Run Run Away

Question:

I went for my longest run yet yesterday afternoon (14 miles). I have done several 10 and 12 mile runs. I ran at a fairly easy pace, didn’t push too hard, and felt good, though my legs were a little sore from about mile 5 onwards. I have not increased my weekly mileage by more than 10%. By the time I went to bed last night, I had a pretty sharp pain in the back of my knee. When I woke up this morning I had trouble walking properly. This does not feel like a "tired muscles" or "lactic acid buildup" kind of pain. The pain is right at the crease on the back of my right knee, towards the inside of my leg. Bending my knee seems to alleviate the pain, any kind of calf stretch or straightening of my leg aggravates it. Just walking hurts.

I forget what muscle this is, but there is one that kind of wraps around the back of the knee starting from the upper inside portion and going diagonally downwards across the back of the knee. It attaches on the upper outside of your lower leg. It sounds like I have had and occaisionally still experience this type of problem. Sometimes, when I try and do a deep knee squat, its difficult to get down, but once I do, it pretty much clears up. One thing I’ve theorized is that the shoes I was running in gave me too much motion control. That is, they tilted my feet outwards too much when they hit the ground. What I’ve done has been to go for shoes that have a milder correction to them. The ones that seem to work the best for me are the Nike Structure Triax. They have some motion control, but not a lot. It seems also, to get more irritated when I go up big hills, (1000 ft or more). Again, however it seems to be quieting down. I do a streatch where I prop the leg up and reach for the toe and try and pull it towards me, that helps. I also do a streatch where I bend over, but before doing that I point my toes inward and make sure I keep the knee straight. It doesn’t seem to be bothering me much these days and I am in the throws of serious Quadrupple Dipsea training and am doing major hill work. Good luck! Does this sound at all familiar? Any advice on what this might be and whether or not I should worry about it? Is it possibly related to ITBS (which I’ve had in the past, but which hasn’t troubled me for about 8 months now)? Thanks in advance — Carrie Pascal Microsoft Corporation

Barth’s Retreat BBS, San Rafael Ca.

Response:

I went for my longest run yet yesterday afternoon (14 miles). I have done several 10 and 12 mile runs. I ran at a fairly easy pace, didn’t push too hard, and felt good, though my legs were a little sore from about mile 5 onwards. I have not increased my weekly mileage by more than 10%. By the time I went to bed last night, I had a pretty sharp pain in the back of my knee. When I woke up this morning I had trouble walking properly. This does not feel like a "tired muscles" or "lactic acid buildup" kind of pain. The pain is right at the crease on the back of my right knee, towards the inside of my leg. Bending my knee seems to alleviate the pain, any kind of calf stretch or straightening of my leg aggravates it. Just walking hurts. Does this sound at all familiar? Any advice on what this might be and whether or not I should worry about it? Is it possibly related to ITBS (which I’ve had in the past, but which hasn’t troubled me for about 8 months now)? Thanks in advance — Carrie Pascal Microsoft Corporation

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I went for my longest run yet yesterday afternoon (14 miles). I have done several 10 and 12 mile runs. I ran at a fairly easy pace, didn’t push too hard, and felt good, though my legs were a little sore from about mile 5 onwards. I have not increased my weekly mileage by more than 10%. By the time I went to bed last night, I had a pretty sharp pain in the back of my knee. When I woke up this morning I had trouble walking properly. This does not feel like a "tired muscles" or "lactic acid buildup" kind of pain. The pain is right at the crease on the back of my right knee, towards the inside of my leg. Bending my knee seems to alleviate the pain, any kind of calf stretch or straightening of my leg aggravates it. Just walking hurts. Does this sound at all familiar? Any advice on what this might be and whether or not I should worry about it? Is it possibly related to ITBS (which I’ve had in the past, but which hasn’t troubled me for about 8 months now)? Thanks in advance- Carrie Pascal  Microsoft Corporation

Checking to see if it is the Calf which is your problem: The muscles above the Achilles tendon, soleus and gastrocs are suppose to do what muscles do: Contract and relax. Your calf muscles may be contracting but only partially relaxing. Where you may be feeling it is at the origin of the calf muscle(s) When a knot in the calf occurs it tightens up to protect itself and won’t let go when you stretch it. If you continue to stretch, you stretch the good muscle fiber on either side of the knot. It, over time, gets over stretched and joins the knot. The end result is that you end up saying, stretching doesn’t work. It would if only you could stretch the knot. First work out the knot in the calf. Sit down. To find it, put your belly

of the calf muscle over the knee of the other leg. Move the knee back and forth in the belly of the calf and you should find the knot. Remember when a muscle is sore and contracts, in the contracted state it doesn’t let you know it’s sore, until you start to feel around. Put your calf muscle over your knee, a railing, the back of a chair.

Remember it’s the back of the calf muscle. You put the belly of the muscle over the back of the chair, or railing or knee. Slowly (lovingly) rotate it back and forth, that is side to side about a inch. Slowly move(slide) the leg up or down the back of the chair, etc. so that you "lovingly massage side to side the entire belly of the calf. Remember it you go too deep, too fast, too hard, you will only get the

muscle to tighten up even more—getting the opposite of what you want. But remember your body is a system, so you may take the pressure off the

tendon by your knee, but the calf may be due to an overly tight shin muscle which only partially relaxes when the calf muscles are contracting, causing the calf problem. And the shin may be cause by the quad or ham from the other leg being tight so that you get more impact on the leg with the calf problem caused by the shin problem caused by….. And the reality may be due to the way you sit at your desk all day in poor posture which causes….. Anyway, see if you can massage out the calf to relieve the Achilles. Then

you can slowly start to think about the form and style of running. Let me know how it goes with the calf. Remember, what I’m sharing is

folklore. That is, if it works use it. If it doesn’t, don’t give it any energy, Just chuck it out and look for something that makes more sense and works. Remember "DO NO HARM"

If that’s not the problem, then we can start talking about hamstring. — In health and on the run, Ozzie Gontang Maintainer-rec.running FAQ Director, San Diego Marathon Clinic,  est. 1975

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