No, not that kind of ITBS!!! It seems that I have recently experienced my first bout of Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS). (I’ve been dealing with the IT BS in the picture for years.) A few weeks ago on some of my longer runs, I noticed a “twinge” on the outside of my left knee. This is my “good” knee, as in not the one with a surgically repaired ACL. The few times it happened, I wrapped up my run at that point, stretched it out and called it a day - with no lingering effects (thankful that the few times it did happen, I was on a treadmill and could just stop without worrying about getting back home). Yesterday evening, I was near the end of a 10-miler, not on a treadmill, and it resurfaced. I stopped to walk, did a couple quick stretches, and resumed running. It would reappear shortly afterwards, so after trying the walk-run thing a few times, I caved in and walked the last .25 miles home - glad that it had waited until the end of this run when I was quite close to home.
This is a new one for me - and I’ve got a lot of learning to do to figure out how best to heal and prevent it from reoccuring, but I’ve found a TON of information on this since it appears to be one of the most common running injuries out there. So, why me, and why now. There are many thoughts on why this occurs, one of them being related to weight lifting, and muscle imbalance. Since I’ve been running for quite some time without suffering this sort of injury, I’m inclined to think that it has to do with my new strenght training - since the symptoms started around the same time as some of my new lower body workouts. Time now to talk with the trainers on some specific exercises and stretches, and talk with my Dr. that I am scheduled to see on the 29th anyway. The really good news is that I’ve caught this thing quite early, so I’m hopeful that I can deal with it without missing a ton of the training season. The bad news is that cycling isn’t recommended, so I may pass on the Tour de Cure this year - given my lack of training recently on the bike, it’s probably not a bad thing anyway. Will post when I have more info to share on this one.
So, the pump funny… Well, last Tuesday my sister was over, and as you know she uses the Paradigm Pump and CGMS just as I do. Usually one of our pumps will start the chirping, and we both reach to see who’s it is. This night I heard the beep beep beep of a Low Reservoir Alert, but instead of reaching for my pump I proclaimed, “Your pump speaks Texan!” You see, the pump doesn’t let you adjust volume for the beeps, just length, and my sister set hers to the medium length, where mine is set to the short length. So, while the chirps were recognizable, they seemed to come out with a bit of southern drawl to them. Anyway - I guess this joke is sort of like a VW commercial - “own one and you’ll understand.” But at least now we know who’s pump is lipping off!
Final thought - I haven’t abandoned the post-run BG spike topic - I’ve just been doing a bit more research, including adjusting my basals to test my theory. Hope to get back to that in the next week or so.
Full of IT, BS, and now ITBS,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner
1 person has commented on this post
So far, I have been lucky, or I have been doing things correctly. No pains. I have a half-marathon in less than a month and I don’t want it to happen.
I do always carry, some money (2 quarters and some dollar bills)and my cell phone; just incase I may need some help. I also have my RoadID on my shoe laces also.
Did you set the 2 monitors that way just beepcause?