Knee Problems

I suppose it had to happen at some point, but why now?

Many years ago in my late teens when I used to run, I always had problems with my knees. It was probably one of the main reasons why I stopped training for and competing in triathlons when I was 20. That, and the fact that surfing, windsurfing, college and other such things took over a little. Well, now, 20 odd years later I’m back training for and competing in triathlons and if anything I’m better now (for my age) than I was then. I’ve been fairly fortunate over the past 18 months injury wise as well. I did tear some ligaments in my ankle last July. That was just over a year ago and my ankle still isn’t quite right and always aches in the evenings or after a big run but it does’t seem to hold me back too much.

Then, last week my right knee started hurting. I’m not sure what brought it on as I don’t remember doing anything particularly silly whilst out running. I did move a couple of tonne of gravel with a wheel-barrow on Tuesday which may have contributed I guess, but whatever it was, my knee was pretty sore. The pain was mainly down the inside of my kneecap and by Thursday and Friday it felt as though my knee would collapse inwards whenever I put any weight on it.

I taped it up as best I could with some kinesiotape which seemed to provide a little bit of support and decided not to do the run I had planned on Saturday. I did however have a couple of bike events planned. The CRC MTB Marathon on Saturday and the Vitus Road Sportive on Sunday.

I wasn’t sure if my knee would hold up for these so by means of a test I did an hour on the Turbo trainer on Friday. At least on the Turbo Trainer if my knee started hurting too much I’d be able to just stop and get off and wouldn’t need to ride home. Thankfully the non-weight bearing aspect of cycling meant that my knee felt fine. It was a little sore afterwards but nothing that would cause any problems so it looked as though I had a weekend of cycling action to look forward to. You’ll be able to read about these two events in forth-coming blog posts. I will however let you know that I did manage to complete them despite my knee injury.

My knee is actually feeling quite a bit better today. I’ve taken the taping off and  can walk normally. Descending stairs (not that we have any) is still a little sore and my knee feels fairly weak so I won’t be running on it yet but hopefully it is healing.

That’s not good enough though, I need to do something positive about it, I need to make sure it doesn’t recur, doesn’t get any worse and doesn’t hold me back. I’ve been enjoying both my triathlon training and my triathlon racing recently and don’t want injuries to put a stop to it. Not only have I invested lots of time and energy into it, but so has everyone around me. Anna and Morgan have been helping as much as they can and putting up with lots and also seem to enjoy watching and helping with my races. Plenty of other people have been helping out too, from Pete my coach to those who have backed me financially and the people I train and race with too. I can’t afford to have an injury let me and them down now.

So, what am I going to do about it?

Well, the first thing is not to panic. I need to let it heal properly first and although it’ll be difficult, that probably means not running on it for a while. I’m already chomping at the bit to get at running again but I need to be sensible. It’s very tempting to get out there and test my knee now that it is hurting less but that would probably spell disaster. A week or two off of running may seem like the end of the world but I doubt if I’ll lose too much speed or run fitness from it and in the long-run it’ll be better than aggravating any injury. I guess I’ll just have to replace any run sessions with some swim and bike training instead.

Secondly I’m going to get myself off to a physio. This isn’t something I normally do and no doubt they’ll only tell me what I already know. “Rest it for a couple of weeks, ease back into running slowly once it has healed and do some knee strengthening exercises, maybe some stretches and some foam rolling of my quads, hamstrings and IT band.” They may even suggest some aqua-jogging to maintain run-fitness without the impact. It may be useful though to get some first hand help with various strength and conditioning exercises for my knees and maybe some tips on taping it as well.

Third will be to develop and actually do a decent strength and conditioning plan for my knees. I currently do very little (read nothing) in the way of  strength and conditioning. I do circuits once a week but otherwise all of my training is simply swimming, biking and running. While I can’t run for a while I shall use that as an opportunity to really work on some strength and conditioning. I’m going to replace any run sessions with these to start with and then keep doing them once I start running again so that I end up incorporating plenty of stretching and strength exercises into my weekly plan.

A knee injury may be the last thing I need right now. It might not do much for my chances of qualifying for the ETU European Triathlon Championships at the Rother Valley Triathlon in a month or so and might not help out with my race at the ITU World Championships in October but it may be the warning that I need to remind me that my knees are vulnerable. With that warning in mind I shall do all I can to look after my knees and make them as strong as I can. It won’t be easy, these things never are but it’s given me something new to work on. Lets hope I can do it and stop my knees from letting me down.

Tags: InjuryTrainingTriathlon