How to deal with running injuries and avoid them once and for allHey gang, I just wanted to update you with a recent email conversation regarding running injuries that I had by email with one of my weblog readers. Brooke, if you're reading this I hope you don't mind me mentioning our email talk here - I removed your email address. Brooke contacted me the first time at the end of December last year because he had a serious issue with an iliotibial band syndrome that was bothering him already for a longer period of time. On Sat Dec 27 18:16:25 2008, the following results were submitted from the "Feedback" on triathlonadventures.com: ------------------------------ First Name: Brooke Sebastian, I am very excited to hear about your success with the Nike Free shoes. I am curious, have you heard of anyone with IT (illiotibial) band syndrome try the Nike shoes with similar results as yours? I have been dealing with this very annoying, chronic knee injury for several years and am in desperate need to find something to help make it better. My orthopedic was zero help, as well as podiatrist, physical therapy, & chiropractor. I have registered for my first Triathlon and really want to be able to not worry about my knee(s) bothering me. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Brooke I followed up with him on January, 2nd: E-mail Address: info@triathlonadventures.com Hi Brooke, thanks for your message and happy new year. Yes, that is exactly what I was dealing with. It took me about a year to get rid of it. Whenever I thought I had recovered, it started again to cause me trouble.Since it is caused by overtraining first of all you need to drastically reduce your training efforts. I did lots of races with little or no preparation and I tried to push very high intensities in the few training sessions I had before a race. From what I understand you try to keep on with your usual training schedule - don't do that.Get yourself a long rest - talking about weeks or even months. You don't need to stop exercising completely - but cut your training efforts by at least 80-90% !You run a mile or two and then you take a day off. Then run the mile again. Next week you increase slightly by max. 10%. The third week you might pause completely and the fourth week you start where you left off in the second week. Do it as you feel but then a bit less. Mostly we experienced runners tend to do too much.When I did that I felt like I was learning to run again from scratch and that's the right mindset. It takes some guts to go through this but it's definitely worth it. I wouldn't even think about attending a triathlon with this issue. You won't enjoy it. Believe me, it's no fun to break up a competition because the pain is killing you.I had to do this several times until I learned the lesson. Get rid of this nasty thing for good and you will enjoy your future training and races much more.Get one of those Nike frees (take a 4 or even 3) and use them for some of your training sessions, too. First start by walking with them in your living room, then go shopping with them or whatever. Don't run a 10k with them right away. You got to get used to the shoe a bit otherwise you might increase the pain. But once you increase the volume with this shoe your bands become much stronger and likely never will have this issue again as long as you do runs. Hope that helps and feel free to get back to me! BR, ------------------------------ Brooke's reply to me on 4th January: E-mail Address: @yahoo.com Sebastian, Thank you very much for your words of wisdom. I think you are right about overtraining being the root cause. I remember very vividly the day it started. Unfortunately this is not a recent injury. For me it began five years ago. I did take time off, but maybe my error was to stop completely versus cutting back 80-90% as you suggested. I was so mad when I tried to run after several months off and it was still there. The orthopedic surgeon I was dealing with basically said it's chronic and to take up another sport. I wanted to punch him and I'm not a violent person! :) I did purchase a pair of Nike Free's last week and I can feel a major difference. I have noticed different muscles feel sore (not in a bad way) and I think it's because of the effect of the shoes. I have only worn them walking around my house and to run errands. Thank you for the idea....I am hoping this will help. My cousin recommended a doctor (who is also a runner) who specializes in running related injuries. I am making an appt with him soon. I am registered for the triathlon in Sept, but have it in my head that I may have to skip it. I want to still train for it since it gives me a goal to work toward, but I won't overdo it at the expense of my knee, I am all to aware of how the pain just gets worse as you keep training. My focus now is the swim & bike. I am running every other day or every two days depending on how my knees feel. Ok, I've rambled enough. I just wanted to say Thanks for the fast response and the Nike Free suggestion. Happy New Year, Brooke ------------------------------ I got back to him the next day (on 5th January): E-mail Address: info@triathlonadventures.com Hi Brooke, don't punch your orthopedic surgeon but don't listen to him either. ;-) He probably doesn't know better. You can definitely get rid of this and you will. Just run very short distances and always stop before the pain starts. That way you strengthen your bands. Make sure to increase the volumes very moderately as bands take more time to adapt in comparison e.g. to muscles. Take about 6-8 months to get back to your normal distances and volumes.I also did a massage therapy with 10 sessions and electro-therapy (don't know the right word in English) and made sure to stretch the band very well and often after warming up and starting to run (just cross your legs and bend your body to either left or right and you will feel a slight tension between hips and knees). Let me know about your progress! -Sebastian ------------------------------ I didn't hear from Brooke for about two months and then he contacted me again through the submission form on my website:
Datum 10. März 2009 15:54 Sebastian, Thank you very much for you advice earlier this year regarding my IT band issues. I spent the month of January in physical therapy, which went very well. I am gradually making progress with my running/biking. Last week was the first time I was able to run on a track (vs. treadmill) 3 miles without IT band pain. So, hopefully I will be able to finally get past this annoying issue. ... Thanks again, Triathletes are generally not that much effected by running injuries or any kind of muscle / band injuries at all because of the switch in disciplines which puts only moderate and well balanced stress on your body.
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