Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS): what do we really know?
When the iliotibial band (ITB) goes on stage, it almost always plays the blues. I began running again after 20 years recently. Things were great. My endurance was increasing, and running was starting to become easy. I had increased my mileage each week until I was running about 15 miles. Then, I decided to push for 20. It turned out to be a mistake. About the middle of the week, at around 10-11 miles, I began to feel a little bit of pain in my left knee. It wasn’t too bad, mind you. Just something I noticed as I ran. So, I finished up my run, and within a couple of hours and some time with an ice pack, the pain was completely gone. Still, I decided not to do any training on my bicycle the next day, just in case. The following day was my long run. I began to experience some twinges of pain at about the 3 miles mark, but kept running to complete an 8.6 mile run. When I stopped running, I knew I had real problems. The pain on the outside of my left knee was so severe, it was painful to be
