It has been a tricky few weeks with trying to slowly increase my distance runs and minimize the risk of injury. I looked back at some of my statistics from earlier this year, and I realized I had increased my distance at a stupid amount. My weekly distances were between 0 and 5km for 4-5 weeks, then 5km one week, then 26.5km the next, and then 58.9km. No wonder I struggled and got injured. This time I have been trying to follow the 10% rule and gradually increase. It seems to be reasonably ok.

I often feel small pains in the knees and today I felt swelling in the left knee after my run. I quickly swallowed some ibuprofen tablets and have iced and elevated it.

I went back to England last week on holiday with the family, visited Legoland with the kids and visited London - Buckingham palace and the Natural History museum. Danny - my 7 year old son -  asked us "What does the queen do all day?". We struggled explaining that :)

I think their highlight was feeding the squirrels, particularly the one that jumped onto the fence right next to us to get close to the food. They also liked the fact that one tyranosaurus rex weighed the same as 200 10-year olds.

When back in England, I decided to see a podiatrist (specialist in leg injuries) who can advise why I keep getting injured and what I can do. He gave a pretty thorough examination and then told me my ITB stretch was actually stretching a gluteus, and not the ITB :)

He also believes that my left hip is slightly - 3-5mm - higher than the right hip, and this could be a reason for the injuries I get.

He made some extra supports in my right running shoe to even it up. I am curious whether this makes any difference.

Well my run Thursday on a proper track was pretty horrible (slow) :), but then today I ran a lot faster than I expected. The truth will be how the knees are tomorrow I guess and over the next weeks.

He also said I should roll my ITB on the foam roller 5 times a day :( - that is something I dislike a lot as it really hurts. Anyway, I'll do whatever it takes as I want to get back into the running properly. It seems that I will run less in 2011 than I did in 2010 :( but at least the consistency is now getting there.

Anyway, on a better note, it seems likely that I'll be there in Siofok - it would be good to meet anyone who is there. I hope to get close to my PB of 1h34m30, though I doubt I can beat it. We'll see - anything under 1h40 will be a bonus and I want to just enjoy it this time, and worry about PBs later. I guess I don't have to always be competitive! I have time.