So I recently had a chat with one of my runners that started with questions about a knee niggle and ended with me raging against the machine.

Ok, yes, I’m mildly over exaggerating.

But story time: I’ve worked with this runner before and he is incredibly dedicated. Eats a casual 20 miles for breakfast. And freaking lightning fast over a marathon distance.

As we dove into this mysterious knee niggle, it sounded an awful like IT band issues.

**induce immediate panic**

Because little did I know, his marathon was in 2 weeks.

So I did a few things:

• Recommended he check out this blog post of mine about IT band exercises (which is what we’re covering this week)

But also...invited him to reframe a few things.

• Don’t let the “diagnosis” win. It’s incredibly easy to get sucked down the google panic rabbit hole of “ITB takes 6 WEEKS TO HEAL!” and it might. For some runners. But it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to the couch for 6 weeks and have to skip your race.

So I pulled out a tactic that I use frequently because of my own laundry list of chronic illnesses. Yes, a formal or even “guessed” diagnosis can feel daunting. But don’t let the name steal your power.

When you have a name, you can create a plan. And when you have a plan, you can act. So get to work. Having next steps can bring you a lot of peace of mind and actively get you OUT of the panic-and-doom loop.

• Taper time is a BUTT. Once I realized his race was soon-soon, I asked the obvious questions “ooohh you’re tapering right now?”. Yeah. That starts to explain things.

We all need that cycle-reminder of your nervous system is mildly on fire for 2 weeks. You’re the living version of the dog in the fire–apartment. Maybe the flames aren’t as high and intense, but your nervous system and body are going to pull some goofy things. And you’re going to feel like you’re injured every other hour.

Some of these aches and pains like IT band stuff may be real, especially if they keep coming back and showing up with specific activities. It’s worthwhile actively addressing them in that case. (wink wink nudge nudge blog post ;)

But it can be equally helpful to address them skeptically: walk it out, stretch it out. And even though this can sound insane, I frequently “talk back” to my body, saying “what ARE you doing? What is this nonsense?” It’s a silly but effective way to challenge the narrative your brain is giving you and it’s sometimes enough to snap you out of that panic-loop.

The point for you:

If you’re either currently building high mileage, coming down from it, or anywhere in between, take the time to check out the two blog posts I've pulled for you this week if you’ve ever experienced or struggled with “outside of your knee” niggles because that’s where IT Band symptoms like to hide.

Because the important part: It’s not necessarily a sign to STOP running.

(here’s where I began raging against the machine).

It can be incredibly easy to get down on yourself once you realize your IT Band niggles happened because of this error you made in strength training or that error you made weeks ago stacking a couple running workouts etc…

Realizing that what you thought was the perfect training plan, was actually a ticking time bomb.

So sometimes I feel mildly violent inside when I see social media posts about workouts or training cycles that can intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate this idea. (this doesn’t mean post your workouts! Please do!)

But it’s a big reason I personally don’t follow a lot of huge “runfleuncers”. Even to a physical therapist, sometimes they don’t feel “real”. Give me the grandma that started running marathons at 75. Show me the 45 year old dad pushing himself to train for ultras. Give me real humans with real human stories who are running to simply be the best person they can be.

Because I can promise you, those humans DON’T have perfect training cycles.

And they’re still accomplishing great things.

So enough my ranty rants, but if you’re a runner with a niggle-knee, go read the blog post here. Get to work strengthening your ITBand (yes, it’s a thing) and maybe take a break from the foam roller. ;)

See you over there,

Dare to Train Differently,

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit

P.S. Yes, this week I'm pulling out 2 IT Band blog posts from the archive because they're incredibly relevant right now, with a lot of runners finding themselves in this pickle. And...the exercises and information are still good. And evidence based. So get to work ;)

Looking for MORE ways to work together?

• ​RUNNING RESCUE CALL: Save your run and your race. Work directly with me 1-on-1 at the first sign of an ache, niggle, or repeat running injury. We'll deep dive into the why behind your injury and create a personalized exercise program that gets you out of pain, keeps you running, and helps prepare you for race day!
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