Runner's Knee

tcovert - 2008-02-29 10:16 AM I got hit with a bout of runner's knee out of the blue on 1/22. With an 18-mile road race, a sprint tri, and the LA Marathon staring me in the face, I had to deal as aggressively as possible with it. Looking around for options, I found some helpful suggestions: --Ice it after activity. A couple times a day to start. I kept it up for a the first week. --Anti-inflammatories. I took Advil twice a day for the first three weeks, then backed it off to once a day now. --Strenghten your quad. Mine is probably not due to strength imbalance in the lower quad (it's an overpronation issue), but I definitely believe the following recommended exercises helped with improving kneecap tracking: 1) On your back, with non-injured knee up (i.e., with that foot flat on the floor), press the entire length of your injured leg down into the floor as an isometric and hold. 2) In same position, do straight leg lift of injured leg (to the level of your other, raised, knee works well as a guidepost). Repeat these. The conventional wisdom is to isolate the muscle on the inside-front of your thigh, just above the kneecap and strengthen that. --I found that knee straps _do_ help. I tried a couple brands--the Ace brand, which is designed rather differently than most all the others, worked really well for me...I'll be wearing it in my marathon on Sunday. It has a weird open-ended sleeve for the pressure tube (you'll see what I'm referring to if you look at any strap) which allows for a really precise adjustment. I have an elite duathlete friend who's a surgical RN and he's got one of a different brand that he wears when his patellar tendonitis flares up and he swears by his...I wish I could remember what brand it was. --Avoid stairs and hills as much as you can. --Keep you leg extended as much as possible, including when you sleep. This is pretty important. If you have a desk job, find a way to keep your knee straight as much of the day as possible. Runner's knee strikes a fair number of sedentary people with desk jobs. ---And...of course...rest!!! I shut down most of my training for four weeks. Subbed in walking for running and only really pushed for the races I was determined to go ahead with and did do my scheduled long runs. Cycling can be an issue when the injury is still esp. painful. Swimming is obviously a good substitute...but I even had pain pushing off the pool wall the first week. Monitor the discomfort level closely. This can be a chronic issue...if you allow yourself a lot of rest, you should notice even day-to-day improvement and, if you don't, get it checked out by an orthopedist. The conventional wisdom is that _most of the time_ the injury will subside (if it is going to subside) in roughly six weeks. I felt about 85% recovered by exactly five weeks. Good luck!