching on three Special K snack bars and one In-N-Out cheeseburger. Afterwards, I ran 4.7 miles over 50 minutes, taught a salsa class, then went dancing at the Agenda. My legs were tired this morning as I hadn't run since Saturday's bonk or danced since last Tuesday. It felt good to go running again. I braced my left knee this time and left my right knee unbraced. My left knee felt fine and amazingly my right knee survived.

This weekend I'll be trying a second time to run 30K. I'm going to get a massage tomorrow to see if I can loosen up my LCL before then. Wish me luck!

Scaled up

I've spent a weekend with the family down in Southern California and I'm driving back this afternoon. It's been hard to stay on the diet while I've been here because we've eaten out every night. I'm now a staggering 1,559 calories over budget. In a way I'm glad I'm going back home because I'll be able to control my portions more.

I skipped Monday's 20-minute run to rest my knee. The family and I went to Universal Studios Hollywood for the day and we walked 4.8 miles according to my Forerunner. This helped me get in my workout without overstressing my knees.

I weighed in this morning at 173.2 pounds, which marks two straight weeks of fluctuating between 173 and 175. I haven't figured out why my weight loss has been stymied. Maybe I'm not calculating exercise calories correctly? Or maybe my body's decided 173 is the lowest healthy weight for me. It's not so much the stunted weight loss; the disconcerting thing is the possibility that my paltry baseline budget of 1,537 calories per day is what I'll need to maintain my weight going forward.

Fourth milestone: postponed

Today was supposed to be my big 30K milestone. I went as far as 21.95 kilometers (13.64 miles) and had to stop. My left LCL seized up again, but unlike my 25K two weeks ago, today it decided to seize up during the run. It started cramping around 12 miles in. Then on one part of the trail I was faced with a moderate downhill. When I found myself unable to control my descent, I realized it was time to stop.

There were too many things that conspired to do me in today:

• I'm visiting my family this weekend in Southern California. The weather here is a lot drier than I'm used to.
• I'd driven down early Friday morning on only three hours of sleep. I was so tired during the day on Friday that I missed waking up this morning when I'd planned to. Instead of waking up at 6, I woke up at 7:40 and didn't get out on the trail until close to 9 o'clock. It was almost noon when I stopped and it was very warm already.
• Running late made me cut my 8-mile break short (about two minutes).
• I ran the Santa Ana River Trail from Corona to Anaheim. Although it's relatively flat, it has very little shade. I ended up on an unpaved section of trail at about mile 8 as I didn't know to cross the bridge at Imperial Highway to continue on pavement. It was pretty hard on my feet. Going back, I ran on the left side of the river. Since the river doubles as a flood-control channel, the trail was slanting down toward the right. So as much as I tried to fight it, I could feel my left foot starting to pronate with each step and stressing my LCL even more.
• Running without my weekly buddies, I had no aid stations along the way. I was probably so focused on not running out of fluids that I didn't drink enough, even though I was fully hydrated at the start of the run.

In hindsight, once I woke up and found myself running late, I should've postponed the run 'til Sunday. It was frustrating more than anything because when I stopped I wasn't even tired. I know I could've finished psychologically and with all the calories I stored up, if my body had just cooperated.

So now I'm short one long-distance run to bridge the training gap between 25K and 21 miles. What am I going to do? I'll have to brace my knee next Saturday to see if it will help, plus use my newer shoes which should be broken in by then. I know if I could just get my left knee to agree with what I'm doing, I could go much further than I did today.

Sunday drive

I ran my weekly distance this morning instead of Saturday. I was at SJSU moving, lifting, carrying and even hoisting heavy set pieces around in preparation for this year's San Francisco Salsa Congress, so I'm glad I decided to wait an extra day. I ran the Coyote Creek Trail which I just discovered yesterday. It's just a mile away from my house and I may start doing my weekday runs there as the neighborhood is getting a little boring.

My pace was a blazing 10:55/mile with a negative split time (43:55-43:19). I would've really cranked the speed had I not used the pace alert on my Forerunner. I'll really need it next week for the big 30K, especially since I won't be running with the group for the second week in a row.

34 and lovin' it!

Yesterday I weighed in at 173 pounds. And today I did something I haven't done in almost ten years ... buy size 34 pants!

No pain, all gain

I was worried Saturday night about the stiffness in my left LCL. It was quite difficult to walk on and it was hard to bend my knee. I made a conscious effort to ice and flex it, and thankfully the pain was gone come Sunday morning. I was even able to go dancing Sunday night for two hours without any ill effects. On the right side, my runner's knee is almost gone. I still feel a slight discomfort when I put weight on it but very little. I'm able to dance on it consistently without a knee brace.

This is another recovery week with no weekday runs longer than 35 minutes and a light Saturday run. Never did I think back in April that one day I'd regard eight miles as a "light run"!

Half marathon and beyond!

This morning we completed our 25K! We stopped five times along the way. San José Fit had an aid station set up at mile 11 stocked with Amino Vital. I had my Forerunner 205 on my wrist and announced the half-marathon point, which was cause for celebration. Unlike our 20K, the weather was a pleasant 62 degrees at start time and our 5/1's stayed that way 'til the very end. I took my electrolyte pills during the run and they really helped. I also had some Carb-Boom apple-cinnamon energy gel with me - this is the tastiest energy gel I've tried so far.

Joshin, one of our top runners, unfortunately had his knee go out around mile 6 so he walked that distance back to the start line. I myself felt fine right after the run but later in the afternoon my left LCL got really stiff. I must not've stretched enough after the run, plus we spent a lot of time sitting down for brunch (see below). I'm icing and stretching it now in hopes of getting it loose and pain-free for Monday's light 20-minute run and Gilroy salsa class.

We all had brunch at Bill's Café. Joshin's fiancée tagged along; she runs 9-minute miles on the Yellow Team. It was a fun late morning on a sidewalk café with the pace dogs (Tehya and Arrow). I had a nice, satisfying Italian sausage omelette with Swiss cheese. Deanna and Nathan ended up treating us ... thanks guys!

Time: 3:13:12 including breaks. Pace: 12:26.

The bee's knees

I went salsa dancing at the Glas Kat last night. For the first time in about nine months, I danced without my knee brace for two hours straight! I'd actually forgotten to put it on before I went out on the floor and by the time I realized it, I'd already been dancing for half an hour. Today I don't feel any pain in my right knee and it feels very mobile.

No sense risking re-injury, so I'll keep wearing my knee brace while running. Still, it's good to see how far I've gotten in my recovery.