Physiology 101

Today's pain is brought to you by that pesky iliotibial band. The IT Band is a layer of connective tissue. It begins at a muscle near the outside of the hip, travels down the outer side of your thigh, crosses the outerside of the knee, and attaches to the outer side of your upper shin bone. Iliotibial band syndrome occurs when the band repeatedly rubs over the bump of the thigh bone, near the knee, causing the band to be irritated. The band is rubbed over the bone when the knee is flexed and extended. All this occurs most often in, you guessed it, running.


So I have found some new stretching exercises to add to my repertoire. The rest of the treatment is the same: ice, some rest, anti-inflammatories..... blah blah blah. I had seen a little bit about the whole IT Band issue when I was reading all about the shin splints. It's another overuse injury that's very common in runners. I'm just falling apart.....


I put in 2 miles this morning. Lots of walking intervals because of the above mentioned problemo. But movement nonetheless. It was quite windy, but about 68 degrees, so pleasant. Tomorrow is an off day and Saturday's long run is scheduled for 10 miles. Eeeek. Not really looking forward to that since I've done *nothing* that long since the half marathon two weeks ago.


Another source of pain...my NCAA bracket! What on earth?! San Diego over UConn. West Virginia over Duke? USC is out. Villanova and Davidson are in. This is what makes March Madness so fun. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!! My home bracket still has 11 of the Sweet 16 remaining. My work bracket (*if* we were to do this at work....) isn't fairing so well with only 7 remaining. I'm still waiting for Tennessee to go down. (I was rooting hard for Butler this weekend. Tonight I'm a Louisville Cardinals fan - I never thought I'd say that....) Sweet 16 starts turning into the Elite 8 tonight - can't wait. Bottom line is that the mighty Memphis Tigers play tomorrow night at 9pm!!! Totally psyched. GO TIGERS!!!!