Thursday, September 17, 2009

IT Knee Pain - oh whoa with me :(


Well even before my exercise hiatus, having done ten years of triathlons, 2 Boston Marathons, many a road race and countless training runs (obviously prior to runningahead.com) I have never had a knee problem.  So I guess it is my own fault for pulling a Rip Van Winkle, waking up to my head write checks my body cant cash.  And suddenly one day I developed IT Pain.  Sucks, no other word I can think of. 
A few posts ago I mentioned that my PT gave me some exercises and stretches to do, of which I did only half-assed.  And what did I get out of it?  Half way thru one of my simple loop runs it got so bad that I had to actually walk, then run, then walk, blah blah blah.  The IT Band does help, and I have found that after the run it actually seems to help out to leave it on until bed time.  And as of last night am going to do the 4 exercises religiously for 2 weeks to see if it helps.  Took tonite off, will try to go back to my short course tomorrow to see if there is any improvement. 
I'm really kind of bummed as I was really hoping to do 100 miles this month, my first full month back running, after only starting again in mid-August.
Well if you have any IT experiences, please leave me COMMENTS and SUGGESTIONS.
Be well - Sank

4 comments:

  1. Not sure if this will help but I started to do some core excercises( planks) and 1/4 single leg squats and calf raises which seemed to strengthen the leg and reduced some of the pain in the a$% issues I was having.

    Hope things start to come around for you!

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  2. Hey Sank do you have a coach? On-line coaches are not expensive and they really help you to work through these sorts of things and perhaps even help you to avoid them. I am not sure what sort of budget you are working with however $125/month is the going rate for a top notch(world class) coach. Even if you just invest in 3months to get you started it would be the best investment you ever made. Derrick is my coach an I recommend him highly. I started running in June 2008 and ran a 29:55 5km. By Sept. 2008 I ran a 24:45 5km and this May 2009 I ran a 22:54 5km. I am racing tomorrow and am going for a 22:00 5km. It is the little steps that make the difference in training and I can see that you are very motivated so you may want to think about everything I have said. Good Luck! Eliza

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  3. EJ - Does Derrick have a blog? Thanks for the advice. Went out today on the trails and after 2 it started acting up and by 4 it was hurting pretty good. Maybe I need to get my base and leg strength up on the roads for a month or so, before I deal with the trails. The trails I go on are pretty tough. Lots of hills, roots, and rocks through out so I have to stop/walk to manuever alot. Not sure if that usual for most trail runners or if most are just in the woods on sand/light gravel paths.
    Thanks again - Sank

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  4. You can e-mail Derrick at- spafford@healthandadventure.com

    His Blog link is
    http://derrickspafford.blogspot.com/
    and he is also on your blog list as Health and Adventure.

    He is away this weekend so might not be able to get back to you until Monday.

    I think all runners go through periods where their bodies begin to rebel. I was running 20 minute workouts all summer because of a whining knee. I am now over that and none the worse. Just keep moving forward even if that means taking some time off or cutting back some.
    Eliza

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