I’ve found a great, if a bit unorthodox, way of solving my knee problem: run like a bastard up and down hills for half an hour. Seriously.<\/p>\n
On the NDW100 I twisted my right knee and ankle at different times. The ankle repaired quickly, but the knee has been giving me problems. It’s like an internal swelling, that flares up after speed work and some of the longer training runs I’ve done in the meantime. After Saturday’s 17-mile run on the NDW and Greensand Way, with 2,500 feet of ascent\/descent, I felt really stiff all afternoon, evening, and Sunday morning. Sunday’s session was: run for 30 mins to warm,up, then pick a hill and aggressively hike up it, then run down it as fast as you can. Then repeat for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
I picked a short but steep hill which was very soft underfoot – not great for grip, but easy on the knee. I kept it light – well, not light exactly, but tried to make sure my landing foot was on toes and already moving back on impact, with a high cadence. It was quite tough, but not as tough as I expected. The weather was warm and humid, and I had a few strange looks from passers-by, plus a few comments and questions. The hill was less than 0.1 miles (about 0.07 miles I think) and I gave it the beans. I’d tell you how high it was but I can’t get my Garmin to sync. I was hot and sweaty throughout, but I didn’t slow down much – I roughly timed an up\/down near the start, one in the middle and one at the end, and I reckon each was about 90 seconds. I suspect I got slower on the way up but slightly faster on the way down as I got braver.<\/p>\n
When I got back home I RICEd, had a couple of Ibuprofen, and then had a bath. My knee didn’t hurt at all throughout the evening, and this morning it felt like I had new legs. This afternoon there has been a slight ache, but only slight.<\/p>\n
So there we have it – a cure-all for a knee problem: crazy hill repeats!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve found a great, if a bit unorthodox, way of solving my knee problem: run like a bastard up and down hills for half an hour. Seriously. On the NDW100 I twisted my right knee and ankle at different times. The ankle repaired quickly, but the knee has been giving me problems. It’s like an … Continue reading Knee problem – a solution?<\/span>