Alternative title; A Handful of Halfs! Neither of which are great but it’s been a long week! So after last Sunday’s disappointing run I took Monday off and iced, stretched and rolled my legs. Tuesday I hit the streets on my bike for a reasonably easy 30 mile ride, later in the day while on Twitter I saw a post referring to KT Tape, I followed the post, checked out who they are and before I knew it I was in Sports Authority purchasing two rolls, what the hell I thought! I tweeted thm on Twitter and they sent me instructions on how to tape my ITB by email.I’ve taped in the past on the suggestion of my physio therapist but with medical bandage and not with sports specific tape. Wednesday morning I was on the West side of LA (by the beaches) and I had thrown my running kit in the car to see if the tape would hold up; that is prevent the pain. I followed the instructions in the box and actually taped for Runners Knee not ITB and set off, a little over two hours later I was back with 14.5 miles on my Forerunner and no pain…ok I thought, let’s see;
* Thursday 13 miles in 1:59, pain free; felt a bit tired and under fueled
* Friday 13.1 miles in 1:46, pain free; felt great and just enjoyed the run
* Saturday 13.1 miles in 1:56, pain free; another good run, deliberately at a slower pace
That’s 54 miles in 4 days and a smidge over 74 miles for the week, my second highest week ever! OK so now I am convinced!
The tape is really easy to apply although guys may want to consider getting the razor out for a cleaner “sticking” area. The packaging says it will last up to 5 days; mine is pretty shot after 4 days (6 showers, 8 foam rolling sessions and 6 stretching sessions) it comes in four colors and more are on the way and it’s pre-measured so you don’t need scissors. They have videos on their website on how to apply it and oh yeah and it looks pretty cool as well!Quite possibly the cheapest thing you may ever buy for running at $12.99 a roll you can get it from Sports Authority or click on the Amazon Widget to the right, below my race reports and order yourself some!!
Cool blue tape!!! Great job on the running...
ReplyDeleteWow great review stuart and glad it worked out so well for you! I have yet to try it but might try it for my shins. We shall see. Glad you are back on track and what great mileage you put in! glad you were pain free, nice work!
ReplyDeleteYou have me totally intrigued. Will give it a shot if my shin ever totally combusts again!
ReplyDeleteYay for pain free. BOOOOO for Sports Authorithy!
ReplyDeleteOK, I think I'm sold. I've been thinking about taping for a while now. I need to just do it!
ReplyDeleteyou are the review master! Now this is a cheap fix for a problem that effects us all at some point.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the outcome others would have on the same product test.
nice review! glad it worked for you. i'm not surprised it didn't last the full 5 days for you with all the running you do, not a big deal to just re-tape though i'm sure. hopefully i won't ever NEED this but should the need arise i'll definitely have to check it out.
ReplyDeletelol at the shaving comment.. makes it easier to rip off too! Jay didn't appreciate me too much when he had gotten taped at the PT's office for a hamstring injury before shaving, and had me take it off a few days later. :/ Glad it's working so well for you!! Fantastic! Maybe if I taped myself up completely I could finally have a pain-free run! :D
ReplyDeleteglad it's working out so well for you! I've been tempted to try it before when I was having major ITB issues, but thankfully it has been behaving lately.
ReplyDeleteHang in there. Hope to see that tape disappear soon.
ReplyDelete