A couple weeks back on Monday April 11th I ran 11.34 miles. After my run my left knee felt hot and I couldn't even walk correctly. I was super worried. I iced the area, took ibuprofen and massaged the area. I then cancelled all my Zumba classes for that night and the next morning. Within about 12 hours my knee felt better but the pain on the side of the knee and part way up my leg was horrible. Come to find out my IT band muscle was too tight. I was told by my fitness coordinator at one of the gyms I work at that I should buy a foam roller and use that to loosen up the band of muscle.
So I went to Running Wild and bought one. It helped a ton. I figured I was done being injured. I resumed teaching Zumba on Wednesday of that week and took a week off of running.
On Monday of this week I went out to run 8 miles. I'm tapering in my miles now since my half marathon race is a week from this Saturday. I was 3 miles into my run when the same thing happened to my knee that happened two weeks ago, it felt hot and stiff.
I immediately rolled it out on the foam roller and did IT band stretches and other stretches. I couldn't walk correctly so I didn't run anymore, I went home and iced.
I was super sad and worried.
I had to cancel my Monday Zumba at the VA again and then my Tuesday morning Zumba at North Dodge. I was so upset by this, but knew I needed rest to heal this injury. I began calling every physical therapist in the Iowa City/Coralville area. I wanted to get into somebody immediately. I got super lucky and got into my old physical therapist from years ago when I hurt my back. I got started on some exercises to make my I T Band Muscle stronger and was also given a couple different types of massages of the muscle to help loosen it up.
That was Tuesday and then I went back on Wednesday. I have an appointment every day until I leave for my race next Thursday.
I'm resting for the most part (well as much as a mother of 6 can really rest),icing and doing my exercises. I'm hoping that by a week from Saturday that I'm able to run the entire 13.1 miles since I've trained for that and hope to do that.
I'm bummed to have this bump in the road.
