Recovery Attempts from ITBS (Part 2)

It’s been more than 7 months since my last race, which was the 21km race of the New Balance Power Run last November 29, 2009. After one particular long run in December that year, I felt a pain on the side of my right knee so I decided to rest and ice my knee. But then, every time I would try to run again, I would feel the same pain whenever I would reach around 2km into my run. I remember researching my condition, which a check up with a Orthopedic Surgeon confirmed to be Iliotibial Band Syndrome.

Aside from the frustration of not being able to run, one side effect of my injury was a fear that if I were to try and run again, the pain would come back and I would realize that all my treatments were in vain. But that visit to the doctor gave me hope because although at first he was a bit discouraging, he gave me practical advice. And so I began to train again, albeit at a much, much slower pace with the help of a Cho Pat ITB Strap, an LP patella strap, some prescription muscle relaxants, new shoes (neutral cushioning), foam roller massages and a lot of stretching.

I occasionally test my knee sometimes when I go up and down steps to see if I feel anything. So far, the knee seems to be fine. I hope this continues on until I can get back to the 21km race distances that give me so much sense of fulfillment. But for now, it’ll probably be by increments of 5 minutes weekly.

I started out with a 5 minute run three times a week. With no signs of pain, I moved it up to 10 minutes on the second week. On my third week, I moved up again to 15 minutes. This was my plan: to increase my running time by 5 minutes every week. So far, it’s been working. I’ve been able to build my time up to around 35 minutes with no sign of the pain I used to feel.

Robinsons Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run 2010

The Robinsons Fit & Fun Wellness Buddy Run 2010 was a fun race. Being a company sponsored race, there were many officemates in the race. It was also different from the other races because it required finishing the race together with your buddy.

While running the race, I noticed runner couples holding hands and some even running with their arms around the back of their buddies. There were some encouraging others to keep running and others who had to walk on account of their partners. Some were patient and others not so.

Being a buddy run, a participant had to pay attention to his or her own body and be sensitive to the needs of his/her buddy. Needless to say, one needs to communicate to the other if the pace they set for themselves was too fast, too slow or just right.

My buddy and I agreed before the race that the goal was just to have fun and finish the race with a good time so our finish time was secondary to the overall experience of running the race. Nevertheless, our competitive nature was what kept us moving. We finished with an official time of 34:36.

On the lighter side of the race, my buddy and I thought of decorating our singlets for the fun of it. As we were Team Waka Waka (from the Pacman game), we thought of putting Pacman designs on the back of our singlets. My buddy took this seriously and took care of the designs. Lo and behold, at the end of the race, we were awarded the Most Dynamic Pair Award entitling us to some freebie products from our group’s business units. I posted some pictures showing off our designs below if you want an idea of what my buddy did.

One last item about the race was that this was my first race for 2010 and my first 5km race since I started running as a sport. I think this race was significant because my performance in this race showed that I can start building up my running distance again.