I'm a fairly active runner, who seems to succumb to a bi-yearly injury. Since I was healthy all last year, this was the year to go down. To make a long story short, I was (over)training for the Portland Marathon that was on 10/3/2004. I never made it.
Somewhere along the way, a few of us decided to pump up our weekend training mileage. (We had done Phoenix Rock n Roll in January and wanted to do 3 20-milers instead of 2). The 16 week schedule had us ramping up fairly quickly, which I thought would be ok. At the end of Week 6, I did a 18 mile run at Crystal Springs and felt fantastic. I remember telling my wife, "I've never felt better". Probably jinxed myself...Anyway, after our first 20 mile run, I was tired, but more than able to complete the run. Later that evening, I felt an odd pain on the outside of my knee when going down some stairs. Not thinking much about it, I attempted my next run (18 miles) and was unable to go past mile 3. Ice and Advil seemed to help, but I was not able to do anything. After a trip to Tahoe for the week, I sought some professional help.A friend recommended the newly renamed Stanford Medical Institute. An initial consult found that indeed I had a major case of ITBS. I immediately began a twice-a-week course of therapy, combined with twice-a-day therapy at home. The therapy was very very painful at the beginning, as my glutes/quads/<em>Tensor Fasciae Latae</em> were a trainwreck.
If this sounds like something you are suffering from, I highly recommend pursuing at least the foam roller treatment documented in this PDF It looks a little strange, but is very effective.Twelve weeks later, I am doing a "long run" of 3 miles. The ITBS has lessened quite a bit, but hasn't left me just yet. Update: Fixed broken link to the .pdf