My IT Band

I mentioned earlier that the outside of my knee had been hurting recently, so I decided to take the week off from running. Instead, I used the weights and elliptical at the RB and swam laps in the RB pool. (I tried to use the bike in the RB, but it was broken.)

Despite all of my efforts to rest and heal my knee, it was still hurting significantly on Tuesday night.....then everything changed when I went swimming on Wednesday evening.

I was a little nervous going swimming by myself, and possibly having to share a lane with a faster, stronger swimmer. I was also going to try to swim half a mile (30 lengths) of the pool with little or no resting. I could feel the tenderness of my knee as I swam the freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and side stroke, but the water felt so good. My knee didn't inhibit me at all. And when I got out of the pool my knee felt considerably better. It is actually ridiculous how much swimming healed my knee. (It was like windex on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"...magic!)

While my knee feels considerably better (it doesn't hurt when I walk or go down stairs), I am still going to take it easy this weekend and will probably go swimming once more before I run again.

Hooray!

(Btw, the part of my knee that is sore is called my IT band and many people that I have talked to have injured it at some point in their life. Now, everyday, my IT band is getting stronger. It's wonderful.)