After my second half marathon race in as many weeks, I believe I may have stressed my Illiotibial Band (ITB). It's a tendon that runs the length on the outside of the thigh and connect your hip to your knee. This typically causes knee and hip pain if you strain it, and is a result of possibly running too much, too fast, too many hills, or on a cambered road, running downhill too much, or simply from having a tight ITB to begin with. It can also be caused by leg length differences.
In my case, in may be a combination of all of the above, since during my race on Sunday, I did start off with some knee and hip pain, but then it went away during the race, but then came back on strong after I got home. The race course itself was pretty hilly, I was running beyond my comfort zone to try and reach a PR, I did another race just 2 weeks ago, and I do have leg length issues. When you combine "all" of those into one day, it's no wonder I have issues. Doh!
To alleviate this, I used some ice on Sunday, took Ibuprofen, and have been doing various stretches to help make my ITB more pliable. It seems to be working since I was able to do a 3 mile recovery walk/jog today at the gym, after doing some light non-impact swimming on Monday. The stretches I've been doing involve doing side lunges, step downs, a lying ITB stretch, the piriformis stretch, wall bangers, and a couple of standing ITB stretches, and also using the stick to massage the thigh muscles and ITB crossways (not up and down), and also using a foam roller to roll out any kinks and knots and break down any scar tissue that might be developing there. It all seems to be working OK, so I hope to continue on the path to recovery. I also may start taking a glucosamine supplement, but I'm not sure if there's any scientific evidence that it actually works, but I don't believe there are any serious side effects either.
I have another 5 mile Boystown Fun Run on Memorial Day that I've registed for, to run with a coworker, but I have no intentions of racing it, I just need to run it for fun. My wife and daughter will be doing the 1 mile fun run/walk that day too.
This knee pain sucks though, it's not fun.
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