dancerindenver: The only time I had really intrusive knee pain was when I trained for my full marathon. By the time I finished that race, I had to take several weeks off from running to let it recover. I attribute it to lack of cross training and strengthening while running too many miles. My prevention strategy now is to make sure I'm replacing those shoes at proper intervals, and to do plenty of stretching and lower body strengthening work. And I work all of the lower body not just the quads - hamstrings, quads, calves, glutes, inner/outer thighs etc. I"m not a big fan of weight machines, I do lots of squats, lunges, body scupting classes, yoga, etc (functional exercises). My theory is knee pain can occur when muscles get out of balance, because we're not working enough of the other muscles/tendons/ligaments. That, and I don't run the really long runs any more (20 plus milers), because I only train for halfs. I haven't had any knee problems since. YMMV, of course!
I sometimes sound like a broken record, I'm afraid, but I've seen it happen so many times ... new runners get so enthusiastic and go out and run too many miles, too soon, aren't doing any kind of cross training, don't know how to stretch, may not have the right shoes, and --- they end up with an overuse injury. I did EXACTLY that when I first started running, had a hip bursitis flare, and ended up with several weeks of physical therapy. And guess what they had me do: hold back on the running, stretch religiously, and do lower body strengthening exercise. When the pain got better, ramp up the miles more slowly. Voila, problem fixed! Fortunately it was early enough that it resolved quickly. But I learned a whole lot from that experience, including the immense value of cross training, strength training, and stretching. Every time I've developed a nagging pain somewhere (and I still get them), I can usually trace it back to one of several things: worn out shoes, neglected my stretching or strengthening, or increased my miles too quickly. Usually it's the shoes or the mileage. I don't want to sound preachy, but I've been able to run more than 1000 miles so far this year injury-free (and I'm 50 years old!), so something must be working. I've been lucky in never having anything serious like a stress fracture, that's another animal. Good genetics, I guess!
Smee: I wish running controlled my sweet tooth!! Unfortunately, the only way I can avoid sweet cravings is to avoid the sugary stuff altogether. Working out does make me feel happier and more in control, so I'm better able to stay on track with my eating plan when I'm exercising regularly.
Happy running ... today and tomorrow are cross-train days for me. I'm doing bridge repeats (South Florida's version of hill repeats!) on Saturday morning and the usual long run on Sunday morning. The marathon gals are scheduled for 18 miles. I did the 16 miler with them a couple of weeks ago, and haven't decided if I'm going to hang the whole time or bail at 15-16. Part of me wants to see if I can do it -- haven't run that far since full marathon training in 2002 -- and part of me doesn't think me wants to run for more than 3 hours!! I'll see how the spirit moves.
