Half Marathon in 2 weeks, possible ITB injury

Hi everyone,

I've been training for a half marathon since the start of the year, having done a few 5 & 10k runs I thought I'd try a half marathon.
Training started in the gym, and I've been steadily building up the distance with a mixture of running on a treadmill and for the last few months road running too.  Everything had been going OK until a few weeks ago.  I finished my usual weekly long run - Sunday mornings, around 10 miles - and I felt fine.  The next day whilst walking to work I jogged ever so slightly over the road to avoid traffic and felt a pretty sharp pain in my left leg, to the lower-outer side of my knee.  It only hurts when I'm running - I can't "recreate" the pain sensation without running.

I googled it first (who wouldn't) and I think it's an IT band injury, I haven't had a chance to see a Doc or a physio about it.
I've rested, I've been icing and stretching it frequently - so after 2 weeks of no running, and only a few k's on a cross trainer which didn't cause any discomfort at all - I decided to attempt a run, I managed to get just over 2.5 miles before the pain came back.

So now I'm really worried - I've put a lot of effort into training for the half marathon, and I've next to no time to resolve this problem before the event. 
I'm going to try and see a physio this week, but was wondering if anyone had any similar experience - or advice?

Russell

Don't want to be a doom merchant, but I buggered my IT band back in February...and I can still only run 5 miles before it starts to niggle. I was told it can be a very slow healing process,  particularly if you want to carry on running while trying to recover...they weren't wrong in my case. Physio didn't work for me, in fact it only aggrevated the problem. I resorted to a podiatrist for a full bio-mechanical assessment and also lots of visits to a specialist sports physio and in the last six weeks I've come on leaps and bounds.

Good luck...hope you find a fast resolution!

 

I'm in the same boat with the Great South Run rapidly approaching. It is getting better, slowly, with rest and physio and limited high impact exercise but I can't run more than 2 miles and am seriously thinking about trying to transfer my place to someone else. I'm seeing the physio again tomorrow. 

I wear kinesiology tape on my knee when running which has allowed me to get from 1 mile to 2.5. I just want to know how long the blighter is going to take to heal.

Hi, I am in exactly the same boat with my HM tomorrow. Training was all going well until 3 weeks ago when ITB kicked in. I rested it for a week and a bit with icing of knee. I have managed to complete a 10k training run in last few days and yes it starts to niggle after 4 miles but is not bad enough to stop me running. From what I have read, it is a very common runners problem and people have success of treating it in various ways. I am sure it will niggle me on my HM but being my first HM I was not going to pull out. Good luck with your HM