[Peter W]

Hi,

So over the past year or so I’ve been running between 20-35 miles a week, quite enjoying developing a better cardio base and spending more time outside. Most of this has been on trails or packed gravel.

Since going into stay-at-home mode 3 weeks ago I’ve been trying to maintain this. But my work from home set-up is much less ergonomic than my regular office place (lower monitors and a worse chair). Since then most of my running has been taking place on a nearby paved path; I’ve kepy my running volume fairly constant but have been doing more core work and replaced some of my climbing volume with hangboarding.

Yesterday I noticed some quite mild but fairly typical sounding ITBS in my left knee. I then thought about it and this path has a fairly constant tilt to one side of about 2-4 degrees which I know can lead to issues (there are some nearby but less convenient gravel paths I could switch to). I’m wondering if the change in running surface + worse daily sitting situation could have led to my ITBS or if its a “true” over-training situation?

Thanks for the help. Any recommendations/tips would be much appreciated. I’m sure a lot of us are going through some similar things at the moment.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on April 2, 2020 at 1:51 pm #40085

I’m wondering if the change in running surface + worse daily sitting situation could have led to my ITBS or if its a “true” over-training situation?

It sounds like both.

I have the same issues if I take a lot of time off. I have to be careful when I start back up because too much too soon leads to problems. I also have a very low tolerance (both physically and mentally) for road running. I think it’s because it’s so repetitive, and I came to running quite late.

To counteract the tightening tissue, check out the Starrett book, Becoming a Supple Leopard. There are lots of painful-but-beneficial exercises in it that will probably solve/reveal any issues.

[Peter W]

Peter W on April 3, 2020 at 1:23 pm #40135

Thanks Scott. I’ve been struggling to sort of out the causes when there’s some many things changing right now.

Fair point on thinking about total leg/core volume not just miles run which has definitely increased as my other pre-Covid volume outside running/hiking was climbing.

I watched a bunch of Kelly’s videos on hip tightness and ITBS; all the stretching and foam rolling does seem to be making a difference. The 10min low squat test was eye opening because I used to be able to do that easily and struggled to get 3 minutes yesterday. I’m also going to ditch the asphalt as it seems to, at minimum, not be making things better.