Ending the week on a high note.

My left IT Band started hurting me in the very beginning of December.  Shortly after that is when I started doing the strengthening and stretching exercises and began foam rolling.  I have been consistently working it since then.  I had not attempted to run without the IT band strap, though.  

Then, as I told you guys, the RIGHT IT Band suddenly decided to give me a problem this week.  So yesterday I went out to run and decided to put the strap around the RIGHT leg and test out my left leg on it's own.  I ran 5.3 miles and both legs felt fine.  But it was a weird run - the sidewalks are still covered with ice and snow, so there was some stopping and starting and I ran slower then normal.

So today, I decided to try to run again and see what happened running 2 days in a row.  I ran 6 miles with the strap on my right leg and both legs felt great during the run and feel great now!!!  I am so excited!  

To me, this shows that the rehabbing I have been doing of stretching and strengthening has been working!  I'm not saying that the problem is "cured" but clearly I've been doing something right!

I've talked a lot on here about determination and stubborness when it comes to exercise and food.  But this also shows that taking care of yourself is more then that - you need to commit to taking care of yourself completely - head to toe - and good things will happen!

This means things like:

• Medication compliance - take meds that are prescribed to use and take them right!  If you are supposed to take the antibiotics for 10 days, take them for 10, NOT 6.  
• Sleep - get a good night's sleep!
• Stress - keep your stress level in check
• If you smoke, STOP!
• Floss your teeth!
• Don't ignore chronic pain symptoms
• Use condoms if you are not in a monogamous relationship

And if you have back, leg, shoulder, knee issues, find out what you can do to fix them - too many people have these pain issues and they give up rather then work on fixing them.  It would have been easy for me to say "Well, my running is over" when I ran into this.  But instead I was DETERMINED to find a solution!