IT Band Injury

So I got the results back from my MRI and I have an IT band injury from overuse.  WTF.  Lame.  I guess I should be glad that it's not something worse.  I have some stretches to do and I can definitely feel them and my muscles are tired after the vigorous stretching.

So I went to visit my friend's personal training yesterday to see if a personal trainer will help me reach my life long goal of being able to do one pull up.  I think it went pretty well since I felt like my ass was kicked after 20 minutes.  I have no upper body strength.  He gave me a list of exercises to do and I decided to give them a try on my own this morning.

I managed to complete them all, but wasn't told how many sets to do, so I think I might have overdone it since I could barely finish all the reps.  Afterwards, I did all my stretches and while stretching decided to try and run some since I haven't run since my race a month ago.  Well, it did not go well.  First, it was pretty hard to realize that I'd have to start all over from the beginning.  My legs were tired after the second lap, but I think that is more that my legs were tired from the earlier exercises.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  The worst part was that my IT band injury flared up after the 3rd lap and I had to stop.  I don't want to make it worse.

So my doctor gave me the option of doing stretches on my own or physical therapy.  Since I'm a cheap bastard I opted for stretches on my own.  I'm now wondering if physical therapy will accelerate the healing.  Is it worth the $20 copay per visit?  I think it might be.  I'll give the stretching another week, but I really do miss running.  Eww, that is messed up and I never thought I would say it.