24 Days and counting

I thought I'd provide an update on my earlier post about my training mishap for the April half marathon.  As I wrote before, after training for more than 12 weeks for a half marathon I encountered an all too familiar injury caused by a tight IT band.  This has caused great disruption to my training routine.  I haven't run longer than 10 kilometers in over 4 weeks.  The half marathon is 21 kilometers or 13.1 miles long.  I've had 3 sessions with the physiotherapist who assigned me exercises to strengthen my glutes and stretches for my hips and hamstrings.  I've added the elliptical trainer and resistence training to my weekly exercise program for the past four weeks.  However, I am not getting better.  In fact, when I do run the pain of the IT band sets in earlier in the run and often causes me to end the run sooner than planned.  I've also developed pain in both hips and my lower back which were not present until this time.  I was hopeful to nip this injury early so that I could make it to the start (and finish) line comfortably.  My training is behind schedule by 4 weeks.  I'm not sure I can regain enough of my endurance when I can't even run more than 6 miles without pain at this point.  I am scheduled to see the PT tomorrow morning at which point I hope to gain some further insight into what is going on with me.  Needless to say, I am feeling quite frustrated by this situation.  On a positive note, I am enjoying my time at the gym.  The resistence training is helping me to feel stronger in my daily activities as well as when I run.