I have been dealing with IT band issues over the last month which has completely derailed my training and goals for IMKY which is less than 1 month away. I have been doing the standard foam roller, ice, stretch, ART treatment and am at the point where I can get through most workouts of any distance as long as the intensity is kept in check. For example I did 2 hour run yesterday and 4 hour bike today, both I did at fairly easy pace and both the IT band got progressively more and more painful, but I was able to get through the workout- spending the rest of the day icing, stretching and being in pain. My question is am I better off continuing to ‘get through’ workouts in pain for the next 10 days or so which includes my key 2:30 run and a 6 hour bike or am I better off almost restricting myself to very short sessions and more swimming leading into the race in hopes that IT band will heal? It’s basically a question of do I go into race with the training under my belt but knowing that it will be a painful day or do I go in under trained and still have the possibility that IT band will flare up during race. Like I said any race goals have already gone out the window but am set on doing race because I have family going and raising money for charity. This will be my 5th IM. thanks
Ok…do you have the right roller? A high density foam roller from powersystems? Don’t use those cheap white ones. Are you rolling about 3 times a day/20 rolls each? If your it hurts when you roll, you haven’t rolled it enough. You can just roll before and after training. You need to do it when you wake up, before you sleep, etc. The only other thing that I would suggest is filling a gatorade propel bottle with water and freezing it. Then roll on it. Don’t listen to people about ice and all that stretching bullshit. I had my it ban ultrasounded, elec. stim, stretched, and iced etc. The ONLY thing that worked is a high density roller used 3 or 4 times a day with about 60 reps.
Finally, the only other thing I can say (and I am sure I will hear negative responses regarding this) Do you think God made our bodies to do Ironmans? I don’t. I just stick to sprints and olympics…might one day do (1) 70.3 half. But maybe not. The training and volume of work for an ironman is inevitably going to cause injuries. So when I hear people like you talk about getting injuries…I think “what do they expect”…they are doing like 140.6 miles…it’s gonna cause injury.
I am doing Louisville also & completely understand your desire to participate given what we’ve put in so far.
A couple of years ago I had planned on running three marathons over a 6 week period & came down with a bad case of ITBS about two weeks before the first one. I was soooo disappointed. My sports med doc had spent many olympics as one of the med drs & fortunately understood my desire to finish these. He did tell me that ideally I should take a six week break from running, however knowing that I wouldn’t do that without at least attempting these he had a short term solution to get me through them.
He gave me a liquid topical steroid called Dexamethasone. He had me apply it directly to the ITB where it hurt daily until the marathons were over. He did caution me that it was NOT a long term fix - that it would do tissue damage if used for too long. However, if I insisted on running it was my best shot to finish.
It worked wonders. I wasn’t 100% pain free, but I was able to run the marathons somewhat comfortably, immediately stopped the steroid afterwards & took the suggested break. I don’t know if it’s something easily prescribed or not, but it may be worth asking about.
Good luck - hope to see you there!
Same thing happened to me last year 6 weeks out. Go deep. I would find a good sports massage man/woman and have them go deep as you can take it. I went 2 1/2 hours straight last year to get it fixed. While I was sore for a few days, I was up and running in about a week and a half. Your tissue needs to be fixed and there is no shortcut (aka pills/roller/etc.). Get after it and bring a stick to bite on. 
agree with tdaddy. also try elliptical instead of your long run
you can do a ton of hip abduction / adduction, internal and external rotator strengthening. elliptical as noted above, or run in pool, yes boring as hell, but… Definitely ice, rollers, nsaids, do the exercises as “personal weakness” fill-in.
Perhaps you and I can be added to the “injured” category for prizes!
Bring your Dr. visit reports and a list of medications. We’ll make deductions based upon severity of injuries and pain intensity…