ITB Injury - Rehab day 7

Pain now gone. Stairs can be descended without any issue. Step 1 (Complete) Step 2 underway, muscle strengthening - following paperwork received. Will go with this for a week as documented then review.

ITB Injury Rehab - day 5

Doctor has confirmed, high probability of injury being ITB. Checked out my range of movement, tension and points of pain. Good news is that stretching is not needed, it will not help me as my ITB is already relaxed. He also didn't think that physio would do much good either. Possibly later on if things don't improve. Muscle density around the area was looked at and it was observed that my quads could be improved around the knee, so i've been given a set of strengthening exercises to get me under way. Estimation of 5-8 weeks for a recovery (give or take). The pain today is broadly gone but i'm still going easy on stair descents. Start simple exercises tomorrow, schedule is 3 times a day, but to go easy for the first 1 - 2 weeks. Certainly feel like i've got a plan underway.

ITB Injury Rehab, day 4

Day 4 I hear you cry, yes that's correct. The latest: after 5 weeks of recovery I went out for a gentle cycle ride, just to go from a to b and back. The total distance was about 8 miles but it was just a really easy cruise. On the return leg I could feel a slight ITB aggrevation so took it even easier. Ice and compression when at home. The following day I stood up from my desk and without any warning I thought someone had stuck a knife in the side of my knee. Goodness knows what has happened this time. So clearly I have a new injury, but this time i'm not just going to wait for it to recover. This is not acceptable, so i'm going to actively try and get it better. This includes finding the underlying cause. Days 1, 2 and 3 have consisted of the usual assistance, Ice Rest, Compression and Elevation. Additionally, to help with over-pronation i've added orthotic sports insoles to my shoes. I've invested in a foam roller to use on my ITB in the abscence of a physio or a sports massage. (http://www.tptherapy.com/smrt-core.php) I have a doctors appointment tomorrow to consult the (supposed) expert, with a view to getting a phsio referral. I've added further ITB stretches into my daily program and as soon as the pain has completely gone when walking down stairs then i'll go back to the added strengthening exercises that I had recently started. Once I can run a little way, even if it's 100-200m then i'll either get a video done and send it off for gait analysis or go directly to a sports clinic and do the same. Have i missed anything?

How long to recover from injury?

After weeks (about 5) i'm still working on getting my leg back together so that I can run again. A gentle trial run of 3 miles (3 weeks ago) proved that the healing process was nowhere near complete. I stopped at 2.5 and and nursed myself back home. It's difficult to know how to progress from here. So for the record, i'm doing regular 1 mile runs. 3 maybe 4 a week. At some point, hopefully, when I can go 1 mile without thinking to much about any unwanted sensation from my knee then i'll move it up a little bit. Maybe 1.5 miles. Today I think I hit the 1 mile mark without much discomfort, so i'll try a couple more times and progress from there. I'm also interested in the article in Runner's World about elite sports people recovering from injury and how much simpler it is for them. Need to go and find the magazine though.