Fellowship of the ITBS

Can we start a fellowship of the ITBS? I know a few people here are battling this right now.

Mine flared up again during a marathon last week. The Sedona marathon was beautiful. I had a great first half of the race, but started feeling knee pain at mile 10. At the turnaround I knew I was in trouble and at mile 14 I was walking. Walked/shuffled the rest of the way and tried to enjoy the scenery.

So why the knee pain? I do have a history of knee pain, but thought I had it solved. I had several good long runs (20+ miles) and a barefoot 13.1 before the marathon with no pain. It could have been the hilly course, but I have been running hills. Blame it on the Merrell Trail Gloves? Maybe, I have been mostly running barefoot and with huaraches.

My recovery plan: Research. Read through the older posts and articles about ITBS. Use rolling techniques and work on getting my hips more flexible. Strength training on my weaker muscles. Back off my mileage and no more races for a while. Barefoot as much as possible (I was going to do this regardless of how the marathon turned out). Just did 5k barefoot with no pain.

So who is in the club with me?

Rick W.

Good luck! I battled ITBS

Good luck! I battled ITBS briefly but I still fear it to this day. I got over mine by totally shutting down running for a couple of weeks and then slowly building back up. I also started doing more stretching and focused more on developing my core and hip strength. I'm not much on fellowships and never post in the Morton toe one even though I've got a freaky long toe lol

I know I am going to get a

I know I am going to get a few comments about not running, but I am addicted and my feet needed to feel the ground. My dogs were also giving me the look. I did plan to stop the minute I felt pain, but it didn't happen. I will take it very slow. Good job on your 50 Bubba. You guys make me want to do an Ultra someday, but I've got to figure out my knee problems first.

I'm in! I am starting

I'm in! I am starting physical therapy tomorrow with a method that my doc (he was the primary doc for U of Texas Athletics and started the Sports Med department there, so he is pretty good) says should kick this thing quick. I think that, a lot of rolling, and strengthening our cores, glutes, and hips is the key. I realize that My ITBS was already flaring up before the race, and then I was going through ankle deep mud (and not around it like most the fully shod runners), which required me to use the hips more, which probably is why the ITBS hit so much sooner than normal.



We can get through this. One day at a time, brother.

For me hills are hell for my

For me hills are hell for my ITB.

I do lots of squats, gluteus and hip exercises and right now I am not running that much just maintenance miles so no ITB problems for now.

I was only able to get rid of

I was only able to get rid of mine after I completely shut down from running for about 8 weeks and started doing a lot of hip strengthening.

Let us know how that

Let us know how that treatment goes NSDR. Good job on your 50, sounded messy, but fun.

Dama and Talon - I'll be looking at some hip strengthening exercises. Thanks. I thought I had pretty good cross training from skiing and hiking, but somewhere there is a weak link.

talonraid wrote:I was only

IMHO, shutting down running is the best first step to recovery from ITBS

Shutting down is hard. I felt

Shutting down is hard. I felt great as far as knees after a bike ride yesterday, tried to run a bit and it was killer. I wrote out my 50K training plan and have my not running again until a week from Sunday. I will play with that based on this treatment today. It even bothers me when I walk, so resting is best. This twisted ankle helps keep my sidelined too.

bubba hotep wrote:talonraid

Bubba, we are in violent agreement here. I tried like hell to keep running and recover but it always came back and was a psychological ass beating every time. I went through all the same crap that I've heard others write about on this website and RW. The shame, anger, frustration, belief I could be the one who could keep running and magically recover. I guess there is an occasional cat or dog that is able to keep training but that's probably a more rare recovery technique than shutting it down for a few months....yes months.

Count me in. I think I've

Count me in.

I think I've got mine solve, but I always get nervous anytime I feel the slightest twinge from my knee.

Barefoot Fayetteville Guy

Damn, that's the truth. I still worry about a flare up on every run.

Hey Talon,Just read what you

Hey Talon,

Just read what you went through in the IT Band/Knee pain thread. What an ordeal and I am glad you are doing better now.

Pretty much all the information and links I need are in that thread. Also, found some good exercises on YouTube (I have to be careful about what clips to open, so as not to get distracted).

Almost 2 weeks and no running. It got cold and wet here anyway. Knee feels good, but I am going to give it some more time.

NSDR (Doomed) how are you doing?

Rick

Rick,I had to go back and

Rick,

I had to go back and re-read that whole thread. The mind is a strange force. It's amazing that I couldn't just make the decision to take a break from running and let the damned thing heal.

Anyway, thanks for the words. I'm still running without ITBS but I have to mention that due to the weather and my pansy ass, I've been doing more high intensity indoor training (CrossFit) than running outside. That should change in March or April when I hope the weather is good enough for me to run outside more. My last run outside was 1 FEB. I think my plantar skin will be my limiting factor when I get back to Texas and decent weather.

Good luck to you on your ITBS journey. I hope it's a short and uneventful trip.

Hi fellow ITBS-ers. I have suffored from this the past 20 or so years. This was actually my main reason to start running BF. Unfortunately that didn't help. I found out that whether I run in shoes or BF the ITBS starts annoying me when I has build my milage up to about 8-10 KM. Again, this is with regular shoes, VFF and BF. Now im trying the foam roller, strenghtening my hip/knee muscles and attending yoga for strecthing and strengthening aswell. I also use a ITBS band when i run. For the moment I only run about 5-7 KM 2-3 times a week. I have no pain during the run but afterwards i can feel some pain. In the unlikely situation that i find a cure i will of course share with you all.

Hey there Mikkel. I posted a rather long-winded post recently in the "Ask the Doc" section, titled, "How Did I Miss This?" that you may find interesting. I am experimenting with strenghtening my ARCH of all things, in order to decrease aggravation in my ITB (which I only recently figured out was what was bothering me -though not quite often enough or severe enough to by classified as a syndrome). Let me know what you think of my reasoning. I have only been exercising my arch for a couple days and have already felt a distinct decrease in ITB irritation, and am anxious to see the long-term results. I am also awaiting feedback from the doctors.

ITBS annoying the heck out of me also.

added running into my weekly exercise routine in april of 2011...worked up to running nonstop for an hour (covering 7 miles).
exeperienced my first ITB injury while running the Tough Mudder ~ mile 11 in October 2011.
Ever since then I cannot run more than a couple miles outdoors without irratating my ITB. Strange enough it seems running on the treadmill doesn't bother me.

went to an orthopedic sports doc recently....he gave me some anti-inflamitory medicine and a worksheet of stretches.
I have been using a dense foam roller and daily stretching; but no luck.

Need to add a few years ago I blew my achilles tendon in half (in the same leg). So that calf muscle is still not 100%...which i am suspicious of maybe what is contributing to my ITB problem.

Now, i am turing to strenthening the muscles in my legs and trying barefoot running. i am hoping that barefoot running will help strengthen my weaker calf muscle and correct any running posture/stride issues i may have.

Just picked up some five finger trail shoes this past week. will follow up with my progress!