2.97 miles, 24:26
The iliotibial band. He’s the culprit. Bastard. My coworker Joel pointed it out to me because apparently my googling skills need some work as Iliotibial band syndrome, or ITBS, is a common injury for runners and cyclists. The next day Joel presented me with a foam roller. This apparatus looks like a large whacky noodle only it is firm and good for bonking one about the head. It features a tiny, red sticker on one end that reads, “Perform Better” and has a smiling stick man’s legs in place of the letter Ts. I’d like to be able to perform at all thank you very much.
As you can see from the time and distance the foam roller hasn’t help much yet. Apparently sufferers of ITBS need to be patient. Great. My patience is as underdeveloped
as the muscles in my right knee. There are a host of stretches that I can perform not the least of which is rolling the injured area (my entire left leg) over this foam tube.
The foam roller draws blood to the tissue around the injured area and breaks up scar tissue. Perhaps that explains why it hurts like the dickens (I’ve never understood
that phrase) - or like rolling your sore muscles over rocks. This evil, unpronounceable band of terror hides out on the outside of your leg running from the pelvis all the way down to the knee. It rubs over the femoral condyle near its distal insertion into the knee (or so I’ve read). The problem is stretching and lengthening the band. The general consensus amongst the forums I’ve read is that lower milage and lots of stretching are required. Oh yeah and the problem is frustrating and takes a long time to heal. Great!
Luckily I’ve been distracted for the last week with applying for a new position at work and working diligently on implementing a new web application. Therefore the rest from running for a week has flown by thanks to these other more pressing concerns. However, the irony is not lost on me. I started running again to help deal with stress and now running is stressful. Grrrr. In the future, the one I’ve built in my head, I’ll be able to swap out a malfunctioning leg for a flexible steel replacement. Have an underperforming body part? Swap it out. Just have your socket wrench at the ready. Why do you think they call it a socket wrench?