Forcing myself to take time off! (Read 337 times)

Is anything more difficult than forcing ones self to take time off? I'm literally counting down the days till I can on my running shoes again.. I've been running consistently for six months and I just completed my first 15K last Saturday. A week before the race I came down with knee pain from my inflamed IT-Band. After aggressive treatment (foam roller stretching, icing, anti-inflamatories, and rest) I was able to do the run.

After three days off after the race the soreness subsided and I decided to go for a run. Bad idea. The knee pain was back and I shut it down about a mile in. Now that I've discovered this new world of long distance running, I just want to run! However I have come to terms with the fact that my body needs extended rest before I start again.

Any thoughts of just how long I need to take off? One week? Two weeks? I plan on running a half marathon in June so my 12-week training program will begin the first week of March. But obviously I'd love to run throughout the winter to stay decently in shape.

I wonder if you should try different shoes, or modify the way you are running.

It's funny you say that. I noticed when I was running through my IT issue I had to change up my stride. Also during my training program my IT issue really surfaced when I switched shoes. My old shoes (Nike Lunarglides +2) only had maybe 200 miles on them. For some unknown idiotic reason I switched to a new pair of Lunarglides with only 14 days before my race. Yep, pretty stupid.

But admittedly I never went to a running shoe store and worked with a sales person to determine which type of shoe would work best for me specifically. Another rookie mistake....