And the winner is…

ME!

This hopefully won’t be my one and only post for today because it’s about as exciting as a post about my knees can get, but I thought I’d update you on my trip to the doctor.

I went to a sports medicine physician today to have my knees checked out. X-rays showed that there’s not abnormal wear and tear so that’s good. After doing an exam of both my knees, he’s decided I’m the lucky winner of BOTH runner’s knee and IT Band Syndrome! Awesome.

Good news is… even if my knees hurt while running I’m not doing permanent damage that will result in a double knee replacement surgery in 10 years.

Bad news is… I need to go to physical therapy. I guess that’s not really bad news. He offered to amputate them, and I guess that would have been official bad news.

I like my new doctor. He actually ran the Disney Marathon too so we bonded a bit over the boringness of miles 18-23. But we both said it was fun (so everyone sign up for Team Damian!!!!–no I’m not giving up) I have a feeling if I keep doing distance running and/or amping up my mileage even more, I’m going to be seeing him often. Hopefully not though.

For those of you wondering what it is/how I got both Runners Knee and ITBS, they’re kind of related so it’s not that surprising.

The IT Band is the muscles/tissue that stretches from the outside of your hip down to your knee. As you run that muscle can become tight and the constant pulling on the tendon by the knee and the friction that creates can cause it to hurt. When that muscle gets tight and then muscles on the inside of your thigh don’t (common in runners) the imbalance will cause you knee cap to not stay in place as you run. This slight movement causes irritation to the cartilage behind the knee cap causing runners knee. Thus they are kind of related but you don’t always get as lucky as me and get both. As I told Emily, the running gods must love me.

Physical therapy will work to stretch out my tight muscles while building strength in my weaker ones. Once I’m “re-balanced” I should start to notice a significant decrease in pain. We’ll see…. Either way, I’m just glad to know the pain isn’t a sign of worse things to come. I can deal with pain. I can’t deal with not running ever again.

Still Running

While the Disney marathon may be over, I haven’t officially stopped running. In fact, I have another marathon scheduled for March 18th. I’m excited and yet incredibly nervous about this one. 

First, I’ll be doing it by myself and it’s not filled with Disney excitement. Having Emily to run with and a million characters to see may have ruined all future marathons for me. And secondly, my Runner’s Knee is acting up. I took a couple weeks off hoping to let it heal, but it seems the second I run hills (an inescapable feat in Atlanta) I’m left with a lot of pain in my left knee. I’ve done a lot of research on curing Runner’s Knee, and I’m attempting to get my knee in the best shape possible before the race in March. Here are some of the tips I’ve learned and seem to be helping some as I ran today without much pain.

1. Ice after workouts: Icing helps to remove the inflammation caused by the repeated movement of the knee cap over the cartilage in the knee. I try to do 10-15 mins as soon as I can after a work out. I’ve read to do no more than 20 mins. 
2. Strengthening exercises and stretching: Most runners think all they need to do is build endurance by gradually increasing miles. I learned this the hard way. To be an effective runner and to avoid injury, you really need to add strength training exercises in to your training schedule. There are a lot of exercises you can do to strengthen the muscles that support the knee cap. This allows the knee cap to not ‘run off course’ when you’re using it repeated such as in running.
3. Eat good anti-inflammatory foods: Leafy green vegetables are a good place to start. Also, ginger is really good for this. I’m trying to drink a ginger tea daily.
4. Joint Juice: I’ve just started drinking this daily about a week ago so I don’t know how much it’s doing for me yet. But runners seem to swear by Joint Juice. It’s a supplement drink, that’s actually pretty tasty, filled with nutrients such as Glucosamine and Chondroitin that help to repair joint tissue damage.
5. Heat Therapy: At night I do some heat therapy on my knees. As long as there is no swelling, heat therapy helps increase blood flow to the area and thus speeds up healing. Do not use if there is swelling!
6. Go slow: Increase mileage by no more than 10% per week and cut back on speed workouts. No need to try to kill yourself when you’re trying to recover from an injury. It will only make matters worse.
7. Knee Band: I use this when I run and can tell an immediate difference. (Product fav: Mueller’s Knee Strap) However, I’ve put this last because I’ve been cautioned not to solely rely on it because it does not solve the problem. The second I run without the band, my knee hurts. The above tips will actually cure runners knee, but in the meantime, the band helps with the pain while it heals.