You are doing the right thing by seeing the ortho. He will probably find no problem and prescribe some therapy. For now rest and ice.

Oh, did you mention your swim sucks like mine? Get in the pool you fool.

warm up (run or bike) and stretch stretch stretch.
back of the leg equally important to the front.
also check saddle height - could be a little low with the symptoms you describe.
better to cut down on the abuse and show not at your peak at the race, than to "polish off" your knee irreversibly.

yes, I agree--def don't want to hurt it anymore. that's interesting about the saddle height...I'll have to look at that.

a guy who used to be my personal trainer said I might have arthritis. that really scared me, especially since I'm only 29 years old.

i don't think my husband is supportive of me going back to the doc, but if it still hurts tomorrow I'm going no matter what he says!

Rest, lots of ice and a little advil do wonders with minor problems. If they are not helping, it's good to see the doctor as long as the doctor is competent for athletes (otherwise you might get a stop running for the rest of your life because it hurts your knees talk).

The good news is that with seven months of training done and only three weeks to the race, it's the perfect time to rest up for your race anyway.

find a good sports massage therapist too..they can work wonders too.

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Trying to find ways to pass the time.

"i don't think my husband is supportive of me going back to the doc, but if it still hurts tomorrow I'm going no matter what he says!"

My husband never goes to the doctor, and I'm pretty sure he thinks I go way too often.

But, I always think of these issues the same way I think about car maintenance -- if I want the car to be reliable, last a long time, and run smoothly, I take it to the shop for regular maintenance and to fix any little problems that might turn into big problems. I'm also especially vigilant if I'm about to drive the car across country.

Same with my body. Doctors are like car mechanics -- they're there to fix stuff and the earlier you get stuff fixed, the less likely it is the problem will escalate. If I want to perform under harsh conditions for long periods of time, I see the doctor whenever there is something wrong more than general training aches and pains. I also learn a lot about maintaining my health from docs. I love 'em.

I had something similar, also at the end of event-specific training. Pain/tightness was in that location, but diagnosed as a hamstring strain. Very weird - explanation was that sometimes the body will tighten up to protect itself. Look after yourself by looking for the worst, but hope for the best! Seeing a doc is the RIGHT thing to do.

Massage your IT band and stretch it out. I had IT band flare up back in March and did experience a little pain under and to the inside of my knee, even though most of the pain was local to the outside. After massaging the IT band for a couple of weeks my pain finally went away. Now I massage and stretch it constantly.

Since it's already sore, DON'T STRETCH IT! Not today. When you get the soreness at least lessening, THEN you can start to stretch it, but gently. Now is not the time to start a stretching regimen from the middle ages torture chamber series.

ICE. REST. ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES. And, don't freak out. You haven't done anything major. Yet. You'll be fine if you take it easy, check the seat height like someone said, and don't push it.

Oh, and MeowowoewowwprrrrrRRrrRRrrRRrrrrrr

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

Check your cleat placement on your left shoe. You may have it too far back. Also, did you run in "old" shoes? If they have more than 500 miles in them they should have been relegated to paint shoes 200 miles ago. :) (that's what I do anyway)

Finally, did you hurt anything on the RIGHT side of your body? Sometimes we strain a muscle in our right leg only to find the weakness leads to an imbalance that causes an injury to the left leg. Happened to me a few years back....

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

Don't sweat the arthritis. Very inappropriate for your former personal trainer to be suggesting that "diagnosis" to you. First of all the symptoms you describe do not sound like they are within the knee joint, soooo... not arthritis. Sounds more like Pes Anserinus tendonitis/bursitis. The Pes Anserinus is where the tendons of the Semitendinosus (a hamstring muscle), Gracilis (inner thigh) and Sartorius (anterior thigh) come together to form a common insertion on the inside of the upper tibia. Secondly, I doubt that your former trainer has the education/qualifications to be making this assessment.

I don't mean to bash the guy, I'm sure he's a great guy and probably a good personal trainer, but I spend a great deal of time in my practice as a physical therapist "de-mystifying" arthritis. It is a way overdiagnosed and overemphasized condition. There are so many people, especially athletes, who have arthritis and are asymptomatic (aka NOT in pain) that it's mind-boggling. Simply having a diagnosis of arthritis means nothing without symptoms.

Now, what should you do. Well first of all, go to your ortho doc and get a proper diagnosis, make sure you rule out any more significant problems. Get a referral to physical therapy. Avoid the aggravating activities (for me it was running and any form of the breast stroke kick), ice, anti-inflammatories, light stretching provided it does not increase your pain. Don't worry about losing fitness, you have been training for 7 months, it's not going to go away that quickly, and if you have been going at it that hard, you could use the rest. Better to rest now and have a healthy leg for the race than try to train through it and DNF.



Good Luck

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Dan Hollingsworth

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul." - Douglas MacArthur

I agree...the area of pain sounds like what I had earlier this spring which was Pes Anerinus bursitis (goosefoot bursitis). In my case it was caused by a perfect combination of factors: sudden increase in run mileage, a lot of hill and speed training, inadequate stretching and warming up, poor running technique, and doing my kick sets at masters swimming with breast stroke kicking. It took quite awhile to go away for me, but I think that's mostly becasue I kept running in order to get enough training for a marathon. I iced the heck out of it and took some strong anti-inflammatories and I was able to train through it and eventually it went away...good luck in getting healed up!

thank you thank you everyone!

I'm seeing the ortho tomorrow (and he specializes in sports. a year ago I told him I thought I was just too old to run...he talked me out of that thinking, told me I could even marathon again if I wanted to, and he got me up and running within a few months...this guy is simply terrific)

I'm turning 30 in December and things are starting to fall apart on me. I need more recovery time, I don't loose weight as quickly, my run is slower, and my arm has developed tendonitis from a previous surgery. At this stage in the game, I'm just thankful to be healthy enough to train--it's easy to loose sight of just being able to go out and "do it"--to run, bike, whatever. This little flare up has brought that perspective back.

I appreciate all the advice!

kittycat

Almost 30?!?! You are still quite young. And, the knee should get better, and you will be able to do a lot with it in the future. When I was a couple years older than you, I had knee surgery. I have run all six of my marathons since the surgery. Since your knee seems in much better condition than mine was then, you will do fine in the future. Good luck.

You should have told us you were almost 30. You should probably just pack it in then. You are just too old for this stuff.

jesus dude

LOL very funny. seriously I had coaches that always said after age 25 it's over. when I was 28 and very hurt, I thought for a minute it could be true. now I know better.

don't rule out chondromalacia (sorry, spelling) or plica syndrome. I had an easy athroscopic surgery where the doc took out my plica, which is a vestigial ligament (or something like that, that you don't really need but can get inflamed). Doc said it was actually very common in triathletes, so if there is knee pain and he knows the patient is a cyclist/triathlete, its usually the first thing he looks for. All's well with the knee now, but only if I can get my back to cooperate! And I turned 30 in February, and am getting faster. ITs good to start out slow in your 20's!