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Help! ITBS and B2B
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 2013-10-10 6:30 PM |
Veteran  222  North Carolina |  Subject: Help! ITBS and B2B I need your help. I'm racing in my first full in less than three weeks, and I can barely train! It started about three weeks ago while out for a long run. About nine miles in, my left leg was getting kind of sore, just a general soreness that seemed to be centered around my hip/glute. Two miles later...a pain I've never felt before. My knee but not exactly my knee. The whole area outside of my left knee seized for lack of a better word. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I figured I needed to stretch really bad. I stretched a bit and started to run again. The leg was still sore but the serious knee pain was gone...for a couple of minutes and then, Ouch! Long story shorter, I ended up walking the last three miles of a sixteen mile run after several attempts to stretch and run. Everything I've read points directly to the IT band. I pretty much already knew that. I've been doing everything I can to take it easy and let it heal. Rest, Ice, Stretch, Very limited running and biking, I even bought and learned how to use a Foam Roller. It doesn't seem to be getting any better! I just got back from what was going to be a 4 mile run, which I cut short at 3.4 because the pain was beginning to show up again. I've only done 3 or 4 short runs in the last 3 weeks and on all but one, the pain started back. I don't let it get severe, but it's there. Eight days ago was the last time I rode the bike, and it went well. I could feel the soreness early in the ride, but it went away before long and I was able to ride strong. As far as my training goes, the only thing I can afford to lay off of is the bike. I don't believe my run is strong enough to withstand a three week hiatus. But if my IT band doesn't get better, I'll end up walking the last twenty miles of the marathon anyway. I'm starting to PANIC !! If I cant run I don't even want to go. I will, but I don't want to. What to do???? |
| 2013-10-10 6:40 PM in reply to: lmwel |
Champion 6962    Atlanta, Ga | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Find yourself a VERY VERY good Massage Therapist and have them dig into your Glutes. Yes...your butt. I'd say that is actually your issue. In the mean time, take a lacrosse ball and sit on it with your leg in a figure 4. So left foot on right knee and ball on right butt cheek. Repeat other side. yes, I'm serious. |
| 2013-10-10 6:53 PM in reply to: Marvarnett |
| 106 | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I have battled with ITBS for a long time. I have to roll out my leg with a roller or ball constantly to keep ahead of it. The rolling will hurt, but it will help. I never had success with stretching, KT tape, or RICE. Goodluck! |
| 2013-10-10 7:28 PM in reply to: lmwel |
Veteran 222 North Carolina | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Thanks Guys, I appreciate the tips on how to treat the symptoms. What I really need to know is how do I train between now and race day ( 10/26 ) when I can't even put in one productive run every five days. Do I just lay off for the most part and hope that I've done enough up to this point? Do nothing but heal until race day? Several people have told me this, the same people that say " you'll do fine " when I mention being nervous about the race. Or do I continue to try, so far unsuccessfully, to ease back in to my training and risk not healing at all? Do I ride the bike and swim but give up run training? Side note ( I believe the whole injury stems from a 331 mile three day charity ride I did almost five weeks ago ). Over use injury maybe? So the big question is... How do I train going forward and not aggravate the injury? Or do I??? |
| 2013-10-10 9:06 PM in reply to: #4874850 |
Extreme Veteran 646 | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Well we've got 16 days until the race (I'll be there too) . You will not likely gain, nor lose, much fitness between now and then. I think your priority should be rehabbing your leg, with the techniques mentioned by the others. I know it sucks getting injured this close to a huge race. But try to stay calm and positive. Chances are, you'll have to walk portions of the Marathon, but maybe not. Don't hurt yourself worse trying to "cram " this late in the game. best of luck! |
| 2013-10-11 8:16 AM in reply to: lmwel |
Champion 6962 Atlanta, Ga | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Aqua-jogging will help keep your fitness up. But as someone else said, focus on getting things fixed first. |
| 2013-10-11 8:28 AM in reply to: lmwel |
| Oakville | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I suffered from ITBS a few years ago and someone recommended an IT band wrap, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Tec-Athletics-Band-Compression-Wrap/dp/B0... It worked wonders for me and allowed me to continue to train without any pain. A disclaimer that it doesn't work for everyone, but was a great fix for me. |
| 2013-10-11 9:17 AM in reply to: lmwel |
Member 76 | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I've suffered with ITBS for about 5 yrs now. Earlier in the year when I started training for B2B (my first as well) I couldn't go 5k on the run without trouble and it would get so bad (both knees) they would seize up and I could barely walk. Then I found out about Carolina Sports clinic (in Charlotte) Dr Brad has been amazing with what he's done on my IT bands. With scraping them (not sure the name of the process) but he uses a long beveled edge tool, first few times hurt like hell and left me bruised from hip to knee. He also did another type of therapy with sound waves and felt like getting a really bad tattoo. Ive been real aggressive with foam rolling. But rolling is more of a maintenance deal and won't fix your IT if its gone this far. Some of the things I've had to do with my run is to really shorten my stride and go from a sprinters running style to more of a glidder. That really helped once I got use to it. One last thing you might what to try since we are only two weeks out is a run/walk strategy (i'm going to use it) start it off at the very beginning of the run. I run 4 minutes and walk 1 minute. Just keep repeating till the end. I was struggling with my knees on my 20mi runs and would just have to keep slowing down to manage the pain and it was taking me 4hrs . Started doing the 4/1 and my last 20 mi run (this past Sunday) was 3hrs 15minutes. It was only about 2hr40min of actual running. But that 1 minute break gives you enough break that your IT don't start to get inflamed . Once they start to swell they just keep snowballing and you'll just be walking the whole way. Hope This helps and I defn. feel your pain. |
| 2013-10-11 9:44 AM in reply to: lmwel |
Veteran 186 Virginia Beach | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Originally posted by lmwel Side note ( I believe the whole injury stems from a 331 mile three day charity ride I did almost five weeks ago ). Over use injury maybe? Have you had your bike fit? |
| 2013-10-11 10:31 AM in reply to: Shop Cat |
Veteran 222 North Carolina | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Thanks again everyone. Scott71, I know someone who got a similar brace from his PT and said it allowed him to run. What do I have to lose? dpg31, Thanks for the tip. As it stands, about thirty minutes at a good pace is all I can do before it starts to get seriously uncomfortable. I've never intentionally done the run/walk. Scott B, I have not had my road bike fit. I'm certain I need to do that, although it is very comfortable. My tri bike got initially fit when I bought it. I've made a couple of very minor adjustments in the two years since. It's also very comfortable. |
| 2013-10-11 10:37 AM in reply to: Shop Cat |
Veteran 222 North Carolina | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Originally posted by Shop Cat Well we've got 16 days until the race (I'll be there too) . You will not likely gain, nor lose, much fitness between now and then. I think your priority should be rehabbing your leg, with the techniques mentioned by the others. I know it sucks getting injured this close to a huge race. But try to stay calm and positive. Chances are, you'll have to walk portions of the Marathon, but maybe not. Don't hurt yourself worse trying to "cram " this late in the game. best of luck! Thanks Shop Cat. Good luck. I'll see you and dgp31 in Wilmington...so to speak. |
| 2013-10-11 12:43 PM in reply to: lmwel |
Veteran 262 Sarasota, Florida | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I mostly stopped running, and hence tris, because of some serious left knee pain when running that started a few years back. Classic IT band syndrome, lateral knee pain, worse when hilly, came on slowly but then BLAM could barely move my knee after 12-15 minutes of running. I work with athletes, so it was pretty frustrating to not find a solution on myself. What I found from the current ITB medical research and my progress is this. All of the standard treatments don't do squat. What does seem to help is a hip strengthening program. When I applied it to myself I did notice that my left gluteus medius was significantly weaker than my right. So I started a lateral hip strength routine, and do it after every run, followed by a hip stretch. I keep my runs short until my legs get back into shape. So far, I haven't had any pain by following this routine. My theory, based on the research, is that the gluteus medius is malfunctioning, for any number of reasons, which allows the knee to "cave in", causing pressure on the fat pad below the ITB. So what this means to you is to work on gluteus medius strength and running form primarily, but since you're so close to race day also throw in other treatments like a graston session or two at the knee, deep tissue massage or foam roll over the lateral hip, anterior hip/quad, and hamstrings. Don't bother foam rolling over the IT band itself, just worry about its attachments. If it's painful at rest, give it a couple of days, some ibuprofen for a couple of days until painfree, then back to running along with the things mentioned above. I suspect that other options like the knee strap function by giving the body a cue to retain good form. Hope this helps....good luck on race day! |
| 2013-10-11 2:38 PM in reply to: Shop Cat |
| 39 | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B About three weeks prior to the Augusta 70.3 I injured my leg. For about a week I could not do any training at all. For the last two weeks before the race I was only able to do minor training. While I was a little concerned about missing some training, I decided to focus on getting healthy. By race day I felt good and ended improving my personal best by 18 minutes. Pushing yourself when you are injured will only make it worse. Focus on getting healthy. By definition triathletes are super motivated people, which is a hard characteristic to turn down when you are injured. |
| 2013-10-11 4:42 PM in reply to: chunta |
Master 2356 Westlake Village , Ca. | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B Originally posted by chunta What I found from the current ITB medical research and my progress is this. All of the standard treatments don't do squat. THIS! Why do people always want to stretch and roll sore areas? That's NOT the answer. The reason your IT Band is sore is because it is over working. FIND OUT WHY....and treat that. Your body is using the IT Band incorrectly or as compensation for something else not working properly. Your body is an amazing machine. If something is not working or working improperly, it's going to find the path of least resistance to do the activity you want to do. That is going to put some muscles under tremendous stress that they were not made to handle...THUS THE SORENESS. That was your bodies best option with what it had to work with. What you do when you stretch and roll it is take that best option away from the body to use and you will have to compensate in other ways.....leading to more injury. Find out WHY your IT Band is sore and treat that. The soreness IS NOT THE PROBLEM. The problem is, no one here is going to be able to tell you what that is. We can guess, sure, but it's more than likely not going to be right. It could be as little as a muscle in your neck or spin that is off which sets a whole chain reaction of compensation down through the body. Finding out what the problem is can be a LONG process and a difficult one....but it's worth the journey. Normal doctors and PT folks will not be able to help you with this. They're going to want to treat the symptom and not dive into the underlying problem. You need to find someone extremely knowledgeable in physiology and mechanics. Muscle Activation Technique therapist is probably a good place to start. |
| 2013-10-13 6:41 PM in reply to: #4874925 |
Expert 1215 Austin, TX | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I had an acute case of ITBS and went to a sports medicine treatment. They did ART and e-stim twice a week and had me use rollers twice a day. He had me continue to train. I was all better in less than 2 weeks. |
| 2013-10-14 3:46 PM in reply to: Hugh in TX |
Veteran 327 Plaquemine, Louisiana | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B I've had several bouts with ITBS. Foam rolling and Astym helped but strengthening my hips, core and butt resolved it. |
| 2013-10-14 5:06 PM in reply to: DigitalRain |
Elite 5145 Cleveland | Subject: RE: Help! ITBS and B2B My advice, if you are M40-44, is to run very, very, very slowly at B2B. If you aren't M40-44, then ignore this and run as fast as you can sustain |
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