As I've said before, my marathon training is teaching me a lot about myself and being an athlete. This post will be discussing some new discoveries I have made about both injury and nutrition.
Injury:
As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, my knee has been hurting. Through research, I have concluded that my IT band is stressed and probably inflamed. This band runs from the outside of the pelvis, across the hip, and down to your knee. It is a common injury and seems to be easily treated. Since I have never had IT band problems before, I believe that the cause is my main running route. The road I run on along the ocean is very slanted on the edge for water runoff. I avoid running on the shoulder because it is gravel and my feet hurt when I run on gravel due to my minimalist shoes. So, I run on the slanted part of the road which tilts my pelvis unnaturally and stresses my IT band. The simple solution is not to run this way anymore. It saddens me because it is a beautiful route that I love, but it isn't worth the injury. I found some minimalist shoes at Ross that have more sole than my tosies. I may run in these on this route once a week because the sole will allow me to run on the gravel. So, what do I do about my existing soreness? I bought a foam roller yesterday and after using it just a few times, much of my pain is gone. While using the roller is painful in and of itself, it really did help my leg feel better. I am also doing one-legged squats to help strengthen my leg muscles. If I continue to have problems, I will look into getting new shoes, but I anticipate that these small changes will help the problem.
Food Sensitivities:
I've been vegan for about a month now and it has been going well. I occasionally allow myself something with dairy in it and I have found that that helps to eliminate cravings for it. It isn't completely off-limits, so I don't feel like I have to binge on dairy, but I actually consume a miniscule amount. However, since becoming vegan, I have noticed that I have had more digestive problems than I did before. I have been thinking for a while that I may have some mild lactose intolerance, but it didn't make sense for it to get worse when I stopped eating dairy. I have read that other common sensitivities include gluten, corn, and soy. I have also had a slight suspicion that I may have some sensitivity to soy. I decided to do a little experiment today. I decided not to eat any soy and I felt great. This evening, I ate a chocolate bar (white chocolate, not vegan) and began to feel yucky. When I looked at the ingredients (after I ate it), I discovered that it contained soy. I had forgotten to check the label before I bought it. It could have been the dairy in it that made me feel bad, but again, I don't eat dairy every day, but have been having digestive issues nearly every day. My soy intake, however, has increased since becoming vegan again. I will continue to go soy-free for a few days and see how I feel. Even if I do have a soy sensitivity, I won't go back to eating dairy and I won't eat meat. There are plenty of other protein sources out there. I will just have to be more diligent about my nutritional sources and eat very little processed food (it seems like soy is in EVERYTHING). Overall, these are probably better health decisions anyway. I am glad that I have some clue as to what is going on with my body. I just want to feel better and not knowing what was causing it was frustrating. It is possible that it isn't soy, but it is at least somewhere to start.
I took a couple of days off to let my knee/IT band rest. I will start up my runs again tomorrow. My sister and I are running Color Me Rad on Saturday and I am so excited! This will be my second race/fun run ever. The last one was 3 years ago. I'm thrilled to have a fun running event to look forward to. I will be sure to post pictures after the run!
Cheers!
Ashley
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