IT Band

No it’s not the name of a new band full if IT guys. In fact I had no idea what it was until Saturday.

Last week my knee started hurting after my runs. I didn’t think anything of it because it was usually gone the next day. ON Saturday I did almost 16 miles outdoors. It was a lot of fun. My knee hurt at the start and I only had to take two “twosie” breaks while running. Here’s my route.


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I got home and then my knee started tightening up and I couldn’t walk very well the rest of the day. I had to sit in a confined area most of the day as well and that didn’t help. I described what I was feeling and my wife (who had this happen to her as well two years ago) informed me that it was my IT Band that was hurting.

Looking over the symptoms and the pain I’ve been feeling, she was right. This hit me very hard. I had to stop running (two weeks before my half marathon) and I had to stretch and ice the sucker every night.

Monday’s workout was the usual and then I learned I cannot do squats or any leg exercises either. So I’m now confined to do some swimming for my cardio and just upper body for my off days.

Tuesday is usually a 10 mile jog day and I had to say, “No.” I swam and tried the arm bike but I knew I wasn’t burning the calories that I usually do. Usually I burn at least 1600 calories on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. I was a little discouraged. Swimming for a half hour is only 500.

So I’ve been a little down today. Then I watched the second to last episode of the Biggest Loser and saw what these guys lost on their last week on campus. Good heavens! Not one lost less than 6% for the week. That’s amazing. I wasn’t pumped before but now I’m going to redouble my efforts and try and get to 200 by the end of May.