It all started out on Tuesday
November 18th, 2014, when I was running for the first day back from
a two-week break after the horrifically ended cross country season. My right iliotibial band decided to flare up
in pain and after 8 months of little to no running, and about 15 methods/attempts
of rehabilitation, I’ve made a whopping 0% recovery towards running full tilt
again.
These
past 8 months have been extremely frustrating because something that I love
tremendously has been taken away from me for a reason I can’t fathom. In addition, the constant pondering on if
it’s better or not, and the anger resulting after every failed attempt have
generally turned me into something I never thought I’d be. I’ve turned from
someone who brings light into the room, into someone who sucks it out and
leaves it in darkness. Before coming to
this realization, I felt worse that being stuck in tunnel with no light at the
end, atleast they can walk towards the
end of it. I felt as if I was dropped in
30 000 ft deep dark well without any ladder to bring me up into the light,
absolutely no hope.
I’ve
changed my outlook this injury and have realized that running is not what
defines me, as I’ve been told by friends and family time after time. It’s a big part of me, but it isn’t me, and
realistically, 99% of the people you become close to in life won’t give a darn
about whether your 3k PB is 8:57, or 9:57, they give a darn about your
character, and how you look at the world.
Trying to come baack over and over again and getting
denied repeatedly has taken such a mental toll on me that decided to give up on
the strength, stretching and foam rolling mumbo jumbo and just let it heal on
it’s own bidding rather than me banking on it being better tomorrow or next
month ect.
In doing this you can learn to see the joy in other
things in life such as family, friends, biking long distances and Phil
Collins. I could also be speeding up the
healing since so many people say that being in a happy mindset helps recovery…
who knows? Crazier things have happened
right?
I find my situation comparable to Tom Hanks in
Castaway. Right after being stranded he
was at the end of the beach waiting for rescue as I was trying to run every
week in hopes of being better. Neither
of us benefitted. When Mr Hanks realized
that this was getting him nowhere and he decided to make due with what he had,
by spending his time doing things that would actually benefit him such as
building shelter, learning how to fish, and becoming BFF”s with that volleyball,
Wilson.
Although my situation is not life or death, it is similar
because I’ve realized that the time I’ve spent trying to get better has been a
complete waste of time since I’ve had no success with it AT ALL. So I’ve started spending my time doing things
I enjoy without worrying about this stupid IT band. In summary I’m not giving up on running, but
I’m not going to put my life on hold and try to get better, because it’s just
not practical anymore.
I don’t blog so this is probably my first and last post,
but I just felt like venting.
-Stu-Ped
Stu, maybe you remember me from the recruit weekend up at X some time ago. Really sorry to hear about your struggles with IT band. I come bearing good news however- (I truly believe) there is a magic solution that gets rid of this thing for good. Foam rolling, stretching, icing, physio, I did all that stuff and it was never effective. To be quite frank I’m skeptic as to whether any of it does anything for the stiff band that is the IT. The only thing that worked for me and continues to keep me completely injury free is changing your form. In my mind its the only option for guys like us susceptible to that evil pain on the outside of the knee. When you switch from running on your heels to running up on the balls of your feet I think you’ll begin to feel right away that the pain seems to be dull or even non existent. I found that after I switched there was still some mild pain but stuff that I could run through and that would eventually go away. Best advice is not to overthink the change in form. Running on the balls of your feet is just the same as running like you would without shoes on. Hate to be the young buck telling the experienced guy what to do but I really do think this will change things for you. Best of luck, hope this helps man. See you in the fall!
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