Admittedly I've been lazy since the marathon about running. This morning I headed out for what I hoped would be a long run. Atlanta was beautiful today - clear, 50-degrees and breezy. Very nice for running. At about mile 4 I felt my left, then my right, IT band acting up at my lateral knee. I tried to be careful about my mechanics and stay on smooth asphalt but finally at about mile 5 I had to stop. The pain was too much and I was worried I would hurt myself further.
Turns out my right IT band was the worser. I walked the next mile-and-a-half home. Defeated.
Being my hard-headed self I then went out to try my new Bike for a road test. All I've really done so far is tool around the neighborhood getting used to the gearing and adjusting the seat. Why should I let a bum knee hold me up?
So I headed for a ride over to Decatur (about 16 miles round trip). The bike went great. I had to adjust the seat again, actually higher than I liked but made for better pedalling. Only at about mile 15 did I start to get a twinge of the knee pain again. It was actually quite funny to see how (relatively) fast I did this trip cycling as it seems like it takes forever to run it. :) The other "funny" thing was to see my cheap-o Bell bicycle computer go flying off the handlebars at 20mph and skip into some bushes... Nowhere to be found. It's only funny because I do actually have a sense of humor.
My knee now OK but will rest it some this week. Will also try some stretches to get the IT band loosened up.
I thought about reinventing the wheel and devoting a blog to IT band treatments but there are plenty of other sites out there that do already. Here's One.
Stretch on!
2 comments:
That's what gets me. I've never had shin trouble. Ankles? No. Hips? Never. I've had one pulled calf that sidelined me for about a week. But whenever my legs suffer from running, it's the knees.
Great blog! Thanks for the story on your knee injury. It's been a frustrating experience trying to recover from runners knee.
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