ITBS Recovery Jog: Slowly Away

I did not experience any pain on my ITB tendon for the past two days. I have been doing ITBS stretches and recommended recovery exercises. I even tried the roller foam with a used swimming foam my children had, and it seemed quite effective. The weather was good this evening for a run, after the heavy showers in the afternoon. I decided to do a short, slow jog with Beverly around my estate. My plan was to run till I feel pain in my ITB, and I will stop to walk home.

We started off quite slowly. I did some prior ITB stretches, and did not bring the knee-guard along. We avoided the initial small slopes in the estate, and went straight along Braddel Road (the construction works were still ongoing...shucks!). I was very sentitive to any pain that might come from my ITB. outer left knee. It went well for a while, and I even varied the pace to see if pace will trigger the onset of ITBS. For the first 5km, it was great...no pain at all. While waiting for Beverly at a toilet break, I did some ITB stretches.

After a while into the second part of the journey, about 7km of the run, I felt a very slight numbling effect on the front portion of the left knee. I could also feel a slight tightness in my left ITB tendon, and a slight heat developing in my right ITB tendon. I slowed down the pace slightly, and it did help ease the effects. I then picked up pace at the 8km mark, and finished off the 10km run feeling very good. There was just a very slight numb on the left knee, and I would not even call it pain. I did some ITB stretches and cooled down. I even applied ice-pack to the left knee and ITB tendon for 5mins. It felt good. As I am writing this entry, I feel no pain in my left knee, ITB is ok too. My legs will be taking a good rest till the next run this Sunday, a 22km LSD along Yishun-Seletar Reservoir. I hope to feel even better by then, but will stop the run if my ITBS acts up on me. I am quite happy that my ITB did not flare up today, but I will not be too complacent, and will continue to monitor the situation, plus doing stretches and ITB exercises. I hope this bout of ITBS will leave me for good, and I can look forward to good runs in the next few weeks.