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I sent this email to Dan last night and he asked me to post it on the forum to get some feedback from you guys. The pain is low on the outside of my knee and begins after four miles of running, until by mile five walking is the only option. I'm a nineteen year old student who generally recovers fairly quickly; the rest of the message should speak for itself.
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Let me begin by saying that I fully understand that you are not a doctor, you cannot be responsible for anything you say that could be construed as medical advice, and that in any sort of official capacity you know nothing about ITB. But the reality is that you likely know more than 99% of doctors in the world - and 100% of the doctors I’ve met - about ITB. So, from a triathlete with a pain in the outside of my knee, please help me out.
As far as I can tell, my symptoms match those you describe in your December 9 article on the subject. I’m currently trying to increase my mileage gradually, but I’m still limited to about four miles at a time. I’m an overpronator, running with hard orthotics in Asics Kayanos. I can bike until I’m blue in the face and do a full one-leg squat, but my knee really tightens up running. My real question is how long this will take to heal. I’m scheduled to run Grandma’s Marathon on June 21, and I’m curious whether this is realistic.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Caleb,
I'm just now recovering (recovered?) from ITBS. There are several very helpful threads in this forum (do a search ITBS or IT Band or ITB). Let me summarize what I learned.
I first felt the pain in February, but I continued to run (including 2 excruciatingly painful 12 mile runs). I visited the doctor in late Feb/early March. My Orthopedist's advice was: no running for 4 weeks and stretching/icing.
What I did: I visited an Active Release Therapy (A.R.T.) provider 5 times; used the tennis ball/rolling pin self-treatment; took plenty of over-the-counter anti-inflamatories; iced and stretched; got some new orthotics. After two weeks, I started running until I felt the pain (usually .5 miles to 2 miles), and then I would walk/run using pain as my guide. I found that if I spaced my runs with a day or two in between, I could run farther/feel better.
After about a month total, I ran 6 miles with no pain at all. Now (6-7 weeks from original diagnosis), my training is surprisingly back on track for a 1/2 IM May 10 (which I thought I would have to cancel).
Which of the above "did the trick?" Hard to say. But if I was a betting man... wait, I am a betting man... I'd wager that the A.R.T. was the biggest influence, followed by the tennis ball therapy (see explanation of this one in some of the earlier threads) had the biggest impact on my recovery, but all were helpful. On the other hand, it was almost exactly one month after the original diagnosis when I could run without pain... Maybe my orthopedist was right and I could have just watched the tube for 4 weeks...
Now I always do ITB stretching before running (even on bricks), I stop immediately upon feeling pain (I think i severely exacerbated my original injury by thinking I could just run through it), and I ice my ITB at the end of my runs, whether it hurts or not.
I did a search for you. Try subject line "ITB Blues" Its a thread I started. Lots of help there.
I spent maybe 10-15 hours researching ITBS and its causes and treatment and I'd have to say that Train Wreck (see his posts in the "ITB Blues" thread) seems to know his stuff in this area as well (or better) as anyone I've read/spoken to.
I've been dealing with this for about 8 months. Finally had an MRI to confirm that ITBS was my problem, and it was/is. I've done ART, stretching, rolling pin, tennis ball, massage therapy and that dull little pain still lurks in the background. I took a lot of time off at first but it helped nothing.
I am a completely neutral runner and I believe my form is alright so I am baffled. Strangely enough I never had a knee problem in my life until I purchased and began riding my triathlon bike. Correlation, I don't know.
Anyhow I'm considering the last resort at this point...a nice fat cortisone shot.
All I can say is good luck my friend.
I spent 10 weeks off running last winter with ITB syndrome. I first noticed it on an easy 15km run, and though that I would just run through it. By the end of the run, I was in so much pain that I thought I had done irreparable damage.
My solution?
Rest and.....
Deep tissue massage and yoga based stretching. My physio is not your normal physio. He is of Chinese nationality has fire in his fingers. 6 weeks of deep tissue massage, combined with religious adherence to his yoga-based stretching routine and I was up and running again.
Previous to the ITB problem I thought stretching was something that I should do after my run whilst I was sucking down a Gatorade and thinking about the next race. Now, I have a yoga mat and will sit down every night without fail and go through a complete stretching routine. Maybe it is psychological, but I have been injury free since then, and when you are on a winner…….
My biggest piece of advice to this forum (and really my only valuable contribution since I know very little about bikes) is that yoga is not for sissies. Make a commitment to yoga and your body will love you for it.
Your seemingly doing everything to get this right. I can't comment on bike-related ITB stuff. Running related I guess you would have figured out by now some of the contributors to the problem, old shoes, wrong shoes, road camber, leg length, muscle imbalance, too much mileage stacked to quickly. Are you by chance a heel striker? My orthopaedic guy, a marathoner and surgeon with a great reputation, believes part of ITBS is related to heel-striking and too rigid a motion control shoe -- basically with poor mechanics and the wrong shoe you put the ITB under allot of pounding.
I struggled with this for nearly two years. For the last 18-20 months of that the ITB would get the dull pain, maybe a 1-2 on a 10 point scale, that would get my attention but more often than not it would not get any worse. Tennis ball, stretching, strengthening, ice, never pushing it beyond a "2" on the pain scale, and switching to more of mid-foot strike, changing to a moderate motion control shoe, I think, finally got me over it. It can be so frustrating. Hopefully someone will be able to help you with the bike related ITB stuff -- sounds plausible.
August last year was my final Oly distance tri for the year. 2km into the run I started to feel a dull ache on the outside of my right knee. By 5km there was alot of pain, and from 7km on I limped and walked. Up until this point in my life I had never had any injury whatsoever, no sprains, no broken bones, nothing.
I rested and iced the knee for two weeks. I could run after that but no longer than 40min. Over the course of the next 7months I tried everything. Doctors, physio, knee strengthening, stretching, pat straps, etc. I even saw a "Self-wellness" Doctor that suggested a bit of meditation. From August last year until this March my running time before pain set in went from 40min down to 15min.
Two weeks ago I saw a Chiropractor that is trained in A.R.T. Active Release Therapy. After three sessions I am now able to run 45min pain free. Now from what I got from him was that some of my muscles/tendons are knotted/stuck together. This can occur I guess from overuse and lack of stetching. He fiqures he'll be able to totally loosen the leg up in a couple more sessions.
I'm not totally better yet, but A.R.T. has definately helped me. Good luck with it, I know how frustrating it can be.