ITBS - Train or Rest?

It doesnt normally hurt all the time,( but is aching today cuz of the massage) but  It hurts going up & down the stairs & when i walk for a longish, ie when walking my dogs! I did about 10 mins on the treadmill last week & it hurt so i stopped!

I also have been struck down with this.  I thought £45.00 was a lot to see a physio (in comparison to what i earn an hour!), so thought I would give running a rest for 2 weeks and see how i go.

 Now my leg doesnt seem to give me any trouble walking down stairs and feels okay.  Would a little run be in order yet, or should I rest for longer?

 A fizz once told me 10 weeks healing time for an IT band flare up but i am sure there are those that healed quicker and many that took much longer!

 If you do try a run, the key thing is to stop BEFORE you feel any pain. little test runs where you run into the pain is only prolonging the healing process.

Many thanks fikalina - grief 10 weeks,  that would wipe out 2 half marathons i have planned.

There was a good article on ITB's in this months RW (Jan 2009) which gave between 4-24 weeks for recovery depending on the severity. I guess if it's the first time you have had this problem (like me) then you won't know the severity.

I managed to get a race on Sunday and it's the first run for about 3 months without any pain at all. That's not to say I have taken 3 months away from training. I managed to maintain plenty of CV activity and used the time to experiment with various stretching routines. As a result my warm ups are approaching half my time in the gym.

The key for me was stopping running completely (the last 4 weeks) and thats when the improvement started to happen. Prior to that I was doing the odd 20 minute session to see how it felt only to discover that it still hurt.

 I guess the bottom line is that everyone is different in how they heal and also their tolerance to pain so the recovery time is never going to be an exact science.

 Hope this helps