Week 9: Review

Most of this week went quite well, the longer runs started feeling more comfortable and the weather was reasonably decent most of the days. Wednesday's 12 miler was a little interesting as Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting, so juggling energy demands was somewhat complicated. Either way, with a slightly reduced pace (5:16/km) and some additional carbs on the days before and after it went over without any issues. Other than that, most of the remainder of the runs went exactly as planned.

This morning's run, however, didn't go so well. About 5km into the run, I had to dodge a few ice patches on a stretch of sidewalk and, once I got through that a little discomfort started on the outside of my right knee. It wasn't really that bad, so I didn't think a whole lot about it at the time. About 400 meters later, however, I had to stop for a traffic light and when I attempted to start up again the pain was significantly worse. I continued to run (as there really wasn't anywhere to stop there), however, and the pain quickly faded, but every time I hit a stop it would get worse. I tried walking a bit after the 7.6km point, however that didn't really help the situation either. At about 8.4km, I was passing a built up area and I figured that I'd better just find a phone and get a ride back home rather than risking further injury.

Weekly Totals:
Running: 63.2km (39.3mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 50km (31.1mi)
Total: 115.2km (71.6mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 601.6km (373.8mi)
Walking: 123.6km (76.8mi)
Cycling: 665.0km (413.2mi)
Total: 1391.2km (864.5mi)

Next week is up in the air a bit, as it will depend on exactly how this injury progresses along. As such, I'm not going to post a formal plan for the week since it's going to have to be done by feel more than anything. Right now I'm still limping a bit and climbing stairs is a little hard, so it's likely going to need a few days off one way or the other. Given the position of the pain, I'm guessing that it's likely an ITB issue related to the camber of the roads that I've been running lately - so hopefully some rest and stretching will sort it out.