IT band update

After riding the all too ridiculous injury roller coaster for the last three weeks I figured I need to get a handle on what the hell is going on in my left knee so that I can finally heal up proper.

Last Friday I got a MRI and today I saw my doctor Neil Roberts to discuss the scan. Here is what he said.

• My problem most definitely is IT band inflammation, that was vividly evident on the images.
• Since I have obviously been re-aggravating my IT band over and over it was time for a reset.
• I got another cortisone shot in the bursa of my left knee.
• Neil also prescribed some topical anti-inflammatory cream.
• I'm supposed to rest for one week.
• Then I can do some light cross training for the next week. In this case 'cross training' means anything that does not bend my knee too much like walking, cycling, weights without the full range of motion, elliptical trainer, swimming, etc.
• After these two weeks I can finally start to run again. Slowly.

On the one hand it's a huge relief to know what is wrong and what I need to do and on the other it's pretty frustrating to have this almost four week delay in my recovery. Especially since it's essentially my fault.

I was still kind of holding out hope to run some races this year but now it appears I will not have any fitness until 2014. So what's my next goal? The Orcas Island 50k next year. It's perhaps ironic that this event is what put me out of action this year and started the (what seems like endless) series of recoveries from injuries. Here's to running this event healthy!

The moral of this story is address shit as it comes up and don't delay.