W3 R1 and no knee pain (well not just yet anyway) ...

[linda9389]

Two months ago I reached the dizzy heights of W2R1 (followed by an ill advised W2R2 4 days later) and was brought to a standstill by knee pain that kept me awake at night and even caused me to take a couple of days off work. Didn't I start this program to become more healthy? hmmmm.

Several people told me running was probably not for me. They had knee pain and were told running was out of the question. After all, I had knee surgery 8 years ago, clearly I wasn't cut out to be a runner.

BUT ... googling knee problems I found this forum and met all you lovely people. And from nowhere came a stubborn determination that this would not be my end. I read your posts on a daily basis from the injury couch. I followed suggestions on this forum: I paid to see a physio a couple of times (lots of exercises to build up that leg which it turns out had never built up to match the other since the earlier knee injury and surgery), I did my exercises, I rested until it healed, I did all 5 weeks of Strength and Flex and as soon as we returned from holiday I restarted at W1R1; I went slowly, I took two rest days between runs, I wore a knee support to run and I used ice after each run.

And last night I (slowly and cautiously) completed W3R1. No knee pain. I was (am) over the moon. There is absolutely no way I would have found the determination without this forum. Thank you so much to everyone who posts here. Good luck to everyone, and fingers crossed I will keep going a bit longer.

[RainbowC Graduate]

Great stuff! Shows what can be achieved with a bit of patience and determination.

My advice, for what it's worth (i.e. nothing!), is to be careful of week 4. I have a slightly dodgy knee which gets painful if I try doing too much, and it couldn't cope with the sudden leap in running time between weeks 3 and 4. So having realised this was the problem, I rested it for a few weeks until it was better, then went back to the start, and repeated each week twice to help it build up gradually. And added an extra few weeks in between 3 and 4, so that for 'week 3+' I carried on running for about 30s at the end of each run interval. And once I was fed up with the week 3 podcast, I moved on to 'week 4-', where I stopped running a bit before the end of each run interval. That seemed to work, and when I then did week 4 all was fine. And I've not had any problems in the year since.

This isn't saying 'this is what you should do' - just sharing my experience in case it's of any help to you or anyone else with iffy knees

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to RainbowC]

Ooh thankyou for the heads up. I was really worried about doubling the 90s to 3 mins for w3 which is why I slowed right down and then felt so, so pleased it hadnt flared up. In fact I was so scared that I vowed not to look ahead any more. But that sounds like a great way to look at it if w4r1 feels like it might be too much and I want to pull back. So many great ideas on this forum to keep us from getting off track!

[Hidden]

I am incredibly impressed by your grit and determination. If you have invested all this...I am sure you can do anything 😄

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Haha. That sounds kind of heroic. I like that. Sadly those who know me better would tell you I'm more like a toddler who's been told they can't have something they didn't even realise they wanted, but will throw a tantrum anyway. Not in the least bit heroic 😂

[Hidden in reply to linda9389]

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes!

[RuNananana Graduate]

That's awesome - I found that keeping up with the strengthening exercises keeps my knee pain away completely! Good on you for your determination!!

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to RuNananana]

Ahh. I did wonder if I should keep up the knee exercises ... and although I suspected what the right answer would be, I have definitely let them slip. Best get on to that before I have any regrets ☺