re: Knee Pain After Running

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As a fellow heel striker I had to make a daily effort to reduce stride as the longer strides make me extend the leg and put all the weight on heel first. This is not how your knee was meant to operate for extended periods (if any time at all).

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Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to go to a nice grass field and practice running barefoot.

I'm not trying to say you need to ditch your shoes, blah blah blah, but this is how humans are supposed to run.

You'll notice a few things immediately.

1.) It is almost impossible to heel strike. If you try, you'll get quick feedback that it was a bad choice.

2.) Your stride will shorten a bit vs. your runs in shoes on the road

3.) You'll likely feel the need to use your hamstrings more. (So many people just run with their hip flexors and never really use their posterior chain like they should).

Use these sessions to help improve form on your traditional, shoes runs.

FWIW, you can get a ton of benefit from doing this a few times a week. I use a soccer field and do 60yd repeats barefoot.

I consider this form practice and foot strengthening work.

I would say there's a couple hundred miles on them at this point.

And it's in the front of the knee.

I haven't iced yet (hard to do at work), but will when I get home. The tapering starts this week and I've been taking Advil all day, thanks.

So close to race day, I refuse to seriously injure myself and knock myself out of my first marathon ever.

Is it the side of the knee that hurts? I had an issue with my IT band that didn't really manifest itself until runs over 15 miles or so. Foam rolling the side of my upper legs and stretching, plus a week break helped. I also have an IT band leg band I use on my long runs. It sits just above the knee. Works like a charm.

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Is it the side of the knee that hurts?

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Front of the knee.

I'm definitely going to try the foam roller this evening and I'm hoping that will help.

Honestly if it works, I'll handle the pain. Not trying to be a tough guy, I just really want to run this race and would be furious if I weren't able to due to injury.

Look up the symptoms of my post above. Have had both in past as well as piriformis syndrome/tear. When I was able to transition to forefoot strike it made a world of difference. Stretching your hamstrings/quads/hip flexors also kept me from experiencing any further injuries.

Just out of curiosity, what's your goal time for this marathon?

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Not trying to be a tough guy, I just really want to run this race and would be furious if I weren't able to due to injury.

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I understand that completely.

Yeah I've used one on my back before and it hurt like hell.

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I will in three weeks. Training for a marathon.

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3 weeks out you are not going to improve much between now and your marathon. Better to rest a few days now and then ease back into it with easy runs. If you feel good 10 days before the race then do a 10 miler but don't go too hard. In a nutshell, taper.