In late July I got a pair of brand new, real running shoes.  Some Mizuno Wave Inspire 8’s.  They felt great.  Maybe too good.   Feeling emboldened with my new foot gear I went out for a run on August 7th, and instead of stopping at 3-4 miles, just kept going.  A full 6.3 (10k!) by the end.

The problem was that with each mile I felt better and better.  It was exhilarating.  A full 10k and it felt great.  Even better, I clocked a 8:29 min/mile pace, which for me was great.  An awesome improvement from the 9-10 min/miles before.

A couple days later I put in a 4 mile run at 8:27 min/mile, again feeling great.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was upping my mileage faster than my body could handle.  On August 15 I went out for, what I assumed would be, another PR run.   About 1 mile in I got a sudden sharp pain on the outside lower corner of my right knee cap.  If I walked the pain went away, if I ran it killed.  WHAT?!

I walked home, got online and diagnosed my symptoms.  My Illiotibial Band.  Arg.

I was so frustrated.  Right as I was starting to honestly enjoy running, my body says “I don’t think so!”

I took the next month+ off, only doing bike rides.