Knee pain

[saramfin]

Hi folks,

I graduated in August and decided I would stick to 30 minutes but try to speed up and aim for 5k in the time. Big mistake. Managed to get a bit quicker but my knees started to hurt. Ran through some pain but then struggled with stairs and even walking. Had to stop for a month🙁. Started back again now, on w6 and ok running at old speed for 25 mins. I was told by a colleague that I had probably been over-striding when I upped the pace. Makes sense to me, so more weight going through overextended knee. He said to consciously take smaller strides as if running in a box. Knees fine now. Slow and steady wins the race (and new shoes). I had only increased speed from 7.8 km to 8.0.

Hope that helps others avoid injury

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Yeah, established runners appear to be striding forwards but actually still land their feet under them, so stride lengthens with velocity. Did you reduce your duration for speed increase? I will be doing full on speed sessions starting at 400m with rests between reps (starting at 4x400) and also tempo runs starting at 0.5 miles where pace is raised slightly from what I’m used to. Advice was always to work on speed and endurance in different runs... though hill sprints at the end of a recovery run can help develop the muscles faster.

[GTypeR Graduate]

Exact same here, increased speed from around 8 to 9 on the treadmill over a short space of time. The over striding thing makes a lot of sense too, especially for the last two minutes when I went all out. I’m still recovering and going to concentrate on strength exercises and short slow runs. Do you recomend going back to w6 and using the plan?

[saramfin Graduate in reply to GTypeR]

I had a month off completely and knee pain disappeared. Chose week 6 because it seemed manageable. Just taking it very slowly , almost repeating each run twice before moving on. Doesn’t seem quite so desperate to follow plan exactly because I already have. Just pleased to be exercising regularly now. Ran for 27 minutes on Friday, planning to repeat this again today. Good luck with the knees.

[uncle_wiggy Graduate]

My like for your post was not for your pain, but for imparting your wisdom! Before joining this forum I had started to think I must improve my technique, must widen my stride etc. Reading these posts has pulled me back from a likely injury & subsequent quit of the program thinking (incorrectly) it was to blame! Happy to hear your back out there enjoying. Have a careful, slow, but great week! 😉