I know better, but I’ve been sort of ignoring some knee pain. For at least a few months.

I’m not really sure when it started. At first it was the left knee, which has given me trouble on and off for years. At some point, though, the right knee joined it.

I ignored it because it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t bother me when running. Usually there would be a little pain at first, but it would stop pretty quickly so I’d keep going. Kneeling poses and lunges in yoga were a bit irritating, though. And stairs definitely did not feel good.

It started getting a little worse this past week, where I had a couple of uncomfortable runs. So of course I turned to Dr. Google for some self-diagnosis.

I was pretty convinced I had jumper’s knee. Touching my kneecaps caused pain. After runs I would be stiff and sore. And I fit the description of Grade 2 pretty well — pain before and after training, but eases once warmed up.

Only it didn’t really ease up during my last two runs. Uh oh. Marine Corps Marathon training starts soon!

I found a few stretches and exercises geared towards jumper’s knee  (that I can’t find again but fortunately printed out!), and a couple other hip strengthening exercises. Actually I think all of the jumper’s knee exercises were also included on that hip strengthening page, and it also stressed stretching hamstrings, quads and hips. I decided I’d start doing these two or three times a week.

Even if that wasn’t the problem, it would be good to do this stuff regularly, anyway!

In the meantime, I realized I had a free half-hour massage gift certificate that was going to expire soon. Couldn’t let that happen! I booked the last appointment late Thursday afternoon so I could fit it in before my evening run.

Since our time was limited, I asked her to massage my neck/shoulders a little bit (since I’m always tense there), but really focus on the legs. She said she’d do my back if she had time … but no, my legs would not allow that. Yup, they were that tight.

I had even done yoga earlier in the day! The massage therapist asked if I stretched before/after running… yeah, usually not as much as I should.  And sometimes I forget.

I’m going to have to change that.

Because guess what?

I had absolutely NO PAIN during my run that night.

D’oh!

I didn’t expect a quick massage would be an instant fix. I knew my legs were always pretty tight, but I had no idea it was enough to cause so much pain!

This morning I ran a 10-mile race.  My knees still felt great! (More on that soon. But it went well!).

I do have the tiniest bit of stiffness, though, so I’ll be using The Stick tonight and buying a foam roller ASAP!