Yay for feet and soon to be happy knees!

          A great first run back on the trails left me feeling excited about running in the woods again. And i was surprised to see that my hill repeats in the winter had totally geared me up for the muddy long hills in the woods! SUCCESS! Exactly what i wanted! Except all good things come with  price and what goes up must come down, literally. Which is what I am blaming my stressed IT band on: downhill debauchery. SO many reasons i can think of for this problem: 1. Running downhill on roads is lazy, and mind numbing, which is a recipe for disaster when it comes to running, and most other things in life. 2. I was wearing really great road shoes, my Cascadia 6's, which rock but were a little more cushioning than i would have liked once the snow started to melt. Dont get me wrong in the winter, on roads, cushioning is a good thing. But it also makes my feet a little lazy, knowing they wont get hurt, further enhancing the change in my downhill stride. Which by the end of winter turned into long strides on the downhill, and a  faster pace than i would've held and terrible running form. GUHH how did i not see this?? Maybe it was because i was fighting the brute temperatures and ridiculous winds..? But Im not making excuses I had a great off season. 

         Now, how to fix my knee before the trails REALLY get fun. 
1. Ice 15 min. on 10 or so min. off. Not icy/ hot  cause that would expand my IT band even more which is swollen and needs love and care. Kind of like my bruised ego. 


2. Ditch the Cascadia's and get back to my minimal New Balance 100's. 


3. My new favorite Cross Training sport Bikram Yoga! The warm room is like a sauna so my the tendons in knee slowly relax and stretch.
Throw some Ibuprofen in there and your all set ;-) 


4. Get back to trails! how exciting no cars, no people saying they saw you running and you look "crazy", no front page newspaper pictures calling you an avid runner! Oh my gosh is it true i can run in peace and quiet and enjoy nature, the streams, rocks, mushrooms, trees, and serene wildlife.
 How lucky am I to have two good forms of transportation right underneath me?