Hi all,

Here I am a quarter of the way into the XC season and doing lots of grass verge, hills and generally muddy field running.....in fact anywhere with the slightest tinge of green or brown I'm running over it.

For the first time I seem to have picked up a 'knee niggle' which is a dull pain just below and behind the kneecap prevelant especially when I'm walking up the stairs. I think this has been caused by the running style where I need to lift the knees up further than I would do due to long grass whilst I was road running.

Has anybody experienced this? and if so how did you cope with it.

I intend just to 'turn the wick down' a little on my 40+ miles a week running for the next couple of weeks in preparation for my next XC race in Gloucester, and maybe move some of my runs back onto road to prevent further issues, plus of course lots of smelly rubs on the knee.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Derek,

Have you checked what your GP surgery offers?  i was very surprised to find that my surgery had a muscular skeletal specialist GP.  I was able to see her within a week and (joy of joys) it turned out that she was a fell runner and so I wasn't given the standard advice of 'stop running'. Some good stretches, encouragement and advice and I was as good as new in two weeks.  I was doing 20 mile runs once a week and that was too much for the old body without any other intermediary training.

So, worth a shot to see if you can get something from the GP.  But, given the symptoms, it is likely to be something that stretching a bit more will help (exercise balls are great for this), as would some more cross work instead of running - how many miles are you doing on the bike each week?  I wouldn't recommend going back on the road - I've always found off road to put less stress and strain on the muscles and joints than road.

Pain going up and down stairs is a suggestion that it is muscular/tendon (although I'm not an expert) and that it needs to be loosened off.  Apparently runners are prone to very tight muscles which then cause pain when required to 'stretch' on things like steps. I would be surprised if it were caused by the long grass...

Oliver

Thanks Oliver for the advice I need to check out the local surgery soon for a cholestrol test. I did go out yesterday against my advise to check to see if there was any particular part of my running that causes it. I put on a knee bandage for good measure, and ended up doing 10 miles XC with hills at easy pace, and in that time there one or two twinges but couldn't put my finger on it.

Everything seems fine today I might put it down to man pain, but I'm keeping a close eye on the situation and also get it checked out when the opportunity arises.

Thanks Marge it makes sense as I'm up to 45 miles per week mainly on rough terrain. I am also considering incorporating into my warm ups things like a couple of reps of one leg squats and some other non weight exercises from my big book of muscle beach routines, mind you it's so old it has Arnie and that chap Lou Feringisomething from the Hulk in it striking some poses.

Hasta la vista baby.

I'll try the sliding down a wall exercise, although I think the only time I done that was at last years xmas party but the memory was a bit hazy at the time, as was the vision.