Pain Free II

I had physio yesterday. 45 minutes working just my ITB, and knee area. I was tempted to ask for an anasthetic as he was working it. Sports therapy is painful!
Just when I thought it could not get any more unpleasant I was turned on my side so he could push his elbow into my hip and work the top of the ITB. I completely lost the power to speak at all at this point. Just a series of high pitched whines emerged. Anything hurting this much, must REALLY be doing be good. Mike (Physio) reckons I might just make the start line pain free, but given it's just 3 weeks away, it is touch and go.

I've continued with the stretching and strengthening routing as described previously. I can manage more of those special leg raises now, about 30 at once. Good progress there.

Tried a slightly longer run today. Same strategy as Tuesday; fast not long. I picked another undulating route as you can see above. Nice downhill to start, nasty climbs to finish.

I had no knee pain whatsoever which is encouraging. It aches a little now though. I'm currently sitting with a hot water bottle draped over it.

I completed in a quick time again, finishing with 7:42 minute mile average over the 4.1 miles.

Im happy that I've run pain free, but it just feels like I am starting all over again - Happy that I've done my first ever 4 mile run. I know I can't do anymore than I am doing, but it knocks your confidence wondering if you think you can actually run that far. I'm not going to be able to do any long runs before the event. At absolute best and if my ITB recovers well, maybe I could manage an 8-10 mile the Sunday before.

I'm going to continue to concentrate on running all my remaining runs almost as fast as I can. Obviously I have no choice in this because of my ITB. However, I am somehow hoping that come the event, which I will run about a minute to a minute and a half slower per mile (9 mins), it will feel slow to me and hence will compensate for my lack of 18/20 mile training runs. I think I'm kidding myself really, as nothing can replace that kind of endurance training. However, I have to live in hope.