Knee pain. I fear it. I feel it. I’m not positive I fully understand it. There are solutions, but you have to address the cause.
I am a 45 year old male putting in about 40 miles each week. In a recent race (3 miles) I learned that I am no longer the same invincible 25 year old I was just last year. Two days after the race my knees were hurting. It seemed like an IT band issue. I could go about 2 miles and then one or both knees would be suffering. I had to walk. It was the outside of my knees. The symptoms seemed to indicate I had pulled my IT band. The timing was not good.
The following weekend I was running the Miami Marathon. I had my airline ticket. I had paid for the marathon. I booked a car. I was going. So I laid off the knees, stretched a lot and prayed. Come race day, I put an Icy Hot wrap on and took some Motrin. Not a good idea. 2 weeks later was finally ready for some running again.
Was I getting old? Was I just prone to knee problems? Was I not doing a good enough job stretching? Man, I could not figure it out. Any and all these explanations seemed viable.
I have very little discomfort now even after a 20 mile run. Why? Here’s my conclusion.
I believe it comes down to muscle balance. After 3 years of no weights and then about a year of hard running without significant counterbalancing cross-training, my muscle structure was out of balance. My hamstrings were strong and quads weak. About 4 weeks ago I began doing weighted leg extensions and spinning a couple days per week. The quads are getting stronger (more like my hamstrings) and my knee pain no longer seems to be an issue.
A little ice and Motrin is no a bad idea as well.
