The IT Bands Have It

I think I have self diagnosed my knee issue that arose last week.  Basically, as a refresher, I felt a little pop & started getting pain as I ran up hills.  I did a pretty exhaustive search online and came up with what I think is my issue... say it with me now kids,

     Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ill-e-o-tib-e-al    ba-n-d    sin-dro-m-e)

In  a nut shell,

ITBS is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial tract (iliotibial band) is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front while walking. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed. 

That according to the experts at Wikipedia.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here ya go!

So, basically, it's a more severe form of Bursitis.  See the bursa that the line is pointing to above.  Well, you have these sacks of fluid where tendon or ligaments can rub against bones.  These sacks of fluid prevent chaffing of the tendons & legaments.  Something happens creating friction on the sack, which in turn causes swelling & inflamation of the bursa, also called, you guessed it, Bursitis.

For those of you who knew me at Korea, I had a bout of Bursitis in the same knee, though it was below the knee where the patellar tendon connects, that had me hobbling around base for a good month.  This one hasn't been as bad.  Not really sure what caused the bout in Korea, but this one I think was either caused by running on the ice, which is a crazy ballet style of running; or by taking the break then jumping back in to it running all out.  Not really sure, but could be both, who knows.

Anywho, I am going to attempt to run again tomorrow and see what it does.  Hopefully I won't be too far set back.