Out of all the problems I’ve had with running injuries, the IT band seems the weirdest. With all my other soft tissue stuff – achilles, quad/calf strains, anterior tibialis, plantar facscia, and patella problems, any pain at all means I can’t run on it. Even a few steps would be enough to make it worse. However, it seems that the IT band can tolerate some discomfort while still making slow day to day progress.
At this point it seems that I can run on it for two or three days and then the irritation builds to a point where I have to take another day or two off. Then, when I come back, I can more or less go around as far as I did when I ran last. When I do run, everything starts off fine and then the area around my knee starts to get tight. It gets progressively tighter and then I’ve got to stop and stretch it. I can do about two rounds of this before it gets so tight that I can’t run on it anymore without the tightness becoming more of a pain. Each round is usually shorter than the previous, to the degree that the second round is about half the time of the first and the third half of the second.
Yesterday was great and I made it about 28 minutes total. I did the same today but I definitely let the pain take over a little which probably wasn’t a good idea, so I’ll probably be off at least tomorrow and maybe Monday. Then I’ll try again. It seems that now most of the problem is around where the IT band attaches to the tibia, which is where everything first started. At one point today I could feel the whole thing yanking at my hip, however.
It does seem like this is taking forever and I’m willing to bet it will be at least another month of this, maybe more. As long as the weather stays warm like it’s been, I’ll probably get better more quickly. It’s just been awhile since I’ve had an injury that lasts months and even longer since I’ve had one that kept me off the bike. The elliptical really sucks, but I probably will never get used to it.
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