Hi Hector. As you know I’ve increased my running a lot (for me, anyway), and while I had been able to get 3 sometimes 4 runs in per week for a few weeks in a row (reaching about 25 miles a week, with a combo of some speed work and longer runs of about 7 miles) I was noticing soreness and some pain on the outside of one of my hips. Noticing that, I tried to be somewhat proactive and put ice packs on the area, either after running, or on a day when I was planning to run while I was at work. Well, my efforts to minimize it have failed: last night I tried to go for a run and got about .8 miles into it before I was feeling excruciating pain in that area which I guess is where the IT band and the TFL are connected and overlap. What course of action do you suggest I follow to resolve this pain? I hope I haven’t torn something. It doesn’t feel so bad that I feel like I can’t swim — I plan to swim today — but I don‘t think I can/should run again until I get the pain in the area to subside. -Tony
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It looks like an overuse injury, I would definitely stop running until symptoms subside, focus on ITB/TFl gentle stretches and gentle release (roll), ice is good initially and when pain decreases heat early in the day and Ice towards the end of the day. It could also be Glut Med tendonitis due to overuse, if it's that, same approach and the stretch is almost the same. Anti-inflammatory could help if do not have medication allergy.
A sudden increase in running volume, especially with speed/high intensity work, could lead to overuse and pain. When we are somehow less active, we are not activating the muscles we use for running. It's always advisable to focus first on your basic abilities before you increase volume, and one of those abilities is specific discipline muscle strength. When you increase running volume without a proper muscle activation (strengthening gives you that) you expose yourself to injury. Is important to have very strong core, Glut max and Glut Med. You do specific strengthening routine and also train them as a synergy (activating them together).
Form, Technique and range of motion are also important. Once those muscles become stronger and you are aware (sense your joint position, body position and center of mass) that with a proper technique you are actually activating them, no you have to build Muscle Endurance, which means that you can keep that technique/form for longer distances to be efficient and prevent injuries.
My advice is once symptoms are gone, to add a strengthening routine during the week, decrease the overall running volume, keep one short high intensity interval training, one longer run at lower intensity and stop when you lose the technique/form. Make sure you rest in between workouts, full recovery. You build the volume as you manage technique/running form and symptoms.
I hope that helps!!
Hector Cabezas.