Started as a comment on Get Fit Slowly.
I’ve only been exercising regularly for about the last 8 or 9 years; prior to that I was actually disdainful of exercise in general, and very much in denial about how out of shape I was.
After getting into running for a few years, I started to have trouble with my foot; I’d pushed myself into running too far and too fast and injured my plantar fascia tendon (plantar fasciitis). I ignored it for a while but it got really painful, especially in the mornings, so I started to treat it with regular, twice-a-day icings, stretches, and lots of ibuprofen. Oh, and I cut back on hill work and cut back on miles, and added bicycling for a while (a few months) until I was pain-free. It comes back from time to time, but having the right shoes helps. The last couple of years, I’ve been working on paying off my debts (thanks to Get Rich Slowly, among other sites, for the inspriation!) and so I neglected buying new shoes every year. So I’ve been running in the same shoes for far too long. I ran my second-ever half marathon this summer in old shoes, so it’s no surprise that I started having pain in my knee during and after my runs. Then I ran a 5K race on Mt. Tabor, followed by a steep trail 10K three days later! NOT GOOD FOR KNEES. I did not let this go too long before treating it the same way I did my plantar fasciitis: ice immediately after a run and a couple of times a day, heat pad in the evening before bed, lots of ibuprofen, cutting back on miles (and even taking two whole weeks off from running entirely), and most importantly, new well-fitting shoes! I also found some exercises to strengthen my quads, which is good for me in general and which weakness exacerbates knee problems. I think the most important part is learning to not go out and run at all while I was healing. I made sure to do other exercises (I found some aerobic workout videos on YouTube to work out t0) so that I could maintain my overall goal of staying in shape and losing weight. Even now, I’m cautious about too many miles and too much hills.
