Finally got started

[emseedee]

After too long lurking here, I finally got off my butt and did W1R1 this evening. Tomorrow will tell whether it was just the first run, or whether it’s also the last.

Running is a bit of an experiment: I’m 68, overweight, and have fairly severe patello-femoral osteoarthritis. Traditional medical advice is to avoid running because it makes things worse, but more recently some doctors are suggesting that exercise to strengthen the muscles round the knee can reduce the pain. I’m prepared to give it a go, I can cope with a temporary increase in the pain as long as running doesn’t cause any further deterioration of my kneecaps.

At the moment, the knees are a bit sore, but no worse than after a walk. By tomorrow I should know whether they’ve settled down to normal.

I’d be really interested in hearing from anyone who runs with arthritic kneecaps (not the same as arthritic knee joints).

Regards

Mike

[Shmelany]

Be interested to hear how you got on!? Good on you for experimenting!

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Welcome to the forum and well done on getting started.

This guide to the plan is essential reading healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

Enjoy your journey.

[ArthurJG Graduate]

Welcome and well done. Not wanting to nit pick but in all honesty tomorrow won't tell you anything. Some aches and niggles are normal when you first start to run and you won't be running tomorrow because you always have to take at least one rest day. So really, it would be premature to decide tomorrow whether this is for you. You're not expected to be ready to run again tomorrow in any event and if you find you can do it but need more than one rest day between runs that's OK too. Obviously you need to listen to your body and also to your doctor but don't rush to a decision tomorrow

[emseedee in reply to ArthurJG]

Well - you're right of course - at least to a point. What I was really concerned about was if my knees decided to scream - "don't do that again", which could well have happened on the day after the first run. I the event, they didn't, so business as usual - I did manage W1R2 yesterday, and although I'm a bit sore today I'm still hopeful that I'll complete W1 tomorrow.