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Its been a funny few weeks. What with busy work, busy home and being away, my normal routine has got a bit mixed up. Add to this mix a new IT band (Iliotibial band syndrome) problem and not feeling 100% – again – and you’ve got a recipe for disaster!
At the moment my IT band problem is worrying me the most! I’ve had it before, although not as bad, in my left knee and I soon ‘fixed’ it by including a few new (at the time) stretches to my warm up/warm down routine and reverting to a previous pair of trainers. This time its in my right knee and I’m sure its more painful and actually causing a limp for a few hour after running. Not good!
So, the plan of action is to revert back to my trust old Newton running shoes for the time being and increase my IT band friendly stretches. YouTube is an excellent resource for demonstrations on how to do stretches and in this link my current IT Band stretch is demonstrated in example one (of three). I’m going to also include example two in my pre and post run warm ups/downs and might possibly look into example three (using a foam roller) if things don’t improve.
The other thing I noticed was that I’ve not been doing a full set of warm ups/warm downs due to being so rushed. I don’t think this has helped the situation and goes to show how important warm up and warm down can be.
The one big lesson I learnt last time I had an IT band problem, and still have difficulty with now, is that when you feel the pain coming on you should stop running and walk immediately. This is easier said than done when you’re miles from home, or when you’re nearly home and want to properly complete your activity. But its good advise. The pain will (should) stop when you drop from a run to a walk and it will help prevent further damage. If you ignore an IT band problem and ‘man it out’ you can cause yourself further damage, possibly permanent damage.
Doing any sport can involve injuries, but its important not to ignore them. Yes we all get our niggles and pains when running, but you should keep a watchful eye on them and make sure they don’t turn into something more serious. As I’ve said before YouTube and forums like the one on runnersworld.co.uk can be an excellent resource for information.
I’ll keep you posted on how I get along. Next run is planned on my Newtons and for a short distance, perhaps three miles, no matter how tempting it will be to go for further!!
