With a race coming up and knee pain, I had to find alternatives to training.  I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt my knee more or get myself to the point where I end up with chronic pain or do damage that may give me arthritis in the knees when I get older.

So I scheduled an appointment with my primary care doc and I’m hoping he will tell me good news like “just ice it, wear a knee brace, cut back on the mileage or do some of these other exercises to strengthen your core and quads and you will be good to go.” I don’t want to hear anything along the lines of injections, pills or surgery….or infinite rest!

I don’t know how this knee pain happened. The only switch I did was go from pavement to treadmill. I have been running on the streets since 2009 all the way till this winter, when I switched to the treadmill and haven’t really hit the streets much. I usually set the treadmill for a slight incline to mimic street conditions but I thought treadmill running was suppose to be better for the knees! Maybe it is something out of sync with my hip and knee and ankle alignment, which can cause a whole host of issues.  Often, experts say that weak muscles in other parts of the leg can cause knee pain too (not giving the knee the right support, etc).  Time to cross-train!

So while I wait for the doctor’s appointment to arrive, I’ve switched to trying alternatives for cardio. Stationary biking was waaaaay too boring (5-minutes felt like an eternity).  I tried the rollerblading machine for about 25 minutes and that was ok except my knees still felt kinda sore. From past experience, the act of rollerblading (or ice skating) does put pressure on the knees so I stopped using that (though great for the glutes).  Then I tried this Precor AMT100i machine today and it was good. I was able to “jog” 5k in slightly better time with less strain on the knee and it was still a brutal workout. (I have to figure out how to belly breathe because this shallow chest breathing I’m doing is horrible for my body and doesn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs — I’m constantly gasping.)   The knee still feels tight and there are some twinges of pain but much better than pounding the treadmill.  I think I will give this another go until the doctor gives me some advice.