A piece about running gear was already clear in my head when 500m from the virtual finish line my left knee suddenly decided that it wanted to be the protagonist of my blog entry once again.
After Sunday's long run it was a bit sore, so I did some research and it appears I may have a mild case of "runner's knee". It improved quickly after one night, and the pain was completely gone this morning. As I had to visit my doctor for other things, I also mentioned this and she said that it's ok as long as it keeps healing this quickly, I only have to make sure I give it time to heal after the long runs. She also advised to make sure I have the right shoes, which is what had triggered the idea of a blog about running gear... but I'll talk about my shoes another day because that's a whole different story.
So, back to today's run... I went out with the intention of being extra careful and to walk at the first warning sign from my knee, but everything went fine until at some point it started getting super stiff in the back. It was not a sudden stiffness, just very very quick. For the mathematicians reading this (and I know there's at least one), it was not an impulse, but rather an exponential function ;-)
I had a very hard time extending my leg fully, I walked slowly trying to extend it as much as possible with every step, and then I had to jog again to get home because I was getting cold. Ten minutes after I stopped running the pain at the back of my knee was completely gone. I've had this kind of pain already when I started running back in April, my knees would get stiff as soon as I stopped running (never while I was), but only for about 10 minutes. I don't know if and how this could be related to the runner's knee, which gives pain inside the knee, right behind the knee cap, but I think it's a separate problem.
Looks like there's another pair of shoes in my future, and possibly some strengthening exercises for my legs although I really don't think I have weak quadriceps, I think this is more to blame on my overpronating feet. Can anybody suggest an easy way to assess the strength of my quadriceps at home?
Weather-wise it was this kind of day, although this pic was not taken today because the windmill was not on my route.
Overpronation...often find weak VMO (part of the quads) not that all the quad is necessarily weak..we just need the VMO to help track the patella properly and that doesn't happen if it is insufficient or the pronation isn't adequately corrected. I can send you some specific VMO exercises if you want....
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*Raises hand* I giggled at the mathematician reference, and I think it also applies to math geeks like me. Exponential vs. impulse pain sounds very uncomfortable, especially while running. You are very much in tune with your body to be able to distinguish these finer details. I'm curious if you had this keen awareness before you started your training, or if this is something that comes with the process. You're in the zone, running momma. :)
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