IT Band Biking

The past three days I’ve been taking my workouts to the spin bike. My IT band got a bit angry after my long run on Sunday, so rather than push anything so early in my training cycle, I’m being cautious.

Point blank, my knee hurts when I run, mostly downhills, and I’m not going to run in pain. I love running, but I feel past the point of being silly. I’d rather get this sorted out now than later, no matter how long it takes.
Doing workouts on the bike hasn’t been too bad, especially considering the weather. I’d assume I’d hate it if I was missing beautiful sunshine and 60 degrees, but I’m not. I’m avoiding ice and snow.

It hurts most in the morning, but by late afternoon I can hardly feel it. Each day it seems to get better, so I’ll take that as a sign I’m doing the right things and headed in the right direction. My PT and friend Amanda have given me a lot of stretches to do, which I’ll admit feel nice. However, I’ve developed a love for slow movements, foam rolling and taking my time in the gym this past year.

Biking is definitely a different kind of hard. I don’t get as aerobic or anaerobic I don’t think. I don’t feel like I’m breathing as hard most of the time, and my legs aren’t as trashed impact force wise. However my appetite is still raging and I can feel fatigued during the day as I would after a similar duration of run. It’s just strange not to have that soreness in my feet because there’s been no impact.

To make my run workouts more bike centric, it’s been just stuff I make up and assume is similar. For example, I will go hard for the length of time of the interval prescribed, then easy, then hard again. For hills, I amp up the resistance and then pace my effort according to the workout instructions. It’s been a fun challenge doing this on the bike. My butt doesn’t hurt too much yet.

I’m hoping to be able to elliptical or run soon, but I am also committed to the process of getting my IT band back to where it should be. I am hoping to avoid an actual injury here.
I feel satisfyingly calm about this. About taking this time to rehab and get everything sorted. I think this is because I didn’t do anything silly to cause this. I fell on the AT a few weeks ago on this spot and believe the pain I am experiencing is residual damage that get knocked again when I ran down the hill home too slowly, and therefore with extra impact.

I was not overtrained. I was not doing anything out of the ordinary. It was simply unlucky. My luck will change, I can heal.

Until then, catch you on the bike.