I've had knee pain flare up over the past two and a half weeks. I haven't had knee problems before but I'm pretty sure it's patellofemoral pain syndrome, the pain is under my knee cap.

I'd been following the BarryP program and was loving it. I built up real slowly from 20 mpw in January to 40 mpw two weeks ago, and the pain started half way through the 40 mile week. I dropped back to 28 miles the following week, and only ran 14 this week including the Quassy olympic yesterday. My right knee isn't so bad but my left is pretty sore. I can still run, and it doesn't hurt as bad while running (or maybe I'm able to ignore it while running) but after running it's sore, especially when going down stairs. Ice makes it worse so I stopped trying to ice it.

I've searched through the forum and found some exercises people recommend for patellar pain (straight legs lifts, clams, isometric quad work, eccentric single leg squats, etc.) and have been doing those.

I have Mont Tremblant 70.3 coming up in less than 3 weeks, and then the Mont Tremblant full in August. I really don't want to loose the running gains I've made this season so I'm wondering if anyone has been able to keep up their running while rehabbing similar knee pain.

Do KT Tape or those knee straps help? If so, any recommended taping methods or preferred straps? Any other kinds of exercises or rehab that's worked for you? How much did you have to cut back mileage and for how long?

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I am going off verbal comments here without actually seeing how your body moves and what specifically is causing this pain during your movement. So take this FWIW, but I am speaking on experience with people that I have worked with successfully that have echoed your exact same comments.

I will echo some of the comments above.

I am not a big fan of. KT tape, it ***might*** be a very short term solution, but it will not resolve your issue.

Speaking from experience dealing with athletes that have been in your shoes, I have had a lot of success building more hamstring and glute strength. You can do the resistance band stuff, but if you really want to build strength I would recommend using progressive external loading as the most ideal solution. Box squats (more beneficial for cranky knees), along with RDL's, Deadlifts, Bodyweight hamstring curls (not the isolated machine options), will yield you great results. Of course the challenge is finding you a qualified strength coach that can prescribed your workloads correctly but it really is the best option.

If you do not have the resources to do it right now, I would recommend doing this at the latest in your off-season. If not for performance health, it will help tremendously for your full health going forward.