Last week’s blog post left some unanswered questions on how I’m dealing with my knee pain. I have to be honest, my plan was to power through the knee pain and continue my training. That’s how I’ve dealt with all of my running related strains over the last six years. I’ve had countless small aches and pains which have gone away on their own. I ignore new strains to avoid going crazy by worrying about them. I could tell by the reaction to last week’s blog that I should treat a knee strain differently. A number of concerned family members and friends reached out and I was glad for it. This is the first time that I’ve had a knee strain – I usually have ankle problems or quad / hamstring strains. I took some time to reflect this week and have made a recovery plan.
I’m taking two weeks for recovery – I’ll continue to train but at a lower volume. I’ve been building a lot of distance lately and I could tell that I needed a break. I ran for 10 hours / 80km last weekend and 9 hours / 75km the weekend prior. I cut down this weekend’s training to 2 hours and I’ll do the same, next weekend. Getting rest is working well, I’ve already noticed a significant decrease in knee pain.
I decided to take my own advice and to go for hikes instead of runs this week. I’m always telling friends to turn to hiking to help them get past a strain. In fact, I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago titled “Hiking – your Secret Weapon for Ultra Running”. I was hesitant to go for a hike despite knowing that it’s great training. I really enjoyed my hike once I finally got out and I was surprised by my speed – I power hiked 6.82km in one hour earlier this week.
I also did some diagnostics with my wife, Lindsay and we figured out that weak quads are most likely behind the knee pain. I made a new friend Brandon (@ultratrailcoach) on Instagram who took an interest in my knee pain after he read last week’s blog post. Brandon gave me some great tips and pointed me in the right direction for finding the root cause of my knee pain. I went a little nuts with hill training in March and April. I did multiple weekends of back to back 2.5 – 3 hour hill training sessions and my legs weren’t ready for it. I think that I overloaded my knee tendons and they haven’t recovered yet. I’m working on a weight training plan to strengthen my quads and am looking forward to getting started.
Although I was in denial that I had a knee problem last week, I’m glad that I wrote a post about it. Running is definitely one of my life’s passions and I hope to do it for a long time. As we all know, a knee problem can be catastrophic for a runner and I wasn’t giving my knee pain the attention that it deserved. I was glad for the feedback that I got from family and friends – it inspired some much needed critical thinking. I feel confident that I’m on the right path for recovery from knee pain and I’m looking forward to pain free running.