Six easy miles this morning to test the knee again. I ran with a group that included Lee Dibble, who teaches in the physical therapy dept. at the U. We talked about my knee and he looked at it and his spot diagnosis was ITBS. Well, at least I know what I'm dealing with. He thought it was probably a result of skate skiing, which emphasizes hip abduction in a way that is different than running. He thought that probably explained my ankle issues as well, with the pushing motion straining the ligaments. So, I'll hang up the skate skis for a while and get back to skiing downhill! (I sold my tele gear, thinking I would buy a Dynafit setup, but haven't yet; so I'll stick to the resorts for a while). And I'll work on strengthening the hip abductors. The upside is that I had little to no pain in the knee running this morning. I attribute this mostly to the aggressive use of the Quadballer, one of the Paul Peterson recommended TP Massage Products. I have found it much more useful than the foam roller in really isolating, though with great discomfort, the tight parts of the IT band. I may run another mile or two tonight to test it again, we'll see.
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