Ah no! Not my knee.

[damienair]

I’ve been training hard since January on improving my 5K Parkrun times and have also been working on extending distance by working up to 10K.

All has been going great, I’m reaching my goals and enjoying running since doing C25K two years ago. Parkrun PB was achieved last weekend 26:30 and the weekend before I achieved my first sub 1 hour 10K. After Parkrun on Saturday I went away with my family for Easter and was in the car for a couple of hours. When I got out of the car in the afternoon my left knee was sore and remained a niggle for the rest of the day. But on Sunday all was good and my knee was fine.

I went for a 7K easy run yesterday evening and after 4K the niggle in my left knee was back. So I stopped and stretched. Then ran on for another 2K before I had to stop and stretch again. The last 1K was fine. My knee has a very light niggle today. I have entered a 10K run on Sunday and I’m going to rest up until then. Hopefully all will be ok. Fingers crossed 🤞.

Has anyone any advice other than rest? I’ll do some gentle knee exercises. I’m also going to shell out for new running shoes. Over 800K on my current shoes and the cushioning I’m sure is pounded away. So gait analysis and new shoes here I come.

Damien

[littlemac24 Graduate10]

Sorry to hear that. A nice long soak in an Epsom salt bath will help relax you.

[Flyingred Graduate10]

I had something similar last autumn. A week of doing the NHS knee exercises for runners cleared it up: nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/k...

[damienair Administrator in reply to Flyingred]

Cheers for that. I’ll give it a try. Hope you are getting out flying with the weather picking up.

[Flyingred Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Cheers. I don't have much time for flying these days. Too much faff to do it enjoyably and safely.

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Any knee pain I've had has come from my ITB. Have you got a foam roller? Or a tennis ball? Cover all bases and use it on your quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes and your ITB. Or book a sports massage 😩 but 🤗

[damienair Administrator in reply to Irishprincess]

Thank you. Yes I have a foam roller. I’m using it now. It belongs to my wife. I’m going to use the foam roller and rest until Sunday.

Damien

[molly1973]

Yes to all of the above: I have a niggly knee and keeping on top of stretches, rollering, strengthening and decent shoes have all really helped. Also work on glutes: stretching and strengthening, as this can really affect your knees. It sounds relatively minor but worth monitoring and getting it looked at if it gets worse 👍

[marco83]

Sorry to hear about your annoying knee... you said you have been working hard to improve your times, increasing both quality and quantity can cause problems and injuries. Try to do either one or the other (when you increase your miles/Km per week or per workout, do not add hard speed work, interval or tempo; when you have intervals, tempo or speed, do not increase miles).

have you tried to have one or two cross-training sessions in between running sessions?

Another thing that comes to my mind (a part from rest) is: for how long have you been running on the same shoes? in time shoes can loose their protection... after about 1 year or about X miles (for me is anything between 500 and 800) you need to change them. Have you got the right shoes for you? do you ever try to change the the drop (8 to 4 mm)?

Old shoes often cause me problems with knees...

hope you will get better soon

[damienair Administrator in reply to marco83]

Cheers. Yes my shoes need to be replaced. I had shoes which I only used for running. And I logged them on Garmin Connect which tells me they have done over 850 Km’s. Just bought a new pair today. I’ve gone with Brooks again. I had a gait analysis the last time, so today I just tried on a few pairs.

Damien

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

I agree with irishprincess - this often stems from IT band trouble. I have had sore knees recently and think it is related to my glutes and IT band. Good luck.

[Wimborne]

Hope that knee is ok D.

[mrrun Graduate10]

Resting is best. Leave longer gaps between runs and don't push hard, slow down. Niggle is just a reminder that you need to be careful, pain is the outcome of not being careful or simply being unlucky.

l suffered a bad knee injury once, because l pushed hard and ignored the niggles. Never do what l did.

Also, there should still be life in your shoes because the good ones should reach 1200K plus. Always check when buying.

[damienair Administrator]

Cheers. I’ll use them both. Although the grips on the fore foot of the old shoes are pretty thread bare. I’ve been resting since Tuesday and the niggles have gone completely. I will be doing a 10K run in Dublin tomorrow night, but will not be going for any PB time.

Damien