Week 11 : 18 Miles - Awesome Baby!

Sometimes it’s with our eyes closed that we find our sight. Sometimes it’s in the darkness we see the light.
- The Wedding, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Week 11 is here. 8 weeks 7 weeks (bad math) to "The Rock." Still working on trying to stretch out my IT Band. My 5 miles on Wednesday was a little rough, but I made it through. On Thursday, I decided to stop my 8 miler at 3 miles to give my knee a little rest. Tried to run a bit Friday morning, but the knee was still feeling flared up. I decided to ride my bike to keep up the fitness level.

I also have discovered a new technique in battling this IT Band pain:

And it freakin' hurts! You just roll your leg up and down the roller and it loosens up the scar tissue that has tightened up to make your knee hurt. Since you put most of your body weight down on it, it's like a "super-deep" massage, but it sure doesn't feel like a massage. Maybe when you're done, but man... It does seem to be helping though.

Week 11 Runs:

Wed: 5 miles
Thur: 3 miles
Fri: bike ride to save the IT Band
Sun: 18 miles (2hr 49min 22sec ~ 9:24 per mile pace)


In running 18 miles, I ran the length of Corpus Christi Island! When you think about it like that, it really puts things into perspective.

My knee started hurting a little bit around mile 2, but I kept running and it went "away" again like during my 17 miler last week. I just kept cruising along until I had a thought - "Just what time is Amanda going to have to leave for work?" So I made a quick pit-stop at mile 16 1/2 to make sure she wasn't going to leave before I could finish up. She was still asleep and gave me a get-the-heck-outta-here, so I headed back out to finish the last mile and a half. Wow my legs were hurting! It took me a few strides to get going again but I made it up to speed and finished the whole 18.

Had to put in a pic of Dickie V for the "Awesome Baby" reference.

Did I mention I started the run at 4:30 am?? Yeah that was interesting. Now, not just running the marathon is crazy, but I get up in the middle of the night to go running...