Knee Problems
So, I’m sure some of you Lawrence folk have been wondering, “Where is Nick?” Unfortunately, since Leadville I’ve been plagued with what I think is “runners knee”. This is essentially what happens when your patella tendon pops out of track and is rubbing on a spot where it’s not supposed to, and causes an inflammation of the patella tendon. Which to be honest, is kinda painful. Reading about such a disorder usually says that causes of this are: over training, pronation and an imbalance in strength between the quads, hamstrings and calf muscles.
My big goal at Leadville was to go out conservatively and not trash my quads, which is apparently a huge reason for people to drop. I had absolutely no problem with my quad muscles during Leadville, which I am quite happy about, though I did end the race with some very very sore knees. Since Leadville I’ve only run 3 times. First, was 3 miles and my review of the MR790’s. Knees hurt the whole run, but nothing to stop me from running, and didn’t not escalate (which made me rule out IT Band syndrome). My next run was the following week, and the pain was there from the beginning, and I decided to call it off after 1 mile. My latest venture was last night. I decided to do my loop around campus, which I call “Nick’s Jayhawk Repeats”, essentially it’s a loop around campus, followed by hill repeats on 15-10th streets. This can be repeated as many times as you please. During the first loop I found that my knees felt fine, was quite happy to see that they weren’t bother me. I decided to test my luck on the repeats, going down I noticed my knees starting to hurt a tad. When I finished the down and turned back up I noticed the pain going away, got excited and kept going. As I progressed through each repeat, my knees were recovering less and less, and I decided to do another loop to cool down. By the time I finished my run my knees were pretty hot and hurt-y. Not happy.
So anyway, I know, all this barefoot/minimalist running/midfoot striking, mumbo jumbo is supposed to keep me injury free. I think 99% of the time, yes, it will. I’m 100% certain the cause of all this strife in my running life is related to one thing. I did almost zero hill training for Leadville. This resulted in my body not being able to adjust to the demands of running up and down 12,600 foot passes. Now I’m paying for it.
Now it’s time to recover and fix my body. I know I don’t have pronation issues, I know I probably have problems with strength between the various muscles in my body from running Kansas trails only. So what do I need to do to fix this? I think the answer is fairly simple:
- Ice
- Anti-inflammatories
- Rest
- Short runs (hill-less)
- Stretching (calves, hams and quads)
Hopefully with this recipe I will be back to normal in a matter of weeks and rocking this bitch in no time! Rock Creek here I come!
I have the same problem and even had to have surgery on the right knee because it had gone on for so long. Part of the issue with the imbalance between the quads, Hamstrings, and calves, etc. is the stride/gait. The minimalist runners (barefoot dudes) are more mid to forefoot strikers and this will eventually even out the muscle usage. It takes time though. I’m in the same boat as you with regard to the increasing soreness each time I run. My left knee (non-operated one) is bothering me with patellar tendinitis now and rest, ice, and NSAIDS help, but the next run makes it worse. These days I’m biking more which still irritates it, but not as much and this winter, I’m taking off a while of training to let both knees heal as much as possible before trashing my body thoroughly next spring.
Good luck!
Yeah, I really think it’s a deal about all the down hill punishment over 100 miles at Leadville that did this to me. All my mileage and training, and the hundred over at Rocky, no problems. I’ve been pain free for well over a year wrt running. Next year for Leadville, I really need to start getting myself in the mountains, and training on long descents.