What Would You Do?

If your knee can take it -- walk the run course. A friend of mine did that and she is a "seasoned" triathlete. She had some knee problems but wanted to do the training in the other sports, and to participate as much as possible in the event. Since you should not have a time goal anyway (for your first one), who cares about that part. Do some walking now and see how that effects your knee.

Good luck -- I hope you are able to do the event -- you will love it.

Nancy

Hey I am going through this right now.  My left knee started hurting two weeks ago on the lower outside.  It was a Sunday night.  I stopped running until Thursday and it started up again while I ran.  However, when I was walking it didn't bother me at all.  I have stayed off of it since then, going on 10 days and will try to run tomorrow night. 

I talked to a running coach via email and she told me to do what I am doing.  If the problem goes away fine, if not then see a therapist or doctor to assess what might be the problem.  Check your shoes, if you aren't fitted properly it could be a cause.  Any change in the way you stride could be a cause.  I would walk if you can to at least get the fat burning benefit and maybe work in a walk/run routine.  Other than that "RICE" works.  Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation will help.

Good luck.

Also take a look at your cadence on the bike, and seat postion. If you are doing hills and your seat is too low this can put a lot of presure on the knees. Your knee should only be slightly bent when your foot is at the bottom of the circle. Also pushing a big gear with a low cadence, less than 80 rpms is tough on the knees. I'd check the seat and skip the hill program for a while. Ride flat with light resistance and try and get your cadence up to 90-100+ rpms. As for running, I recently was having knee pain in the lower outside of my knee, from increasing my long run too fast. Did some research and found that my run cadence was too slow, so I was over striding. This is hard on the knees too. Recommendations are to work up to 90 right foot strikes per minute. This was tough to do as I felt like I was taking baby steps, but have been doing that for almost 2 weeks now and the knee trouble has cleared right up. Also recommended was landing on the ball of the foot and trying to minimize the time the foot stays on the ground. Here's a link to the pose running method web site. they are recommended in the triathlon training bible.  Not a lot of info there but maybe it'll help some.

http://www.posetech.com/

Slow down your pace until the knee starts feeling better or just walk for a while. Hope some of this helps. Good luck.

JD