Music on Repeat & Training Plan the Week of February 28

Good Morning!

Here's my training plan and some new music to start off your week.

This week's goal is to keep my IT bands healthy while still maintaining my training schedule. If your IT Band is inflamed or you think it might be, please consult a doctor. I have no professional right to diagnose or treat injuries, and I'm just sharing my experience.


So you've never heard of an Iliotibial Band?

It's a band of fibrous tissue that connects the butt muscles to the knee and runs along the outside portion of your upper thigh. It stabilizes the knee joint and can end up getting inflamed during training as the major muscles - such as your butt, and top and bottom thigh muslcles - in the leg are strengthened as part of training. If the IT band's strength does not keep pace with the other muscles, than the stronger muscles put a strain on it. The end result could be IT Band Syndrome.

It manifests as knee pain (a tugging pain on the front of the knee) and for me, as a very sharp pain on the side of my hip. Tina of Carrots 'n' Cake posted an article recently on her blog about how to deal with IT Band Syndrome. She has some great advice and information on ITBS, but the Running World article that she sourced also has a lot of details about other injuries as well.

Now, back to business. Here's the training schedule.



Monday: Pilates
Tuesday: Treadmill workout - Repeat two times, walking 7-8 minutes between: run 400 at 5K pace, cool down 100, run 1200 at 10K pace. Run 1.5 miles at race pace, lots of stretching and foam rolling afterwards
Wednesday: Run 4 miles easy or spinning
Thursday: 6 mile run: Warm-up & cool-down 1 mile, then for the middle 4 miles, alternate 5 lamposts (1/4 mile, 5 city blocks) at 10k pace, and 2 lamposts (1/10th of a mile, 2 blocks) at easy pace
Friday: Spinning or rest (depends on the IT Bands), strength
Saturday: Spinning or elliptical or easy 4 mile run or rest.
Sunday: 13 miles, with last mile faster than first mile

Depending on how tender the IT Band is, Wednesday, Friday and/or Saturday could be rest days.

And here's the new music for the week.



This week, after all the remixes and club music, I've been downloading I felt a little more mellow this week.

Made for Us by Mackintosh Braun

Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons

This Must Be It by Royksopp

Gone Too Far by Dragonette

Bang Bang Bang (Count & Sinden Remix) by Mark Ronson & The Business Intl

Enjoy the music and may your IT Bands never bother you!