After my first half a couple months ago (ok really about mile 9) my knees were protesting….100% sure it had to do with the screaming downhill a mile or so before. (Training volume was fine as I had been extremely diligent for the 17 weeks preceding said race).  Anyway, I finished the race and knew my knees were going to be pretty angry the rest of the day and possibly the day after.  Well it was about a week before I could walk around and not look like a cripple 😛

Fast forward to the present.  Knees had been very occasionally hurting when I ran longer than about 20-30 min.  I thought that was a little odd as I had regularly and comfortably been doing 60-80 min with no problem before.  It was especially noticeable on downhills or after doing any speed work.  Now I hate going to the doctor for anything, but they were bothering me enough that I thought I’d better be a responsible athlete and get them checked out before I really did something bad.  A few X-rays and 5min with the doc and there’s nothing seriously wrong.  Just a bit of runner’s knee 🙂  Go figure.  Now it’s just a mild anti-inflammatory and 8 sessions of PT.  Hope it gets better soon!

So here’s my thought – I think I run too fast in my speedwork.  Wait…isn’t that what speedwork is for?  Well I think I’ve come to the conclusion that speedwork doesn’t mean you have to sprint every time.  For me personally, it seems to just lead to greater incidence of (fortunately so far) minor injuries and lack of readiness for the next session – aka I’m toasted for at least 24 and usually 36 hours after a solid speed session.

This thought came after I did a ~30min TT on the track.  My knees were just occasionally achy before this workout and then really sore after.  They were probably healing nicely after the half and then I went too crazy on speedwork too soon.  I will admit, during speedwork, I do like to look at my data and see how fast I was able to go – so it becomes a bit of a competition with myself every time.

While this thought was rolling around, I happened to read a few articles by some of the pros, and there were several references to them not being allowed to run as fast as they wanted even during speed sessions.  Their sessions were capped at a certain pace, and only during a race or certain workouts were they allowed to really open it up.

Well that makes sense – burn too many matches too often and you run out of matches.

In conclusion, for the near future I will emphasize easier miles, well ok – minutes until my knees are ready to move on! When some speedwork is introduced, I’ll keep in mind not to run outside my abilities and give the fitness time to build.