Karen writes: My recovery plan for ITB injury
Kate is right, I so wish I was running too. This morning I had an early trip in to the Quay Street bus-stop in Auckland city to visit with my young cousin as she changed buses on her journey north for school holidays. As I drove home I envied the hardy city runners, and admired the frosty paddocks in the country. I wanted badly to be pounding those pavements with the sun coming up over the harbour, or foot-printing across the white grassy expanses, breathing in that cold air, and just running.
There is positive news on the running front though. I am feeling better after a few weeks of things all seeming a bit much. After getting into a state of mental misery from overdosing on all the gloomy stuff online about recovering from an ITB injury (months and months), I decided to be more proactive about getting better...we do have a marathon to run (walk?) in 8 weeks and I plan on getting there one way or another! So I have formulated my strategy using lots of the stuff I read about that did work for other people and yesterday was thrilled to manage 6km without pain which is the best I have done in weeks. Remembering that this is my thinking, untested, and not medical advice...here is my plan...
1) run short distances and if possible increase in tiny increments. Don't run on consecutive days.
2) Stop/walk/stretch at the first sign of stiffness or discomfort, everything I have read and my experience so far is that pushing through pain makes things much worse, if it hurts walk home! I have had 2 x 3km runs in the last week and had to stop towards the end of those and walk/run but didn't seem to have ill effects after. In the 6 km yesterday I had no pain....YAAAY!
3) strap before running - who would believe how many different sorts of tape there are, and different ways of doing the strapping. See here for an example of some printable taping instructions. There are also velcro ITB straps which go around the top of the knee which I might look at if I need to.
4) forget working on cardiovascular fitness with the running, cross-train for this - ie, long bike-ride - IF it causes no discomfort.
5) ice and brace knee immediately after running - I wrap a flexible ice-pad in a cloth and tuck it inside a knee brace and sit down for 10 minutes. I read that oral anti-inflammatories are used by some people, I can't tolerate these myself.
6) use a roller (I have a rolling pin with a towel taped over it) to loosen off the ITB band twice a day. This HURT to start off with, it is still uncomfortable but getting better. You lie on your side with the roller under your affected thigh and sort of scoot back and forwards ten times...see here (page 3) for example. Don't forget to do the other side too and try the back of the legs if you are really brave.
7) self massage during the day - apply anti-flam or similar twice a day, and 'knead' outside thigh from knee to top of leg at intervals.
8) during attempts at running experiment with different gaits. I read that more 'toe pushoff' helped so I tried that on my last successful run, 'faster' was also suggested along with 'shorter stride'. I concentrated on all these things, but the thing I found pulled me back when there were twinges was to pull my stomach in, straighten up (like 'looking over a fence') and put shoulders right back. All of that stuff is tiring, but something worked.
9) stay away from hills, cambers and uneven surfaces for now. Fortunately the Sunshine Coast marathon looks to be pretty flat anyway.
10) Stretch after exercise, and during the day. I'm trying different stretches, there are lots around and many are really complicated and don't seem to really affect the right place...
10) on in-between days focus on strength - core/glutes (things like 'the bridge', plank, side plank)
11) most important - my poor shoes are past their best...new shoes of the right sort!
That seems like a lot of work to manage a quick hobble up the road but I didn't realise how much I would miss my running plus I don't want to drop my run conditioning too far. Will let you know how the plan works... if it doesn't pretty soon (or anything gets worse) I will be off to the magic physio.
There is positive news on the running front though. I am feeling better after a few weeks of things all seeming a bit much. After getting into a state of mental misery from overdosing on all the gloomy stuff online about recovering from an ITB injury (months and months), I decided to be more proactive about getting better...we do have a marathon to run (walk?) in 8 weeks and I plan on getting there one way or another! So I have formulated my strategy using lots of the stuff I read about that did work for other people and yesterday was thrilled to manage 6km without pain which is the best I have done in weeks. Remembering that this is my thinking, untested, and not medical advice...here is my plan...
1) run short distances and if possible increase in tiny increments. Don't run on consecutive days.
2) Stop/walk/stretch at the first sign of stiffness or discomfort, everything I have read and my experience so far is that pushing through pain makes things much worse, if it hurts walk home! I have had 2 x 3km runs in the last week and had to stop towards the end of those and walk/run but didn't seem to have ill effects after. In the 6 km yesterday I had no pain....YAAAY!
3) strap before running - who would believe how many different sorts of tape there are, and different ways of doing the strapping. See here for an example of some printable taping instructions. There are also velcro ITB straps which go around the top of the knee which I might look at if I need to.
4) forget working on cardiovascular fitness with the running, cross-train for this - ie, long bike-ride - IF it causes no discomfort.
5) ice and brace knee immediately after running - I wrap a flexible ice-pad in a cloth and tuck it inside a knee brace and sit down for 10 minutes. I read that oral anti-inflammatories are used by some people, I can't tolerate these myself.
6) use a roller (I have a rolling pin with a towel taped over it) to loosen off the ITB band twice a day. This HURT to start off with, it is still uncomfortable but getting better. You lie on your side with the roller under your affected thigh and sort of scoot back and forwards ten times...see here (page 3) for example. Don't forget to do the other side too and try the back of the legs if you are really brave.
7) self massage during the day - apply anti-flam or similar twice a day, and 'knead' outside thigh from knee to top of leg at intervals.
8) during attempts at running experiment with different gaits. I read that more 'toe pushoff' helped so I tried that on my last successful run, 'faster' was also suggested along with 'shorter stride'. I concentrated on all these things, but the thing I found pulled me back when there were twinges was to pull my stomach in, straighten up (like 'looking over a fence') and put shoulders right back. All of that stuff is tiring, but something worked.
9) stay away from hills, cambers and uneven surfaces for now. Fortunately the Sunshine Coast marathon looks to be pretty flat anyway.
10) Stretch after exercise, and during the day. I'm trying different stretches, there are lots around and many are really complicated and don't seem to really affect the right place...
10) on in-between days focus on strength - core/glutes (things like 'the bridge', plank, side plank)
11) most important - my poor shoes are past their best...new shoes of the right sort!
That seems like a lot of work to manage a quick hobble up the road but I didn't realise how much I would miss my running plus I don't want to drop my run conditioning too far. Will let you know how the plan works... if it doesn't pretty soon (or anything gets worse) I will be off to the magic physio.
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