I just started running in 2012 so by all means take what I say with a grain of salt, I am a Noob.  But last week I had to make the difficult decision to DNS a 10K race I was really looking forward to due to ITB issues, and the decision was reached through advice from people in this forum, "real life" friends who run, and friends who are physical therapists. I sacrificed the race for the bigger picture of what I wanted out of 2013. I had already been sidelined most of January, and I didn't want to lose February too, as that would REALLY set back spring racing season. So I benched myself. It SUCKED but I honestly think itwas the right decision for me.  I've had a lot of time off (3 weeks straight of no running at all, and only 2 runs of 1.5 miles since the end of December) and in this time I've really worked on A) healing the injury and B) preventing it from coming back. For me, that has involved doctor visits, icing, foam rolling, cardio crosstraining on the elliptical and bike, lots of hip, core and leg strengthening exercises, fixing my form, and getting fitted for new shoes. And not running for awhile whole I did all these things. Once again, I am a noob, and different things work for different people, but I'm glad I DNSed last Saturday's race. Wasn't worth making thibgs worse possibly.

Heh.  I thought I was the only person naiive (or dumb) enough to think that Nike Shox were running shoes.  

In the defense of the n00b movement, it is marketed as a running shoe, and along with the Air Max, is located in the running shoe section of most stores.

The simple fact is, Nike may be responsible for more running injuries than all of the cambered roads in America put together!

My saving grace was that I had a background in fitness and thus was aware of things that just didn't seem right.  So I went from Shox, to Air Max (you're kidding me right?  Nope!), to the Lunarfly 2 to ultimately the Lunarglide 3 in relatively short order for a rookie, four months.

The only time I did not run during that span, was between the Lunarfly to Lunarglide transition due to ITBS.

I've been fighting tremendous frustration lately. It's difficult to "accept" an injury/chronic pain, is it not? I have the Davis Stampede Half this Sunday. I will finish. My "ultimate goal" is to hit a sub 2 hour goal. My last half in December was 2:14 and I could have made it then had I not been met with hip/knee pain in the latter half forcing me to walk about 3 of the miles.

 

I'm a pretty driven person and I know that my legs and my lungs can certainly meet that goal...But lately it's been either my damn hip or knee that begins to give me grief at 6 plus miles. 10K? No prob...Did that in 56 minutes and felt good. This last Monday I made it to 6 miles and I then experiencing shooting pain through my left knee...I backed off and walked another quarter and stopped. I haven't run since and I feel good right now. It's my hope that the rest will make me strong and healthy for my half this Sunday.

 

Has anyone else had to "rest" for a number of days prior to a HM? Please tell me you have and you did well. I need some reassurance that I'm doing the right thing by resting/recovering prior to my half.

 

I would like to hit my goal, but as long as I can beat my previous time...I'll be happy.

At this point, I wouldn't be concerned about not running this week.  I don't really think it will affect you on Sunday - in fact, the two occasions where I have taken most of the week before a HM off (bad cold, and stupidity-induced tendinitis that I just needed to baby back to normal), , I have run really well.

I would recommend going to a doc - if you had knee/hip pain in your last race, and now the IT band is acting up, there might be some weaknesses that are putting a lot of stress on your IT band.  I know I'm a twisted mess, and I finally just went to a PT today because whenever I really start to push myself on my training, the IT band starts to go.

If you want to run the race, I'd try a short run beforehand - the IT band can be a fickle thing.  I don't find that I have trouble doing day to day activities with ITBS, but running puts so much more force on it that it is a different beast.  It's better to find out a mile or two into an easy run that it's still bugging you, than it would be to find out a mile or two into a race.

Dave, I'm in a similar situation.  I have PF and it hasn't been real bad since the peak, but it's still hanging around.  I can feel "something" when I run, but it's not real "pain".  If it got worse, I would just throttle back everything and run my upcoming HM real easy.  If it was too bad, I would DNS the race for the long term benefit.  I'd rather eat 45 bucks than do something to put me on the sidelines for several weeks.

Without repeating what's already been said, I'll add another recommendation for seeing a PT if you can. I had to go to an orthopedic doctor for a diagnosis and prescription for PT so my insurance would cover it. They've been a godsend, my leg issues were caused by a weak hip and they've been giving me specific strengthening exercises to fix it. I was off for just over 4 weeks and have been slowly easing back into a routine over the last couple weeks with no recurrence of pain.

I'm glad your run went well Mr. Dave.  I don't know if you're interested, but there's a sub 2:00 HM thread in the racing forum.

Ok, my mileage has been crap the past 2-3 weeks because of intense things going on in my life, so take this as my objective opinion and ignore the source.

I think you are getting injured because you don't train enough mileage. Looking at your log, you're running 20ish mpw, and your long runs are not very long.

You're a big strong guy and for 52 or for any age you're in great shape. But as far as long distance running, I think you should be doing at least 35 mpw if you're going to run halfs and don't want to get injured. Optimally, you should be doing a long run of 12-14 miles at least once a week.

Now at this point, since you are having problems after 6 miles, the above mileage is not within your current capability. So you need to slow down and run as easy and slowly as you have to to build your mileage up. Go from 20ish mpw to 35+mpw over a period of at least 3 months, using some x% "rule" that you need to figure out.

The other thing is i think you should forget all that hill and power stuff for now, and just concentrate on long slow easy runs on flattish ground.

Because it may be the case that you have great cardio, big muscles, BUT an underdeveloped tendon and connective tissue infra structure, hence the pain and the injuries.

And I totally agree with those who are urging you to DNF this weekend.

I think you need to not race for a little while and reassess your  training. Otherwise, from one old guy to another, it sounds like you're heading towards a very real possibility of serious injury.

PS: I'm not a veteran runner, at this stage i would consider myself a journeyman, so my 2 cents is exactly that. I'm just giving you basically what I would do i were you, and where you seem to be at this point.