IT Band syndrome

Jennifer,

Can you run 4 miles without ITBS pain? If you have any pains on these 4 mile runs you need to stop
running for a week or 2 and then try to run again. You can't just 'run through' ITBS. It will only
get worse.

Are you stretching? Do lots of very gentle stretches everyday, especially after running. You still
have plenty of time to recover from this before a June 1/2 marathon.

Good luck, Jim

"Jennifer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between

each

Quoted message said:

mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end

of

Quoted message said:

july. Has anyone else dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be
helpful!

Jennifer said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone else
dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

If you have IT band problems, don't even try to run through it. The frustration that will cause will
be far worse than what you're feeling now. I haven't been able to run properly since the end of
December (did a 10k) because of this. I tried gently running through it, but didn't get anyway -
last time I ran was 5 weeks ago, and all I managed was
3.5km.

You need to correct what is causing the problem, and you need to give your body chance to heal. If
you do enough damage that you get scar tissue, you'll tighter and more prone to this injury. In my
case, the problem was caused by weakness in certain muscles and wonky feet (forefoot
something-or-other). I now have new running shoes, orthotic inserts, and being doing stretches and
strengthening exercises recommended by a physiotherapist I was referred to. I'm looking forward to
starting out as a beginner runner again - and doing my marathon next year.

Take this serious. If it doesn't go away after a week or twos rest, go and see your doctor and get
advice. Hopefully they'll refer you to a sports medicine specialist. You will be able to run your
marathon if you want to... but you have to give your body a chance too.

Malc

"Jennifer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between

each

Quoted message said:

mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end

of

Quoted message said:

july. Has anyone else dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be
helpful!

As you can see you have received two normative oh-my-lord-cease-running-at-once replies, and you
probably get many more. I say "normative" because, in most, cases this is the case. My experience
was mixed in this regard, however. I stopped running (or moving my legs during excercise altogether)
for 2 weeks, then proceeded with cross-training (cycling, mainly) for another week or so, and found
that though the ITB pain had subsided, it didn't go away. At this juncture, however, I could
run--which wasn't the case when I first got injured--so, I rested for another week, and still, no
improvement.

I read up a lot, and decided to try out a minority opinion option: run lightly, taking
anti-inflammatories 1-2 hours prior to the run (with food). Progress was slow, but over the course
of 2-3 months, my ITB improved steadily. The point: in some cases, rest alone, even when throwing
some stretches, etc., might in fact tighten up the muscles further--only movement will finally
loosen them.

Finally, the addition of targeted weight-training dispensed with the discomfort, and I was actually
able to run a marathon pain free. Your situation may be different, but it sounds like we share some
common traits: you can run 4 miles, which indicates a milder case of ITB. You may want to cautiously
try the "minority" approach.

--
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º Eduardo Suastegui "Test everything.
Hold on to the good." (remove '701' when replying via e-mail)
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º

Quoted message said:

Can you run 4 miles without ITBS pain? If you have any pains on these 4 mile runs you need to stop
running for a week or 2 and then try to run again. You can't just 'run through' ITBS. It will only
get worse.

Are you stretching? Do lots of very gentle stretches everyday, especially after running. You still
have plenty of time to recover from this before a June 1/2 marathon.

About twenty years ago decided not to run through ITBS pain. Did jump roping and cycling instead.
Eventually, tried a simple stretch that gave immediate relief (did not know about ITBS at the time)
and have not had it since.

Jennifer said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone else
dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

Are you wearing the same shoe model or pair of shoes now that you were wearing when you first
developed ITB pain? Changing to a different (and better) shoe model was the key factor in solving my
recurring ITB problems in 2001. Also did some moderate ITB strengthening exercises and stopped
running for a couple of weeks each of the two major occurrences. Good luck. chris

Jennifer said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where I
can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone else
dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

i've found peak performance online to have so much information i can't digest it all!!!

pponline.co.uk0168.htmOpen ↗

...thehick

riceinfo.rice.eduitband.htmlOpen ↗ Iliotibial band stretch

The above stretches and rolling the quads helped me.

Jennifer said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone else
dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

"Jennifer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point where
I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone else
dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

I had the ITB thing last Spring. It happened once and I was not able not run over 20 minutes without
any pain. I bougth new shoes, it did not help.

So I stopped running completely until the Fall. Then I started running again and I was able to
run over 1 hour with no pain very soon. I guess this was too long too soon and also I was
running on concrete (in the sidewalks) and last I got the same problem again while running
uphill (big mistake).

I waited for two weeks and decided to take it slowly for once in my life. I started running less
time 3 times a week, starting with 30 minutes runs and increasing 5 minutes every week.

This week I am running 55 minutes. I stretch a little 5 minutes into the run and at the end (the
cross-leg thing). Also I started a diet and dropped 10 pounds.

But what I think it is making the difference is that now I run faster. I force myself to have a
quicker pace (shorter steps uphill or if tired). That basically means not putting too much weight on
my knee between steps.

I think when I started running with all those walk-and-run programs I made myself lazy and was too
focused on running a long time too comfortably.

In article said:

Jennifer said:

Hi, I've been dealing with IT Band for several months now. I've finally gotten to the point
where I can run 4 miles with a 1 minute walk break between each
mile. I have a half marathon scheduled in June and a marathon at the end of july. Has anyone
else dealt with this and been able to race through? Any information will be helpful!

For me, different shoes--recommended by people at a real running store--did the trick. They put me
in a moderate stability shoe (Saucony Grid Omni 3). YMMV.

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Then it was every other day. . . ."

- Homer J. Simpson

Sergio said:

But what I think it is making the difference is that now I run faster. I force myself to have a
quicker pace (shorter steps uphill or if tired). That basically means not putting too much weight
on my knee between steps.

Huh, do you mind narrating the Physics behind such a proposition?

"large30077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sergio said:

But what I think it is making the difference is that now I run faster. I force myself to have a
quicker pace (shorter steps uphill or if tired). That basically means not putting too much
weight on my knee between steps.

Huh, do you mind narrating the Physics behind such a proposition?

If I may both explain and correct Sergio, shorter steps do not as much mean less weight on the knee,
but weight properly placed. A longer stride will tend to entail landing ahead of your center of
gravity, therefore putting a different stress (angle) on the knee when compared to landing under the
center of gravity, which a shorter stride facilitates. To bolster Sergio's statement a bit, a longer
stride will also tend to mean more "air time"--namely, up and down vs. forward motion. The greater
the vertical displacement, the greater the number of g's applied to the knee. This is why you will
read in some places that with every running step, one applies up to 2-3 times his weight against the
knee joint. By shortening the stride one may reduce this g-effect to be closer to 1. Sergio may have
also had time duration of the stress in mind--shorter stride=shorter time of stress on the knee
joint; but it all adds up to the same.

--
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º Eduardo Suastegui "Test everything.
Hold on to the good." (remove '701' when replying via e-mail)
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º

In article <[email hidden]>, "Eduardo Suastegui"

Quoted message said:

"large30077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sergio said:

But what I think it is making the difference is that now I run faster. I force myself to have
a quicker pace (shorter steps uphill or if tired). That basically means not putting too much
weight on my knee between steps.

Huh, do you mind narrating the Physics behind such a proposition?

If I may both explain and correct Sergio, shorter steps do not as much mean less weight on the
knee, but weight properly placed. A longer stride will tend to entail landing ahead of your center
of gravity, therefore putting a different stress (angle) on the knee when compared to landing
under the center of gravity, which a shorter stride facilitates. To bolster Sergio's statement a
bit, a longer stride will also tend to mean more "air time"--namely, up and down vs. forward
motion. The greater the vertical displacement, the greater the number of g's applied to the knee.
This is why you will read in some places that with every running step, one applies up to 2-3 times
his weight against the knee joint. By shortening the stride one may reduce this g-effect to be
closer to 1. Sergio may have also had time duration of the stress in mind--shorter stride=shorter
time of stress on the knee joint; but it all adds up to the same.

--
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º Eduardo Suastegui "Test
everything. Hold on to the good." (remove '701' when replying via e-mail)
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º

i'll add some, and possibly repeat some of that, just to help clarify it in MY mind, too... it's not
that it's less weight, just an easier impact on the knee. reduce the "up and down"/bouncing approach
and streamline it so that it is mostly a "parallel to the ground" movement. short, quick steps mean
you are not lifting the feet as high off the ground; therefore you're not slamming your whole weight
down on each foot/leg with each step. lunging or bobbing along does that. all of your weight/force
will be felt (and later too).

i'm not very mathematical, but i think of it like this:

go for more "air time" (foot off the ground) in terms of lifting the foot more frequently, rather
than lifting the foot further off the ground every time and lunging (fewer steps, but more force
downward). excuse my wonderfully scientific terminology 🙂

Cam

"Eduardo Suastegui" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"large30077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Sergio said:

But what I think it is making the difference is that now I run faster. I force myself to have
a quicker pace (shorter steps uphill or if tired). That basically means not putting too much
weight on my knee between steps.

Huh, do you mind narrating the Physics behind such a proposition?

If I may both explain and correct Sergio, shorter steps do not as much mean less weight on the
knee, but weight properly placed. A longer stride will tend to entail landing ahead of your center
of gravity, therefore putting a different stress (angle) on the knee when compared to landing
under the center of gravity, which a shorter stride facilitates. To bolster Sergio's statement a
bit, a longer stride will also tend to mean more "air time"--namely, up and down vs. forward
motion. The greater the vertical displacement, the greater the number of g's applied to the knee.
This is why you will read in some places that with every running step, one applies up to 2-3 times
his weight against the knee joint. By shortening the stride one may reduce this g-effect to be
closer to 1. Sergio may have also had time duration of the stress in mind--shorter stride=shorter
time of stress on the knee joint; but it all adds up to the same.

Thanks, I think you are right. In my experience, the "shorter time of stress on the knee joint" is
key. Obviously all this is just my perception, no idea about the Physics...

I think running faster also helps to reduce the "time of stress" and consequently I try to avoid
getting really tired.

I think before (OK probably this makes eve less sense) I used my knees to support my body between
steps, like just letting me go instead of pushing forward.