Recovery

One week after the IT band pain train and I'm feeling noticeably better. I went to see a sports doctor on Monday who set me up with a referral to the physical therapist that helped me overcome my inflamed synovium in my left knee last year. He's very focused on proper form, stretching, and strengthening, which is exactly what I need (he actually coached me on sitting and standing posture, too).

The sports doctor gave me a few pages of things to do, so I've been doing standing thera-band exercises, exercises like the classic IT band scissor technique, a number of different stretches for the IT band and related muscles. I've also been doing the foam roller throughout the day and, oh dear, has the IT band softened up. It was incredibly tense just a few days ago, full of scar tissue, and the muscles surrounding it were fulls of knots. I've started doing it on the right IT band too, and it isn't much better.

I'll be taking a stroll out either this afternoon or tomorrow morning to test it out and see how it's feeling. I think this is going to be resolved by the end of October.

My tentative schedule of races I want to run is below. I will not make it to all of them, but I'd rather have a nice spread of options than try to focus too much on a few races.

 Pinhoti 100
November 6-7 in Sylacauga, Alabama

North Face Endurance Challenge 50
December 4 in San Francisco, California

Bridle Trails Winter 50K
January 1 in Kirkland, Washington

Rocky Raccoon 100
February 5 in Huntsville, Texas

Chuckanut Mountain 50k
March 19 in Bellingham, Washington

Capitol Peak 50
April 25 in Olympia, Washington

Sunflower Relay and Iron
May 7 in Twisp/Mazama, Washington

Western States 100
June 25 in Auburn, California

WS has a lottery entry with a ~20% chance of getting in, so I need an alternate race, which would be...

Making a return would be a nice consolation for not getting into Western States

Mountains to Sound 100
June 26 in North Bend/Seattle 

White River 50
July 31 in Crystal Mountain, Washington

Leadville 100
August 20 in Leadville, Colorado

Doubtful I can sneak in to this, like WS it is very difficult to get in.

Pine to Palm 100
September 18 in Ashland, Oregon