Knee Pain

Hi,

Mostly ran 10k, 10 mile and half marathons in 2011 and 2012 and all have been pain free.

During a training run in September (6 miles) I developed a pain in my right knee which grew worse until I stopped.  I was then left with a dull ache at the back of my knee.  I laid off the running for a few days and had no further pain during a short three mile run.  Stepped up to another six mile run and the pain returned as before and subsided when I stopped.

Been to physio, who cannot find anything wrong at all. But did come away with a variety of stretches to do pre and post run.

VLM training is about to begin and I'm anxious that this might affect my training plan.

Any thoughts would be really helpful.

You jumped from 3 miles straight up to 6?

If that is the case, you upped your mileage too quickly, and when you do that, something, somewhere, is going to give.

Stick to the 10% rule - increase your runs by no more than 10% at a time.

At 3 miles, your next run should be about 3 and 1/4, certainly no more than 3 and 1/2.

See how you get on.

That does seem a lot, 3 to 6 I mean

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. I think my real concern is why the pain came on in the first place. I hadn't upped my mileage, changed to new running shoes or even my route. It just came out of nowhere - but I guess running does that.

Running can cause a few troubles, best to get any problems checked out I always think

My knee is getting worse and I think it's the weekly class of Attack that's doing it

Would that be body attack Kirstie? Name says it all - attack the body - I don't like these types of classes personally, we need to be looking after our bodies - attacking them is only going to end one way, eventually. Go easy on it.

Surely it's just a name. I think doing exercise is looking after your body.

Yeah this is definitely just a name, no doubt it's hard work but it's hardly damaging your body, maybe if you did it every night it would get a little much!

It isn't just a name - it is descriptive, it sets your expectations and tells you what is coming. "Brian" is a just a name!

Suitable exercise is good for you, whoever you are, whatever your level of ability, no doubt about it. The key word there though is "suitable". If the exercise a person chooses to do is unsuitable, something is going to give, knees, back, ankles, shoulders - something. Think about runners and when they get injured - almost invariably it is when they suddenly increase their mileage by a big chunk. In doing that, they turn an exercise which is good for them into one which has done them harm, because the level they suddenly jumped to proves to be unsuitable.

That is the issue with classes such as body attack - they are really only suitable for quite a narrow demographic - you need to be strong enough, fit enough and flexible enough already.

It opens your eyes when you go into a REPs convention and do one of these classes - and witness a room full of Personal Trainers and other fitness professionals being pushed to their limits. These are fit people, some of them incredibly so. Well if they are struggling - is it really going to be good for 55yr old Sandra who works at a desk all day and hasn't exercised since she was at school?

I hope I'm getting my point across more clearly, I realise it was a bit too vague before.

I cringe whenever I hear these things like 'body attack'. It's no wonder so many people are put off exercising with this sort of rhetoric - I'm sure many more people would work out if only they knew how easy it can be once you get into a habit. It doesn't have to be like the Rocky films...pushing yourself to the limit and finishing in a puddle of sweat. Consistency beats intensity over the long term.

I definitely get put off by classes like this where everyone looks like they are in pain the whole way through. I know some people enjoy this, but it's not for me. I like stuff that doesn't seem so much like "working out" - I don't like to sweat too much haha.