Detour into My ITBS Journal

So, originally I intended this blog to be about ruminations I have during running--endorphin insights.  Some of that alleged wisdom seems profound when you're on Mile 5, and less so by the time you get home and showered off.  It's like that late night scrawl you made on a scrap of paper just before passing out. In the cold light of the next morning, you're trying to link together Jacques Derrida, gymboree, and "hotdgggs."

Anyway, I have a bunch of these stored up insights that will eventually be released upon the world, for better or for worse, but in the meantime, in recent months I've come down with a bad case of the ITBs -- Iliotibial Band Syndrome.  This limits my running to one pain-free mile and then as much as I can take before the daggers at the knee do me in, usually after two more miles.

So for now, this blog is swerving into "My ITB Journal."  I've spared all of my non-readers with what I've discovered by playing Dr. Internet to date.  (Some guidance says rest; some says run as long as it doesn't affect the gait.)  In recent weeks, I've done foam rolling of the IT Band, the pigeon pose (love her accent on this video), and other stretches.

Now, I'm told -- and I've been seeing this more and more -- that foam rolling the IT band is wasting time.  It won't stretch...it's like rolling a rubber band.  Now I need to work on hip abductors.  Off to research that.  Starting points:

Here and here. Source of links:  Mark J. Pitcher.

But above it all, the frustrating thing is whatever effort you put into it, the payoff won't come for several weeks, and in the meantime, it's a lot of work, and sometimes pain, with a hefty pile of uncertainty in the balance.

Photo credit:  MOMSteam.com

PS.  Just went to that site looking for a photo, but it seems they have good resources on this topic too.  I'm off!