Thursday, March 06, 2008

Recovery

Let me just say that it has been a rough few days since the Chilly Half. I have been experiencing some discomfort and tightness in and around my left knee, particularly going up and down stairs. It has definitely eased up since Sunday, but I was relieved to finally see my physiotherapist today.

It turns out that I have a lot of tightness in my IT band, a common ailment among runners. The good news is, it's (usually) quick and easy to treat. We started with heat treatment for 15 minutes, followed by an intense (AND PAINFUL) deep tissue massage that had me on the verge of tears. My PT is also an acupuncturist and suggested the treatment as she has seen excellent results with similar cases, so we gave it a shot. I've never had acupuncture before and expected it to hurt, so I was relieved when I barely felt a pinch and a tingling sensation.

I have a follow up appointment on Tuesday, but in the meantime my homework is:

1) not to run until I have zero discomfort on the stairs
2) various daily stretches for the quad and IT band
3) have Mark use a rolling pin to apply pressure along my outer quad and IT band, essentially rolling it from my hip to the knee

Hopefully we'll have this taken care of in to time, because I'm already itching to hit the streets!

ETA: A lot of people have been asking me, "Was it really worth it?!" The answer is YES!

1 comment:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

sorry to see that you're hurting still too! hopefully your appt will go well on tuesday... i have mine tomorrow, but like you, am still doing stairs one by one, or white-knuckling the railing to help me up.... so it'll likely be a few days until i'm lacing up the shoes too :( take it easy.