Knee Pains

First things first. GO SPURS!!! WOOHOO!!!! They put on an impressive show sweeping the Cavs to win their fourth championship since '99. Ok so it wasn't the most impressive offensive series, or anything remotely close. But the way that the Spurs play as a team and always find someone to step and their ability to shut down the other teams is very impressive. I'm going on the record now, if the Spurs make it to the finals again next year to repeat I will do everything I can to get tickets to a game, in San Antonio. And not nose bleed tickets either, I'm talking first 20 rows so I can actually see the game.

Now, back to running. Since I started running again a big concern that I've had is how my knees will hold up. I have a history of knee issues. Back in high school I battled with pain in both knees my junior and senior years. When I was going to community college a few years ago I was playing basketball a few nights a week and my knee got so bad that I couldn't put any weight on it for a few weeks. I'm a real man idiot and didn't let that stop me from playing though, it always seemed to loosen up after playing for a couple minutes. Basketball is a lot different from running in that regard though. With ball it's all kinds of different stuff that your knee goes through, so what ever is causing the pain gets a break once in awhile. When you run you just keep pounding away at it, step after step after ever more painful step.

In an effort to avoid hurting my knees again I've been doing a decent job of stretching to try and loosen up my legs a little. I'm still stiff as a board though. Up until this week everything has been going great, no pain at all. My right knee has hurt a little during my last couple runs though, at the top of the kneecap. That's the same place it hurt in high school. It only hurt for short periods of time though, maybe a minute or two during the middle of the run and that's it.

Tonight I ran some hills to see if I could get closer to my max heart rate than last time. I couldn't even get up to my average heart rate of 182 from the 3k. The hills were about 150 meters and I ran 5 of them all out. Just jogging back down for rest. I also warmed up for ten minutes first and cooled down for another ten minutes after. My knee didn't bother me at all during my workout. I got home and drank some water, took of my shoes and walked around in the apartment a bit and I had a sharp pain in the back of my right knee toward the inside. I have never felt a pain like that before so I'm a little concerned. It didn't last very long and I iced it right away. I'm hoping its just a fluke thing but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Since my knee started hurting I've been running in the grass instead of on the bike trail or road as much as possible. I've also been trying to read as much as I can on injury prevention. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do or can recommend any websites or books I would love to read about it in the comments.