I’m going to put myself out on a limb and say… most, if not all people who run, will probably experience knee pain (of some description)… It’s kinda unavoidable, given the knee joint is the largest in the body, doing a heck of a lot of work! I’ve been reading more about the ‘knee’, and was quite shocked at some of the facts. The scariest one for me personally, was that the load distributed over the kneecaps can be up to five times your body weight, especially while climbing up and down stairs…
The first run of the week, and my left knee, which has been very kind to me so far, decided not to be! It had me panicked for a bit. I just want nothing to hinder running at the moment, which is a total flip, because once upon a time (12 weeks ago), I’d be looking for any way out!! Turned out my knee was thankfully just messing with me, and whatever was causing the pain had shifted come morning.
This weeks attention has been drawn to my body parts more – knees in particular, for different reasons. I think at night my body has a meeting and it works out whose job it is to trouble me next. So, while Symonde sorted out these aches and tight muscles in another awesome, but painful massage, we got talking and I said to her, I often talk to my legs, knees and self while running… I just find that the pain often shifts with the acknowledgement of how hard they’re having to work to for me! Some will call me crazy, thats okay. But thankfully Symonde understood, and confirmed what I was doing, is actually good, and not so crazy afterall.
As I plodded past the other day, a neighbour yelled out “runnings bad for your knees” I just waved my reply, but in my head I’m thinking ‘sitting on my ass doing nothing didn’t really do anything good for them either,’ (but didn’t, mostly because I like to conserve my breath at all costs)!!! Which then got me thinking for the rest of the run, ‘Is running bad for your knees??’. I often write these blog ideas in my head, but just wish I could note them down, because by the time I get home, I’ve often forgotten…
I guess there’s pros and cons, there is with most things. I played netball all through junior and secondary school, mainly giving it up, because of knee pain, (and the rolling of ankles on yearly basis). But now… that I’m older and supposedly somewhat wiser, it seems different, yes I’m now carrying excess weight which is not good for knees, anyone who has knees, knows this! But I had to start, and because I started wisely this time, and Ray build me up slowly, my knees and the rest of me, have built up slowly too! And I can actually say my knees are feeling stronger than they did a couple of months ago.
It’s been a push to write this week, but guess I should note I ran my first 8.4kms, and all I could think about was a drink of water for over half of it. Thankfully the run came to an end near a friends house, and my thirst, was quenched!
I’m now looking forward to the fun run at Woodbourne with the kids and Nanny at the weekend. And the Kaikoura Whale Run looms ever closer!!!
– Lisa Harris
Lisa will be writing weekly as she continues her journey to achieving her goal of completing the 10km Kaikoura Whale Run. Check in next Tuesday for her next article.
Read Lisa’s article from last week here:
And all her previous articles are stored here:
http://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/lisas-journey/