I haven’t been writing, which doesn’t mean I forgot my mission. I’ve been taking it easy, not entirely to avoid forcing the knee but also due to scheduling constraints. Spent last weekend away, quality time outdoors. Did ITB rehab exercises again, now more precisely. Also repeated core exercises. I slightly relaxed the diet during those days with no weight gain at all.
This week has been chaotic due to outstanding work and my sleeping suffered a bit. Lisbon heat is back so the upcoming running sessions will have to take that into consideration - will make it a lot harder to squeeze a lunch session with temperatures above 30 degrees… Either dawn or dinner+ hours…
It’s good to see that I fully embraced the diet - skipping easy sugar, social coffees, healthier choices - and am slowly taking better care of myself. What I’m still lacking discipline of is in respecting sleep times more and...

Went running during lunch time with my experienced colleague and ultra-marathoner Fred. Forgot to start recording with the clock until reaching Cidade Universitária so might have run an extra 1 km. As we were jogging I shared with him my intent to be seen about the knee and soon enough he suggested it was highly likely that I’m suffering from iliotibial band syndrome. I tried to run for 5 km with a solid pace and went reading about the matter.

The symptoms perfectly match mine and the reasons for it happening make sense to me so unlike what I profess everyone to do, went on finding a proper set of routines to strengthen my muscles and try to overcome this by myself. It doesn’t seem acute at all but it’s still there. Haven’t decided whether I’m completely suspending running for 2 weeks while doing this or have few short sessions still.

During these days I had no opportunity to run. Ended up doing these core exercises sunday morning.
It’s therefore been very calm days… Looking at my weight notes, seems like I haven’t gained relevant weight by keeping the diet alone.

I wanted to run somehow this thursday and managed to squeeze a session before going to work. Since I didn’t have much time I did a smaller and faster route through Carnaxide. It was 16-18C. Went ok, not really pushing it I manage to run below 6min/km in a non-plain route. Though I felt the knee joint it didn’t impact me then.
Next running session will probably only happen on Monday as I can’t get a slot before that.

Booked an appointment for next tuesday to assess the knee issue. Not sure it will be productive as it’s not sports medicine professional but orthopedics. Anyway this will kick off the discussion - may ask for exams and/or suggest another person…

Yesterday I went to Decathlon and bought some stuff. Today I used 2 - compression socks and gel. The afternoon was very hot for May. I went to meet Pedro is his house in Penha de França around 18h and we talked for almost an hour, waiting on the heat to dissipate to no avail. And so we started, with around 30ºC (in direct sunlight, something intermittent in the route we chose, thank god!). We ran down to meet the river, then turned right until we reached Terreiro do Paço, then up Rossio, Av. da Liberdade, Av. Fontes Pereira de Melo, then turned to Praça do Chile and back up to return to Penha de França. We had already run a similar course 1.5 years ago. :) So we managed to start with casual chatting and we kept a steady pace. I felt very good. No knee problems at all. Felt my body responding well, to the point I ended the run in a good strong mood. Used the socks which seem to have...

I’ve read/watched and studied these:

• hill repeats
• interval run and tempo run

Following are some transcripts I did on the most relevant parts.

on hill repeats

hill repeats (…) is all about building the muscles in your legs with exaggerated proper running form.
the idea though is to not be all hunched over. (…) it’s about really driving the legs, exaggerated knee drive, exaggerated knee lifts, exaggerated arm swing, working out those kinks and form a mechanics as you go up the hill. (…)
this is definitely pretty tiring to do. hill repeats are never easy but that’s why you make big gains of them. it’s speed training in disguise (…)
we like to do repeats starting with shorter repeats. you can almost do hill sprints, repeats in the 30 s range to 1 min hill repeats. but then also building up over a period of weeks and months to longer repeats. (…)
(…) looking at grades about in the 5% to...

The last few days I gave my legs rest.
This Friday I forced myself out of the house to try a hilly run, sort of, the idea being the session ought to have some streep segments. Came up with the route as I was running.

During the session I kept looking and my knees and feet and noticed right away I was placing the right foot rotated outward. Not sure how recent is this incorrect posture and whether it is a result of the pegasus and/or the knee joint itself. So I consciously kept correcting the posture. The joint was noticeable but manageable. Main reasons why I didn’t extend the session to 10 km were the watch saying low batt and not to get back with too hard a session.

So, Tuesday I attempted to do another session near the river, this time in the company of Pedro. I still felt my right knee joint complain but I did the session anyway because I wanted to know how serious it is. It was light showers without wind. We kept a comfortable pace, talking the whole time. Felt my knee a lot during the first 500 meters and then it got to a manageable state. Since the pain didn’t exactly disappear, we shortened the session a bit. Still, I did run for 8 km the day after a rougher session where I had beat my personal 10 km record.

I can presume the 8 week plan I’ve been visiting slots to assess my fitness is still a bit too heavy to start right now. May do a generic, lighter and shorter, plan before starting the marathon-preparation one as I have time to do both and would be a less steep difficulty curve this way.

Wednesday I skipped training to let the joint...

Spent Sunday playing with my daughter.

Today I was kind of waiting for my sister to say something, whether she would do a session with me or not. I got carried away reading stuff online. It was about 20.30 already. I thought - if I managed to run Saturday during a kid party, damn if I won’t run today! So I did. I chose Passeio Marítimo de Algés because it is a very flat and regular route. It was about 16ºC and close to no wind. I used the pants and long sleeve because I wasn’t sure of that. I was divided whether to stay there or move closer to Alcântara / Ponte 25 de Abril but stuck there to do my first tempo run training. I didn’t manage to maintain a steady faster pace for long periods (about 3 x 600m periods) but it was a good training because I managed to the whole 10km and didn’t find it too hard to manage the pace. Since there were some rhythm shifts, I varied the breathing...