At the moment I am 40. For most of my life I have been a fan of stretching all the time and swore by it, that I would enforce it when I coached juniors in volleyball. In March last year I visited a sports scientist who offered lynotherapy to treat my ITB issues. I went to her for 6 sessions and now I do my own thing by just following her instructions. She mentioned one thing in particular to me that still boggles my mind. She said 'if you do as I say regarding your homework and pre race prep, you will never have to stretch again'. To date, I still don't stretch, and as some of you know, I recently ran Oceans and I didn't have a single moment in the race where my ITBs were an issue. Foam rolling is not about rolling the ITBs, it's about rolling the muscles around it, never go directly on the ITBs. Personally, extreme gradients of camber affect my injury but I also look for the flattest possible sections to run on. As I start my 2019 Comrades journey, I will do everything possible to prevent injury and I will build mileage slowly to increase my threshold. I firmly believe that I will never be rid of my ITB issues completely but I know that it doesn't have to bother me regardless of the distance that I choose to run.
