UKC

My left knee started hurting a week or so ago, pain at the bottom of the kneecap and seemed to spread under the left side of the kneecap. Initially it hurt at rest but not while in motion but last night I ran 3.5 miles at 7:30 mins/mile and pain started then and had to stop and walk. Pain stopped although it kept waking me up in night. Today I'm OK if walking but as soon as I sit it starts to ache. The analysis showed 46/54 L/R prior to pain although I'm normally 49/51 Any ideas?

In reply to JimR:

The pain sounds, from your description, as if it is on the outside, not typical of patellofemoral pain syndrome which is usually more medial. Could be a cartilage injury or ITB syndrome. I would try seeing a sports physio if funds and time allow as these things unless traumatic usually represent some problem with form/muscle tension/training and will keep recurring otherwise. A good source of information to have around the house is the BMC Sport injury Guide which is cheap on Amazon or you could look at these blogs (there are four parts). The link for the first is below.

http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/can-you-cure-runners-knee-part-1/

In reply to JimR:

P.S. I wouldn't rush to the doctor - they usually just tell you to rest and give up running!

In reply to JimR: if it's in the middle of the knee , or rather started there patella tendonitis is a reasonable diagnosis. Compensating for this subconsciously can break other.

Short term - ice and rest. Longer term could involve strengthening, stretching, new shoes and others

In reply to JimR:

Your best bet is probably to take advice from random strangers on the internet, most of whom will diagnosis it as being the same as whatever it was that they last suffered from.

Under no circumstances should you see a sports physio of other competent professional.

In reply to JimR:

I seem to have exactly the same injury/issue. I failed to improve it by performing a series of IT band specific stretches (Dr Google sent me to read an article on Runners World). Eventually, and after several sessions with a brilliant physio, the root cause turned out to be in my hip (I would never have guessed it). So +1 for the physio. And good luck

In reply to JimR:

Could be some sort of repetitive impact strain, i used to have this a lot when i was doing a lot of running miles on the road as well as football. I still get it every now and again, but i found strengthening the muscles around the knee and a lot of bosu balance work really helped.

As has been said though i'm no doctor so take it with a pinch of salt.

In reply to JimR:

Saw physio this morning and he said it was ITB and told me to foam roll and stretch it.