Up until November (6 months ago) I was a somewhat serious runner, around 40-miles / week. I never had knee trouble. Now I’m just starting to run again, 2 weeks so far. And, sometimes I get this little muscle twitch on the inside of my right knee. Also, I’m having to put an extra 10-pds of stress on my legs.
The first few times the knee twitched, I shut down, walked home, and was a little afraid. Nothing hurt, at all. I just was so worried about getting injured again. Yesterday, again I had the knee twitch and again it didn’t hurt. So, I finally said “fck it.” and kept running. I ran very slowly, walked where it was downhill, and made it home no problem.
(1) I’ve not run in 6 months. And, I’m hauling around an extra 10-pds relative to when I last ran. Should I be worried about this knee twitch?
(2) Does trying to run in a way to avoid injury just increase the chance you will get injured? This is what happens in (American) football.
Basically, I want to open-up the throttle on my runs. But in the longview of things, I’m very happy to hold-back until I can confidently / safely start running again. What is it with this twitchy knee??
I don’t think it’s wise to “open things up” just yet…but I also don’t think you have a lot to worry about. The lack of pain is a great thing. I’m also assuming no swelling…?? I would continue to run your “normal” gate, trying to be as biomechanically efficient as you can be. Continue your slow, base, endurance runs for a couple of weeks before increasing distance or pace. Obviously if you have pain stop.
Hope this helps.
dont change your running gait. This coming from the idiot who has a sore left hip because my right calf was sore last week.
this thread is very interesting. i’ve felt the exact same thing about 3 months ago. told my coach that i need to lay off the runs for a little, and i worked on getting the legs stronger in 3 months. i dont feel pain. if a muscle or tendon was tore, then it would be pretty swollen according to a few people i spoke to. i get the twitch again yesterday and i’m thinking its from my weekend’s very hard training (73 mile bike ride and couple of runs of 7+ miles). i didnt feel any mishaps during training. right now, i’m attributing it to some sort of spasm and possible lack of electrolytes (theory). i’m testing it out. let me know how your resolution goes though. it scares me since i dont have a background in running, and just recently been running heavy.