Stupid iliotibial band

I've got pain on the outer side of my left knee again.  It's been years, 2.5 years.  The round spongy cylinder is down from the rafters, and I can feel the stress all the way up the side of my leg into my hip.  Now I'm left to ponder whether walking less this year has contributed to it flaring up (took almost 2000 miles of bicycling, so I'm surprised it appeared when I was pedaling slightly less).  Might require a trip to the physical therapist to see what I can do to head it off.  My sister assures me the cylinder helps and, if I'm crying, I'm probably doing it right.

I see I should be focusing on rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories as well and some recommendations to improve the hip strength (an issue for me given the fractures) and talk to the therapist if I have an anomaly...like a short leg because of a fractured hip.

Here's a guy working a foam roller:

And here are two guys working their physical therapy magic on someone else:

IT Band

Sounds like I'm forming a band for developers.  Larry, did your wife get one of these for her IT band issue?  The first time (hopefully the only time, your comment made me very nervous) I had an issue, they recommended a roller.  The appropriate process is to sort of lay on it with the affected "leg" and then roll back and forth.  You know you're doing it right when actual tears start to flow.  Not out of your leg.  The normal way, tears of pain from your eyes.  And I don't say that meaning "until it feels like you'll cry", I will admit to actual shedding of tears.  Hurts like hell.  Not kidney pain style, but definitely unpleasant.

I tried these exercises too.  Seemed to be making a difference, although the exercises less so than the roller.

Knee

I biked about 250 miles last month on the trainer.  It was all good until that last ride, and now my left knee hurts.  It seems to hurt in exactly the same spot it hurt prior to the accident after I did an energetic ride, so I can only assume it's not related to my broken hip at all, but a regular old case of strain.  It's not too bad at all, although I took six days off bicycling, and when I go back to it tomorrow, I'll be ratcheting down the speed from 20 mph to something more like 16.  Nice and easy with a bit of Advil and ice.

Just so I have a documentation to compare against next time, left leg, outside of the knee the nobby bit is somewhat tender, and then the knee itself sort of locks a little with an ache, particularly after using the stairs, but not always.  If I sit crosslegged with my right leg resting on the left, the pressure just above the knee translates into a bit of an ache on the top, side and bottom (not under the kneecap proper).  It's not a minor bit of pain when it kicks in, it's more of a quick ramp up that's rather surprisingly in intensity.  The closest comparison I have is a kidney stone without that level of pain.

Interestingly, I had an IT band issue before the accident (that the accident eliminated) and one of the symptoms of a recurring IT band issue seems to be pain that translates to the knee.  I hope it's not coming back.  I remember last time this happened, it was just before spring, and transitioning off the trainer to outside, where the bicycling is a little more varied in pace and on/off the bike happens more frequently, seemed to resolve the problem.  No chance of that for another month, so I'll have to work at keeping it healthy until then.