Are you set on tris....you have other options—what about biking, swimming, Aquabike, and triathlon relay events??

If u can’t run u can’t. There are millions of things u can still do. If u like triathalon the aqua bike. If u like cycling there is a massive world of bike specialist training from TT to 500 mile endurance ultras. Same with swimming. Removing running from your training obligations opens up free time or more time to focus on some other endeavor.

I had to give up Triathlons after a knee replacement (that also had a poor outcome).....

Singletrack mt biking is my main thing in the summer with xc skiing in the winter....

I miss running and multisport where the run is always one of the segments (I just cant get into aquabike)

I miss running....

I am hoping to do more open water swimming and hopefully do a few events as well as mt bike events......without running and tris its not as exciting but I do feel content.

I started with doing aquabike while I couldn’t run. Certainly wished I could have finished all those things, but it still got me off the couch and doing something active with friends.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I think right now if it winds up that running is out for me, I'll continue to participate in triathlon, but walk during the "run" leg of the events. Yeah, I'll be slow...and chances are that I'll go from MOP to BOP, but at least I'll be lapping everyone on the couch (to be cliche).

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

Yup, same here. Knee pain from last race, so no running for almost 3 months now. Took this chance to participate in a sprint relay event with my kids (I did the bike leg). Next year, I entered in a 70.3 relay event with friends from high school (35 years ago!!). Maybe after that, I can join a 3km open water swim event. Cheers mate!!

After IMAZ 2015 quit running almost entirely due to bone on bone in my right knee. I miss the ease of going for a run, especially when traveling, but still swim and bike a ton. I've done a number of tri relays...both fun ones with my wife or kids as well as a few competitive ones with my fast runner friends (in most of them I do the swim/bike, someone else runs).

I've also gotten into gravel rides/races which are a complete blast and have even tried a few cyclocross events. Sstill lots you can do to stay fit and compete if you can't run. Good luck!

i love running as well, and if something happened and i couldnt anymore i dont know how i would handle it honestly. i was a runner before anything else so its my "base", even though im not the fastest out there by any means.

but, as someone else said, relays!

i personally have found i really enjoy the bike leg, maybe a little too much (as i seem to tend to put too much into the bike and leave myself tired for the run like a lot of us do). if i couldnt run, i would probably try and find a couple of people to hook up with and get a relay team together and just focus on either the swim or the bike. for the bike you could also participate in TT events and get into cycling more as well.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I faced this a few years ago. I had raced triathlon for over 20 years and then my knee decided running was no longer an option.

I essentially shifted to riding. I loved racing triathlons. Walking the run, relays, swim/bikes didn’t appeal to me. I loved triathlon and those just left me lacking. They are great options but not for me.

I shifted to cycling full time. I ride road, gravel, cross and mountain. I ride with a local club which gives me the same satisfaction that I got from Triathlon. I am learning, getting my ass kicked, getting stronger and loving it.

Do I miss triathlon absolutely. Where I miss running is when travelling because exploring a city on a morning run is amazing. I now look for shops that rent bikes and ride while travelling.

It was hard to close that chapter but new bikes help!

What it very important is that I continue strength training and keep my leg/knee strong. Muscle is what now keeps my knee functioning decently.

Get another hobby....life is a big place

I have always been in the top 10-20% of races. I ran in high school, college and few years after till I got into multi-sport. Birth of 2 kids put much of my competitive sports on hold but I still like to do it. Last few years I have had bad planter fasciitis in both feet, that seems to have tamed down but now I get hip pain/arthritis after I pick up running a few days a week. Part of my wonders if is because I tamed down a lot since kids or if I just wore myself out in my younger years.

After the first kid was born I picked up gravel cycling. It was actually quite fun picking up a new sport, learning and getting into it, make different friends, do different races/rides, etc. After a year I got a fat bike for mtn biking and winter biking. Now I'm all in and hooked.

I wonder if I could go back into running and pick it up again but I'm have so much fun with bikes now I'm not really interested in it. I'll run 1-2 days a week but that is it.

Wife has similar stories, except its knee and ankle pain. She has picked up on indoor climbing and some biking. We still try to run or bike together when we can.

I'm not completely out of running but had to take off six months because of osteitis pubis. At the time, I seriously thought I may never run again. So, I decided to start cycling more than I ever had, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. On weekends, I would ride long miles in the mountains as I explored routes I'd not previously done. This was done on both road and gravel. I'd never been much in to mountain biking either so I took the chance to learn to mountain bike properly and it was so much fun.

As you stated, the biggest moments when I missed the ability to run was when I traveled. If you can run, it almost doesn't matter where you are at, you can run right out your front door. But, the enhanced joy of riding and exploring really did help make up for a lot of it.

Any chance that you can racewalk even if you can’t run? Would be much faster than normal walking...

What kind of strength training do you do? Just the usual lunges, squats, etc? Or are there unique/specific exercises?

I can definitely relate, I ran track/XC in high school and college and stayed with it through my 20s-30s, doing a lot of road racing and marathons before turning to tri's in my late 30s. I did tri's including IMs for about another 8 years or so, still doing standalone marathons in between. All those miles eventually added up with a bunch of overuse injuries (mainly with my calves) to the point where I've pretty much stopped running in the past few years and have switched to just biking for fitness where it's low impact in comparison. I do miss running though and a handful of times per year will go out for a short easy jaunt to get a fix in, although I'll be sore as hell afterwards no matter how easy I went or how much stretching I did. My daughter has started running and I would like to go with her a few times before she gets too fast for me. ; )

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I vary specific exercises but it's always quad, hamstring, glute and calf focused. I created issues for myself because I tended to favor my injured knee and lost muscle mass/strength. I had meniscus surgery and removed the bulk of it laterally and the loss of strength and mass caused my knee to collapse and bone on bone. My thought was baby it and it will prolong my ability to do things. The exact opposite happened and I spend the last 18 months getting back to the point where is doesn't hurt any longer. The harder I work it the better it feels and the better I ride.

I also do a lot of single leg balance and single leg squat work on a bosu ball. That helps build strength in the stabilizing muscles around the knee.

I hope this helps.

Great information, thank you for sharing!

I faced this 10 years ago after having grown up running (Jr. High into college), then doing tri's for 15+ years. Enough arthritis in the hips that the Ortho doc recommended no more running. Knowing I want to be active the rest of my life, I shut down all running 10 years ago.

What did I do after that? I ramped up my cycling and swim mileage. Dabbled in a few aquabike races. Have done a few Gran Fondo's. Some endurance rides/races (ex RAIN). Bike MS rides every year with a great group of friends that are current or former road racers where we work a tight paceline together for 75-100 miles for a great cause that is close to our hearts. Gravel races like Barry Roubaix. Looking to do a long open water swim race (5 or 10k) in the next year or so (got to swim around Long Island last summer...Long Island on Long Lake in Michigan..ha!). Discovered the joy of climbing 14ers out in Colorado. And a couple of years ago, found a grassroots triathlon called Sea to Summit in Maine and New Hampshire which has a "run" leg that ascends Mt. Washington. Did that race and loved it (other than the torrential rain we had most of the day which canceled the swim and prevented us from summitting the mountain).

There are so many different things you can do in this world if you are healthy and active and want to approach life as an adventure. Do I miss running? Heck yeah! But the list of things I want to do activity-wise is only growing longer....point to point mountain bike or gravel bike touring in the Rockies, cross country bike trip, long open water swim race, do another Starky training camp, ride entire BRP, gravel races out the wazzou, Six Gap Century, Cherohala Challenge, Blood/Sweat/nGears,12 hour cycling challenge to see how many miles I can do on the bike, many more 14ers out in Colorado to take on...the list can go on and on.

Training for triathlon was a big part of my life for 20+ years. The same training still happens san the running, but rather than just being triathlon specific, the fitness is intended to enable the next adventure and compliments wanting to lead a healthy lifestyle. Lots-o-Fun-After-50!!

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Tad

It took awhile, but I finally discovered that its not the destination that's important, but rather the journey.

Maybe you could just run in races and not run train, but heavy cycling to compensate.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I would not do aquabike. Fastest swimmer is MOP at swim meet and biker lucky to finish cat 5 crit race. No competition. Do the individual sport meets/races. I did some crossfit 20.x workouts and that was a game changer, realization of how pathetic I am vs best on world

Like others said, consider other athletic interests, aquabike, triathlon relay. Or, half seriously, maybe your knee will tolerate race walking in the run leg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1sxFgTUbWo

Edit: sorry about the knee, should have said that first.
Tim

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Blog: https://swimbikerunrinserepeat.wordpress.com

Knee replacement in 2015 and the surgeon said no running. I miss trail running a lot. I ride the bike and swim but have gotten way out of shape since then (and moving to Tennessee) where I'm not really that happy. I've done a couple of aquabike races but it seemed anticlimactic. Sorry to hear about your knee troubles.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

If I couldn’t run anymore I would go all in on aquavelo, masters swimming, and cycling of all types.

Yeah, that was my wife’s suggestion, too. She said to focus on that, and I could walk faster than some “runners” at events (as she does, consistently taking podium spots in her duathlon age group events).

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

Yeah, this is what my wife does (hip surgery for labral year in 2009); she does sprint distance du and usually finishes on the podium.

A lot of it for me, I think, is the “ego” part of it...doing something to push beyond my limits. But is it worth future mobility difficulties? Probably not. As others have stated, it’s the journey, not the destination.

Maybe I can convince her I need a faster bike to make up the time lost from walking instead of running during events... ;)

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

Yes, I am in the same boat. I'm 62 and have been running all my life. I was very competitive in my 20s and 30s but years of high volume running was catching up with me in my late 40s so I switched to triathlon full-time. Meanwhile, the leg issues continued to deteriorate until finally this past April my leg popped on a long run and the MRI showed all kinds of problems. I asked my ortho if he could get me running again and he said yes. Then I asked him if I should run again and the answer was a definitive no. He felt stopping now gave me a good chance of not needing a knee replacement (no guarantees) but that continuing would almost assure a future TKR. I can walk, bike, and swim without pain. Naturally, this was the year I had qualified for Kona via Legacy so I walked a validating 70.3 in May and the entire marathon at Kona last month. IM Kona was my 15th Ironman and my last triathlon ever. Not being able to run just sucked all the joy out of triathlon. I feel grateful to have run for over 50 years but needed to completely redo my bucket list given my limitations.

I do intend to race aquabike for a few years. But the reality is that only USAT Nationals and ITU Worlds have a large and competitive aquabike fields by Age Group while local aquabike races are typically scored simply by men and women without regard to age. So aquabike is not going to completely fill the void; and I am looking to extend my swimming and biking to participate in some long distance swim events (5K to 5 miles) and a bunch of multi-day, long distance cycling tours. I'm also looking outside of multisport to other activities, such as climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, hiking Hadrian's Way, walking the entire Camino Frances, and so on. I would never have aspired to many of these other challenges if I was still on the Ironman hamster wheel, but having a list of new adventures has me excited for the future. I hope you find whatever fulfills you.

Similar to others here, I've given any ideas of solo triathlon to the winds due to running issues. In my case, it was Frieberg's infraction on my left foot that resulted in surgery, and now every time I run I feel the same initial symptoms in my right foot. I'm just not willing to go through that again.

I've done a few triathlon relays, which were a blast, but I'm pretty much a full-time cyclist now. I find that I don't miss it all that much, but it took some time to get there. I'm still involved in the sport as a sponsor of a local multi-sport series, and I'm at several of their events throughout the season providing mechanical support as well as displaying a few bikes.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

I've thought about this a lot - I'd switch to cycling, and probably up my strength training for bone health. Would probably try to race the XC marathon MTB races, cyclocross, gravel, and maybe some TTs.

I think I'd gravitate towards the off-road scene for sure. My favorite part of running is getting away from people/cars etc when I run out on old dirt farm roads and single-track trails. The idea of road racing would only appeal if I was living in an area where I had the ability to ride beautiful routes - somewhere out west, like Wyoming/Colorado/California/Utah/Montana. In my current situation, where the majority of my riding outside of races has to be indoors, I wouldn't do it. I'm fine with being stuck on the trainer during the week for anything under 90min, but I'd want to be able to get in those outdoor 4-6hr rides.

I think about this a lot...I started competing in endurance sports at 13, I'm in my early 20s now. Joined the Army in college and it has aged my body (back, neck, shoulders) far quicker than anything else has. I want to be able to be active forever, because I'm a grouch without it..and at times that's made me wonder if I should hit the brakes on hard running training (and switch to cycling) at an earlier age to preserve myself a little.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

So do you know if you're able to racewalk without knee pain? The loading, especially on the knees, is very different than running (and also distinct from regular walking).

I've tried a little bit of racewalking just as cross-training (have not yet cracked a 10-minute mile; I'm maybe 60% slower racewalking than running at equivalent effort). I think it might actually help your core and arm strength for swimming more than running does; possibly your kick too. I previously looked for posts about what ST'ers say regarding racewalking and didn't find very much, which suggests it's pretty uncommon (/that triathletes don't need a 4th discipline). Would be interested to hear training updates if you end up going down this route!

My running days are long since over, 37 years now. I was very disappointed at the time but other things filled the void. When I more or less retired a few years ago and had time to train and do the things I enjoy on a daily basis I thought I would maybe get on a relay team for the St Anthony's Triathlon and do the swim or bike. Then I thought about doing the whole race and just walking the last leg. I even bought a pair of tri shorts that sat in the drawer for 2 years. Aquabike is what got me back to actually racing.

Most aquabike events are run concurrently with a triathlon so I'm not sure what walking the run does for anyone unless it's a triathlon only race. If you can, just do the aquabike and get first dibs at the after race buffet.

It is true that the number of entries are smaller than triathlon but I still find competition by comparing myself to a larger age grouping. I also do a little Excel magic to create "virtual aquabike results" that include all the triathletes who are doing the same swim / bike course. It's not entirely accurate as the tri folks have to run but it gives me a better idea of where I fit in.

So OP, if you really can't run anymore embrace what you can still do and don't listen to anyone spouting their elitist bullshit agenda (again).

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

I’m literally on vacation sitting on my butt in Hawaii right now not able to run due to a hip bursitis thing that came up about a month ago. I was planning on running every day and now... I can’t.

I’m 39 and like many it is my ‘base activity’ and I really like it. Have big plans for hitting some HM PRs next summer . I even dropped biking off menu to be more run centric and that is probably what did me in.

My wife has enjoyed me not being distracted with ‘next workout’ or whatever. I’m being more present with the kids and looking at it like blessing in disguise.

Might have to shift back to biking which ain’t so bad!

Relay teams are the way I went. It lets you still train and hangout with your tri crowd except for the run training.

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Rebuilt with twice as many titanium parts as Portland79.

I got into triathlon as a swimmer and a runner. Cycling, once I really got into it, became my favorite. While I may or may not do anymore tris in the future, and a friend is currently pushing me to do more, I have gravitated towards doing bike tours. I have done the Blue Ridge Parkway, Colorado, Greater Yellowstone x2, Ireland, and am planning 9 days in Great Britain (LEJOG) and a week in norther Spain. I enjoy it more, meet some great people, and it gives me a reason to stay in shape. I do a little Krav/Muay Thai/kickboxing to balance out my training, but mostly I just bike now.

I try to remember that life is too short to fit a square peg in a round hole. I try to find what I can do that I enjoy. I still enjoy swimming, but a chlorine allergy I picked up late in life pretty much ruled that out for me. Rather than struggle to make it work, I just move on. YMMV.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

How about walking the run the portion of the event? There is a doc here in Clermont, and he will probably read this (lurker) and he will be the first person to say he doesn't move well (neither do I), but is getting a double knee replacement. Some of his issues are hereditary but he soldiers on just at a slower pace. Even did Kona last year. That grit and determination always impresses me.

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Have you ever done a bike race (mountain, road or TT) or grand Fonda?

Yes, I would find another Endorphin Replacement Therapy

Believe it or not, I'd probably skateboard more, as that gives me the same "gliding" feeling as a good run does - and I could incorporate many of the same ups & downs that i run now

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I've been thinking about this quite a bit recently. I've had a series of injuries - knee bursitis and PF, mostly - that are slow to recover from, so my running performance has been tapering off for years, not because of aerobic weakness (so much), but because of mechanical issues. I've been through a bunch of 'waves', 1st as a runner (HS, college) then mostly cycling (20's-40's) because I was injured too frequently running. Then, a period during my 40's-50's where I was able to balance running and cycling enough to be moderately fast (duathlon) and not injured too often. But I'm now swinging back to running injuries despite low volumes and intensities. So, now what? This thread has been helpful - keep up the good suggestions and positive attitudes!

I raced XTERRA for a couple years, and did a couple standalone MTB races...got my ass handed to me each time, but had fun. :)

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

This is where I'm leaning (red text); at least then I'd be still participating "fully".

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

This has been a good discussion; all the input has been very insightful and helpful.

After seeing my OMT yesterday, she put my knee back in place and my pain is gone. Turns out I had some rotation of the tibia which was pulling things out of alignment, causing the pain. She did agree that I need to be careful and keep an eye on things, but she didn't discourage me from continuing to run.

So for the time being, it's back to normal training (albeit with a regular regimen of stretching and ibuprofen, the latter as needed).

Still gonna see if I can convince my wife about the faster bike, though... ;)

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

I feel your pain, as they say. I have basically stopped running after two knee surgeries and at age 64 dread the thought of a TKR. I am on blood thinners for another condition and this would add to potential TKR surgery complications. So, I made the judgement call in 2015 that racing and training was a poor long term choice. My doc said, I'm in the "gray area" of whether I could avoid a TKR if I kept running. That was all I needed to hear to "mostly" stop. Once in a while I will go for a short 20 minute jog on soft surfaces, but not very often. I don't have pain, or swelling, but I know I'm asking for trouble if I keep doing it. So, I swim, bike, XC ski, row, walk, hike, and have gotten in to weight training consistently. I raced and trained for seriously for over 40 years and it was a big part of my identity. But, there is a lot more out there than Triathlon, and over time that discovery can be very liberating. Yeah, you'll gain a few pounds, but it might be worth it.

Sounds positive!

I’ve been in the same situation for a number of years, 18 months ago I reluctantly decided not to try and run anymore but to ‘baby’ my knee as I want to remain fit and active into retirement.

I’ve since gotten into Rowing, first on the indoor Ergo, then on the water. I mix this up with cycling, training for Grand Fondos and Gravel Events. I’ve been running competitively since the track at High School, and I truly love running, but sometimes you just have to take the long view.

Learning a brand new sport has been great, rowing is very technical - much like swimming well! So I don’t miss the running and look forward to getting out on the water with the same passion as had getting out for a run.

I’m now having some keyhole surgery done to tidy up the meniscus and clean out some debris that’s visible on the scan, that should reduce the lockouts that I get. I’m at peace with a future without running, as there’s a lot more challenges out there that will keep the motivation high, acquire new skills but most importantly keep fit.