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Iliotibial Ticking Time Bomb
After every long run I feel some sort of pain in my left knee and even hamstring. The pain has been plaguing my long distance runs for months. What I failed to realize (until yesterday after a self-diagnosis), was that I've fallen victim to Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS.)
I've been ignoring the knee and hamstring pain for a long time now because only yesterday was I forced to stop running during my--or, what was supposed to be my 2.5 hr run. The run started out great just like every other run. It was only after 25 minutes that I start to feel a sharp pain in the side of my knee. Thinking it would subside, I kept running until I reached a large downhill portion of the trail. It was here that I felt an immense pain on the left side of my left knee. I knew it was serious because the intensity of the pain even lingered after I had stopped. Moments after digging my thumb into my knee to try and ease the pain. I was forced to limp/walk home when simply "walking it off" didn't help at all. Later that day, even, I had to go for a walk and was again forced to limp during the downhill sections of the walk. For a moment I actually thought maybe a bone is chipped or--god forbid--broken.
The next day I did some research to find out I have ITBS. I read on several sites that when you first experience the pain from this syndrome that you should not run for at least a couple of weeks. And even after the couple of weeks you should slowly ease back into it, only adding 5-10 minutes of running a week!
Sadly in order for me to overcome this adversity, I will not run, or even bike at all for 2-3 weeks. On the brightside however, I will swim a lot more and even weight train more. On top of this, I will visit my A.R.T.(Active Release Technique) specialist a few times in an attempt to break up the scar tissue and fully reduce any inflammation in the area. I will also be icing the area nightly as well as loading up on anti-inflamatory foods such as ginger, tumeric, omega 3's, kale, and spinach.
I can now look back and say that ITBS was a ticking time bomb from the moment I ignored the doctors advice and refused to wear my orthodox-which I now wear ;)
I've been ignoring the knee and hamstring pain for a long time now because only yesterday was I forced to stop running during my--or, what was supposed to be my 2.5 hr run. The run started out great just like every other run. It was only after 25 minutes that I start to feel a sharp pain in the side of my knee. Thinking it would subside, I kept running until I reached a large downhill portion of the trail. It was here that I felt an immense pain on the left side of my left knee. I knew it was serious because the intensity of the pain even lingered after I had stopped. Moments after digging my thumb into my knee to try and ease the pain. I was forced to limp/walk home when simply "walking it off" didn't help at all. Later that day, even, I had to go for a walk and was again forced to limp during the downhill sections of the walk. For a moment I actually thought maybe a bone is chipped or--god forbid--broken.
The next day I did some research to find out I have ITBS. I read on several sites that when you first experience the pain from this syndrome that you should not run for at least a couple of weeks. And even after the couple of weeks you should slowly ease back into it, only adding 5-10 minutes of running a week!
Sadly in order for me to overcome this adversity, I will not run, or even bike at all for 2-3 weeks. On the brightside however, I will swim a lot more and even weight train more. On top of this, I will visit my A.R.T.(Active Release Technique) specialist a few times in an attempt to break up the scar tissue and fully reduce any inflammation in the area. I will also be icing the area nightly as well as loading up on anti-inflamatory foods such as ginger, tumeric, omega 3's, kale, and spinach.
I can now look back and say that ITBS was a ticking time bomb from the moment I ignored the doctors advice and refused to wear my orthodox-which I now wear ;)
Comment
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Comment by Aleksandar Radan on November 6, 2010 at 1:37am -
Hope you got your ITB and knees sorted out. If you run into further problems be certain to check out a physio or chiro that use 'Kenesiology Tape' ( http://www.kttape.com/) and invest in some "Trigger-Point' tools (http://www.tptherapy.com/). Keep Rising.
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Comment by Ted Carr on December 9, 2009 at 9:02pm
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Thanks for all the comments. I've been doing a ton of stretching and have even taken out the rolling pin and had my sister and mom roll it on my quad/IT band!
With all this time off running and biking I am doing not only a lot of stretching but also a lot of core work which I think will help me out a ton come time to run again.
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Comment by Mike Vine on December 9, 2009 at 3:47pm -
Hopefully the ART and icing works for you. I know ITB problems can be persistent. After 4 months of not being able to run, I found having my hips and lower spine adjusted made all the difference... to the point that I went from not being able to run for 10 minutes to resuming full training within a few days.
Take care though - I personally know a couple triathletes who pushed through the pain and ended up requiring surgery to correct it.
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Comment by Tania Frechette on December 8, 2009 at 4:39pm -
I had a sore knee a few weeks ago. The pain was in the inside of the left knee ended up being because of tightness in my Vastus Medialis. My ART was able to take the pain away in 3 visits. It left almost as quickly as it came. I wish the same for you.
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I'm stretching a lot now, I want to recover as quickly as possible...right now even bending the leg fully hurts so I'd be unable to do water running at this point...def will try that next week though!
I plan on going on some long walks to keep up my endurance too. 110 beats a minute does not compare to 160 but I'll take what I can get!
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Comment by Vega Kelly on December 7, 2009 at 6:14pm -
Not fun! I trained for a couple half marathons and had a few people in my training group who fell victim to this. Good news is they got back to running. Have you tried water running - with the belt-thingy in the deep end? I heard that was a good substititue to maintain training but you may want to check with doc first. Hope the ART helps. And remember to stretch!
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