Injured IT bands? This helped.

A while back I thought I was more capable than I am. Well, maybe I forgot I'm not as young as I used to, or maybe I am not as smart as I thought I was... regardless, I ran way more than was advisable for me and as a test of my ability and capability; it was just stupid!

However, I accepted a challenge to do a 10 miles run when I wasn't at that level yet. It was roughly a 150% increase from one week to the next. Sure I did it! It felt great finishing it. Great bragging rights! But here I am, over a month later still paying the price of over-reaching.

It was awesome to be able to see how you can push your body to do some crazy things you never thought you could. It was great to overcome the mind and the body. It's not just mind over body, but also will over mind. The mind will tell you you can't. Your body will tell you you can't. Your will is the only one who believes in you. Let me tell you something, your will sometimes can be very ambitious--too ambitious for our own good.

Here I am, having ran barely 2 miles and finding myself super excited that I did it with no pain during or after. Pathetic! After I finished my 10 miles over a month ago, my IT bands (layer of connective tissue on the outside of your knee) caught fire almost immediately after I got home. Going up the stairs to my bedroom let me know just how bad it was going to be, and coming back down I almost had no way of staying on my feet. It really was debilitating. The best way to explain it is: it feels like you twisted your knee, except you didn't. And it feels like that with every step when you lift your leg. Going up and down the stairs is more painful. You know the pain you feel the half a second before you pop your joints? That's how it feels on the outside of your knee but with no pop to bring relief. Of course, I still wanted to run!!! I didn't want this to stop me in any way. But running had become the painful anticipation it was before I first got started (although for completely different reasons).

If you are finding yourself in my situation and it doesn't seem to be getting better, let me share what I have been doing with some success.

Here's what's helped. I'm not a fan of ibuprofen so that's not in the regimen. Find some MSM supplement and load up. The MSM will help supply your tissue and ligament with raw materials to rebuild. It also acts as an natural anti-inflammatory when taken in higher doses.

Check your gait and stride. Are you running on the outside of your foot too much, under pronating (see pronation)? This could be because of your terrain or your style. I've been doing what I can to get a feel for my pronation and today seems to finally have brought me the right amount of pronation and thus no pain in my IT band at all.

Don't give up! I am not saying make your body deal with it until it figures out how to make it better. But do try running between 1 and 2 miles at a slower pace than normal. Take a break before it starts hurting and walk for a bit. Taking a break will help cool things down and avoid the feel of over use.

Running at a slower pace may help you reduce the amount of force coming down on your knee and it may give you a chance to better analyze your gait and correct anything if there's a need for it. There are some stretches out there specifically for the IT band, see here, but also a good hamstring and butt muscles stretch before your run and at random times during the could help you further loosen up the IT band and avoid extra stress to it.

Like I said, these are things that have helped me get some hope back for the short term and rather quick. Everyone is different so listen to your body. I am going to work on strengthening techniques, that's the best way to alleviate this problem in my humble opinion. If you want some feedback on that, just leave some comments below. Or if you just want to share some extra tips, you are awesome for doing so.