Hi folks!
About a year ago, I gave myself patellofemoral syndrome. At first I thought I'd overtrained, but turns out it was mostly wrong posture, resulting from unwittingly correcting a foot deformity I didn't know about. I also gave myself osteoarthritis in both knees and one hip from it.
Anyway, I got orthotics now, and can run pain free with them+taped knees. So I'd like to start again.
Thing is, most training plans I can find are aimed at either people who are in training, running wise, or starting from 'couch', ie, being mostly or completely sedentary. I'm neither, as I've replaced with walking 5k+ per day most days and swimming 1.5k (breaststroke, keeping my head over water, and in just under 40 min if it matters) once or twice a week.
I also hike, but not all that regularly. Did 20k with 300m altitude (I know, more of a long brisk walk than a hike) last week and it didn't cause any pain during or after. Just in case that's a relevant clue.
Since my pool membership is running out and running is virtually free, id like to get back into it now that I'm mostly pain free and have my orthotics. Does anyone have a link or advice for how to pick it back up without doing more harm than good?
tia!
I'd say avoid high intensity runs for a while, keep a relatively low pace and don't be afraid to walk at times. Running down hills is particularly hard on the knees, so try to avoid that.
At times I've been coming back into running post-injury, I have found making sure I have new running shoes is a big help, as well as trying to run with a very high cadence. My normal cadence when running slow is about 165, but when recovering I try to run close to 180 steps per minute. Doing after-run exercises like calf raises also helps.
Thanks for the tips! Now that you mention it, too-high cadence might very well be a big issue of mine. I've noticed I even do that while walking too: my non-leisurly walking pace, that I keep when I'm walking to work or running errands, is like 7km/h. So I'm taking some big ass steps (I'm 172cm), which is probably not the best idea. For sure even worse when running, with the higher impact.