Avoiding Knee Pain in Long Distance Runners

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.