I’m into my 2nd week of marathon training now….and have been bogged down by IT-band issues…my left IT-band has been bugging me for a while now, since the Sweet and Twisted Tri…At that race, I went to get a massage from one of the Advanced Rehab guys who suggested that I visit one of their sports doctors. My IT-band was apparently super tight.
For those of you who are wondering, "What the heck is an IT-band?"(something I had to educate myself on as well):
Iliotibial Band Syndrome is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial band is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front during the gait cycle. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed.
- Wikipedia
And INFLAMED is how it feels….it has literally been burning everytime I run, and I finally went to Advanced Rehab a couple of days ago. The doctor there examined the area and agreed that it was indeed pretty taut and slightly inflamed and that I would need to ice it regularly and do some specific exercises and stretches that will help make it feel better. I also finally bought a TP massage roller…which is great…but oh lord…so freaking painful…the physical therapist assured me that it was “good pain”…hmm…
I asked the doc if I could run and he told me yes – doing 2-3 miles will not affect me much…so I went to my Quality Workout yesterday evening…we were gonna do a time trial…A time trial involves running 2 miles around the track, so 8 laps, and the time taken to run that distance can be used to project your paces for various distances, from a 5k to a marathon. I was concerned about running it with my IT-band issues, but coach Peri assured me that it would be okay and told me to take it easy, and even walk it if I felt like it. I ended up running 2 miles and my time was 20:09. (Not a great time...but last yr, I think I ran slower than this with NO issues, so it is some sort of improvement! :p)
Plugging that into the pace calculator, my projected times for various race distances are:
Marathon: 05:19:08 (12:10/mile)
Half Marathon: 02:31:19 (11:33/mile)
10K: 01:08:01 (10:58/mile)
12K: 01:22:35 (11:04/mile)
15K: 01:45:10 (11:17/mile)
5K: 32:46 (10:34/mile)
2 Mile: 20:08 (10:04/mile)
1 Mile: 09:26
I ran my marathon last year at 5:53....and my goal this year was to reduce that by half hour....or at least break 5:30....so I'm pretty excited about my projected marathon pace....hopefully if I stick to the training, I will be able to attain that goal....just really really hope that my IT-band issues do not aggravate....have another session with the doc tomorrow....hopefully we come up with a good plan to get rid of the problem....wish me luck!! Meanwhile....I will be skipping the 8-mile long run this weekend and taking it easy...am also headed to Chi-town to hang out with some gal pals I haven't met in a while! Should be fun! :)
4 comments:
Yes, I would like to add to the readers of this blog that I too had a very similar problem about 3-4 years ago. It started with running (I was training for a 1/2 that time), and then got worse the more cricket. Constant physio and stretching did alleviate some of the pain, but then the knees continued to hurt ridiculously! So I went under the knife, knee surgery... Yes, it was that bad.
Bottom line.... IT band pain can be harmless, but if we let it go then it can be complicated. Just be aware of these crazy muscles, we all tend to ignore the small things....
Much luck cha.... hope they heal soon and hope you get back in track! Good work on the times....
Wow! That's an insane time trial given ITB issues and all!
On a related note, one thing that helped me when I had ITB issues some ages ago was wearing a knee strap/brace thingie that you get at any store, through the day and basically any other time except when you are running...the UT physio recommended it to me.
Apparently keeping your knee stabilized helps avoid any further unnecessary bruising of the ITB by preventing it from rubbing against other components near the knee insertion point.
Thanks V+G...I've been injury-free thus far (touch wood)...so am defn gonna be extra careful from now on and take care of this issue...
G - I'll ask my physio abt the knee strap!
10min/mile is freakin awesome! Great job, Cha, for running inspite of your ITB issues!
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