6/25

Wow--have I really not written in 3 weeks?  Quick update:

1. Trainer was AMAZING.  She released my IT bands (which was incredibly painful!) and then showed me a handful of exercises to do to combat the problems that are causing the knee pain (wound-up IT bands, shortened obliques on one side from carrying kids around on my hip, and a misfiring glute muscle that never started pulling its weight post-pregnancy and so my quads have overdeveloped to compensate, plus a shortened calf muscle in one leg due to the oblique/quad issues).  I must say it was totally fascinating listening to her put together the complete picture of how one thing has led to another.
2. Ran the night after meeting with the trainer with NO brace, over a hard and hilly 4.5 miles around my parents' home--totally pain-free during and after the run.  This is big stuff.
3. Continued running with similar results--it's been a little more achy than after the first run (which I expected) but it's gotten progressively better each time.  
4. Right now I'm running about 3 miles, then stopping and rolling my IT bands, then running another couple of miles.  This seems to work really well (it gets a little achy around that 3rd mile and then is fine after the foam roller).  NO PAIN at all post-run.
5. Not a ton of miles or very fast right now; just trying to build up slowly and steadily.  I had some pain a couple weeks ago when I was walking all over Chicago, but last weekend I ran 3 5-milers pain-free and then did another day in Chicago without my knee bothering me at all!  Hurray!
6. Starting to build in some 8:34/mile pickups (every 3-4 minutes for 1-2 minutes).  I definitely need to build back up before I'm running that for the whole run, but things are feeling so much better!!!