Anterior Knee Pain (any trainers/orthopods out there?)

Triathlon Forum
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About 4 years ago I dislocated my patella, tearing the medial patellar retinaculum. After a rather long recovery it hasn’t given me any problems until a week ago. I went for a fairly easy run early Sunday morning with maybe a little minor soreness afterwards. I then went back to bed for a couple hours, and when I got up, my knee was really sore, espcecially around the medial and superior side of the patella. Thinking I could just train through it, I went for a bike ride the next day and it just killed after that. I’ve since taken a whole week totally off running anf cycling, along with some ice and NSAIDs, but it’s still a little painful.

If this had happened in the winter I’d take more time off, but I have 3 races in August including my one A race of the year. I think I’ve already blown any chance of having a good peak, but since all these races are non-refunable and non-transferable I would like to do them anyway. Aside from rest/ice/ibuprofen, does anyone have any advice on how to make this month a little more bearable? I’ve read a litle about McConell taping, but don’t have a clear sense on how to do it. I’m also considering doing some knee extension exercises to strengthen my vastus medialis (I was doing this in the off-season but stopped in the spring).

Thanks for any advice you guys can give me

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you can tape or band the front of the knee, just below the kneecap to provide some stability. special straps can be bought cheaply or made yourself. (a section of 1/4" diameter surgical tubing sewn inside of an elastic band, for example).

i’ve done the above during one training season, and it did help some. although i ended up also stressing the tendons at the back of the knee. be careful with this, because many of the patellar tracking problems are related not just to the front of the leg muscle imbalance, but also “inflexibility” (let’s say, ability to stretch) of the back of the knee.

as a final thought, i’d consider dropping at least the first race or two to recover/heal better. if you race with a mild, nagging injury, you can incur substantial damage that will either never go away, or will require surgery. that’s a lot costlier (in more ways than one) than losing a couple hundred bucks of entry fees.

(your sporting career/hobby is hopefully measured in decades’ long progress and health, not half a season and its entry fees)

good luck and speedy recovery in any case!

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Thanks Max.

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OK, just one shameless bump…