The road to 26.2 - 9 miles

Well, last week's long run started off well, and ended with a $16 cab ride and a bag of frozen pees on my knee.  Quite the let down after the last long run.  I had a friend staying with me for the weekend and knew it would be tough to run my scheduled twelve miles and then play tour guide all day, so when my Friday night dinner plans fell through I decided to get my run finished that night.  I was excited about this idea, as I hadn't done an evening long run, and it would be the first Saturday I can remember for months that didn't involve an alarm clock.

I ran down the West Side Highway, enjoying the sunset over Jersey and the view of the Freedom Tower lighting up as I got closer to the financial district.  I'd reached Battery Park when I hit six miles and turned around.  It was soon after the outside of my left knee was bothering me.  I took a few walking breaks but mostly ran and just tried to go at a slower pace.  By mile seven it was really bothering me so I stopped to try to stretch it out but nothing really felt good.  I kept going, taking more and more longer and longer walking breaks.  I walked almost all of the eighth and ninth miles.  Running was not an option unless I wanted to be in pain, and it wasn't a good pain that you push through.  Even walking was uncomfortable.  After a lot of contemplating I finally decided to hop in a cab when I saw one around 20th.  Walking another 50 blocks just seemed brutal.  My feet were hurting at this point also from favoring my knee.

The cabbie was nice enough to drop me off and wait while I hobbled up to my apartment to get my wallet (obviously he wanted to get paid, but a lot of cabbies would complain; he was really nice.)  My doorman offered to give me cash but I just hustled up to my place to grab my wallet.  I paid the nice man and then hobbled to the grocery store for some frozen peas, and took it easy for the rest of the night.

Walking all over the city the next day wasn't exactly ideal, but it wasn't too bad unless I was going down stairs.  (Subways, Highline...ouch.)  After talking to a bunch of runners, and doing some research, I'm pretty confident it's an issue with my IT band.  Luckily I already own a foam roller so I can focus on rolling out both bands every day.  This week I'm taking it easy and giving my knee a break.  It's tough not to run since I'm in the routine, and I hate falling behind in training.  Mondays have always been a work out day, even before training, so it felt strange to skip it.  Obviously I'm grateful I'm still 9 1/2 weeks from the marathon, it could be so much worse.  It's just too bad this is the week I'm resting because so many of my friends are out of town and I have nothing on my calendar after work.  Normally my weeks are so busy trying to juggle training, seeing friends, and it seems like there's always an out of town visitor, or someone's birthday dinner, or some other obligation.  This week, nothing.  Oh well, like I said, I'm just grateful it's not close to the marathon.