Hurt knee

[ibbydibby]

For the past few months, have been running at least 2 days a week, and more so just recently having obtained a ballot place next year's London Marathon. However for the past 2 or 3 weeks have been suffering pain in my knee, seems to hurt when I put my foot down, but not all the time. Because of the marathon, I went to see GP last week, who had a good old poke/bend of the affected leg etc, and because she did not cause me any pain concluded there was not much wrong with it and concluded it was likely to be "a bit of tendonitis".

I have not run for a week now, but still suffer the same pain when I walk, it does not seem to be getting any better (or worse, as DH helpfully pointed out). But now don't know what to do - presumably a sports physio might know more? Not sure how to go about finding one though (and not sure if I can afford it).

My leg feels as if it is slightly out of line, and if I gave the side of my knee a sharp quick tap with a hammer, it would go back into place and all would be well. I wonder if I tend to roll my foot inwards - I felt as if I was when I wore a pair of not very supportive (but flat) shoes the other day. So could the problem be my running shoes (am ashamed to admit that both pairs are around 3 years old) Is a likely cause of knee pain?

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated - thanks!

Hi there,

Have you been to a decent running store/ gym to get your gait and foot strike looked at? Although they're not always perfect they're useful in showing whether you naturally over or under pronate when running, or indeed have any other quirks to your running style.

From your description, sounds like you over-pronate in which case decent quality shoes which support the arch would certainly help. I tend to over-pronate, especially on longer runs when tiring - got Asics GT-2150 Gel myself which provide good quality arch support.

Thanks. I think that is what I will have to do...am a bit wary though of spending a lot of money on running shoes thinking it will solve the problem, then finding it doesn't. Running shoes have definitely been on the shopping list for a while, and can get myself to a place that does gait analysis.

My knee started hurting when I was running. I had my gait analysed (when to a great place in Brighton - Stride UK) and they diagnosed that I didn't need orthotics but needed to strengthen glutes & quads.

Am now in neutral shoes - and doing weights and now feel no knee pain when running or going down the stairs.

Hope this helps...

YEs hoeful to read these comments, thank you. What worries me is that my knee hurts when I am not running - eg have not run now for 10 days but walking around the house wearing no shoes gave me the same pain.

Think is, after you've had an injury, it's likely that it'll continue to hurt for some period afterwards until it recovers - even when not running.

Last running injury I had from running broken down shoes was plantar fascitis, basically a strain of ligaments in the foot which ended up causing quite a bit of pain in the calf muscle. Pain took about 2 weeks plus some physio to go. I think once the damage is done, it just takes time to recover.

If you can, I'd recommend speaking to a physio rather than a doctor - they tend to be much more useful in assessing muscle or ligament injuries.

I'd agree the first step would be some new shoes. I overpronate quite mildly, but tend to get problems when my shoes are getting worn (warning sign for me is a sharp pain in the side of my knee). The trouble is, you tend to get used to the lack of cushioning when they're worn, but somewhere in your body you're absorbing the shock. I had plantar faciitis too, horribly painful and meant no running for weeks.

I use Brooks shoes and have found them amazingly good. I also found that when I had them properly fitted after video gait analysis I was a whole size bigger than I wear in shoes.I now have two pairs on the go at any one time (expensive at first, but obviously you don't replace them both at the same time). Look up Brooks motion control shoes on Wiggle, you'll see the kind I like.