Physical Therapy Round 3...San Fran here I come!!

Good news!  Yesterday at PT I was able to run pain free with a taped knee!  Ok, so it was only 8 minutes (compared to 13 miles on Sunday!), but the taping really helped!


After the normal heating and stretching, my therapist and I conducted a before taping and after taping experiment.  I warmed up with a walk, then ran on the treadmill sans tape.  My muscles felt pretty tight, but my knee/IT band felt OK…until 3 minutes when I started to ache.  Then after 4 minutes of running I started to really hurt.  5 minutes and I was done.  One of the other physical therapists is apparently a Bad-A$$ when it comes to PT and taping, having traveled with the US Olympic team to Beijing in 2008.  His resume goes on.  


Anyways, he brought over several kinds of tape and started with the most simple wrap job keeping in mind that I would be wrapping myself on Sunday for the San Francisco half.  If that didn’t work, he would try something else.  He took a roll of the foam pre-wrap and started wrapping just above my knee to about halfway up my thigh, back down and back up until there was a good amount on my leg.

He wrapped it like a compression sleeve, so that it was tight but not cutting off blood flow. After having it wrapped on my leg, he rolled it down from the top to where the tape ended just above my knee.

How’s that for an instant ITB compression band!

I got up off the table and already my leg felt light and airy, even bouncy!  I hopped on the treadmill and to my utter happiness I felt great!  The band was a little tight at first but after 30 second of running my muscles relaxed and it felt great.  Now, I’m no PT, but basically what this band did was put pressure on the IT band so that it doesn’t rub over my knee creating the pain (or something to that effect).  It’s like those patella tendon straps but above the knee…an IT band compression wrap.  It’s basically a makeshift one of these and it worked beautifully!  I only ran 8 or so minutes, so we will see how it plays out on Sunday.  But I’m optimistic!  


Speaking of which, I need to pack!  I have my list written out, but I should get on the packing part.  My bro and I fly out tomorrow!  My best friend Lisa and her hubby are driving up Saturday and my bf will meet us Saturday too!  San Francisco here we come!



xoxo