Let me trot out this graph for the last time (I promise):
Before 2007, the more I ran, the more my knees hurt. After that, it doesn't make sense. Why did my knees get better even though I was running more?
Looking at my log, I see I was riding my mountain bike quite a bit back then. Let's add in the bike miles:
Hmmm. Seems to be a correlation between the bike miles and the knee health. It may not look like a lot of bike mileage, but those are not namby-pamby-"spinning"-at-110-rpm road miles. Those are hunched-over-the-handle-bars-pedal-mashing Turkey Creek miles.
The Bike
I started riding my mountain bike in 2006 because I couldn't run.
After a year, my knees got better and I could run again. I kept riding, all the while running more miles and getting faster. Then in the fall of 2011, I became obsessed with a sub-3 marathon. I mostly quit the bike and started running 6 days a week.
Cross Training
I have always been skeptical about the value of "cross-training". I always thought that the best training for running was running, and your legs will become as strong as they need to be. I only rode the bike to have something to do when I was taking a day off from running.
I put PowerCranks on the bike hoping they would make me a faster runner. It never occurred to me that the bike might be strengthening my legs and keeping me healthy. But maybe that was the case.
Shriveled Pepper
Last December I started getting injuries and taking a lot of days off. I still pushed hard in the races, which led to more injuries and more days off. I think my legs just got weaker and weaker.
Months of limping around and favoring my left leg actually caused my right quad to atrophy and shrivel up like a green pepper at Food Lion.
An Experiment
So back in July, I decided my new magic cure for Runners Knee was the bike!
My plan was to focus on strength instead of high turnover, so that meant a lot of high gear pedal mashing.
To make pedaling motion more like a running stride, I did the following things:
- Moved my seat as far forward as it would go, for a more upright position
- Put the seat up high so that my legs extended completely
- Slid the cleats all the way forward to allow my calf to flex
- Adjusted the cranks from 172.5mm to 180mm
But instead of 3 sets of 10, I could do thousands of reps as I commuted back and forth to work.
In July I managed to put in over 400 miles and only crashed the bike once.
Baby Steps
Slowly, I started feeling better. It might have been the biking, or just the time off from running. I was able to start running again, just a mile or two at a time. I ran barefoot, because the knee felt better that way. Coming into August, I struggled up to 12 miles a week.
Please, Not Another Race
Too many hard races had led to my crappy knee condition, so I vowed not to sign up for any more races until I felt healthy again.
However, Shannon and I had volunteered to photograph the Continental Divide 10K Trail Championship in Laurel Springs, NC on August 27.
For this, the organizers gave us free entry to the race, and I received an email that I was signed up.
6.2 miles of lung searing climbs and knee crushing descents? That seemed like the absolute worst idea for my recovery.
But I supposed I could walk it if I had to...
The Test
Nine days before the race, it was a nice cool morning. I decided to put the on the old shoes and head out to the trail for a 7 mile run. Just to see if I was capable of going that far. It was the longest since my Bayshore Bonk back in May.
The right knee still bothered me quite a bit, and the downhills hurt like hell, but not enough to stop me.
The thing that amazed me was how easy the uphills felt.
Considering I had only run 50 miles the last 3 months, it was quite a good run. Maybe the 900 miles I had put on the bike this summer had helped me even more than I had hoped.
I was suddenly looking forward to Laurel Springs...
NEXT: Continental Divide 10K Trail Championship
Aha, the secret!!!
ReplyDeleteI started biking again in the summer to get ready for an off road Tri in WV in August. All the sudden the hills seem a bit easier in Umstead. Is there a link?
You forgot to mention that your bike frame is made of copper. You're also making me want to get a bike. Seriously though, I was extremely happy to see photos of you in race attire. Not sure if you ran or anything, but at least you put on the gear. Baby steps. Kudos!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! Now, with the graph above, would you say your running speed increased or decreased as your bike miles ramped down, but before the pain cranked up?
ReplyDeleteIris- Yes it is copper. And I forgot to mention I do Yoga while I am riding
ReplyDeleteScott- Yes, I did get a little faster by spending all my time and energy running. But it was short lived. After a few months, I just broke down.
Biking? Ha! What you really should be doing is Crossfit! Or, is it CrossFit, with a capital "F"? Maybe it should be all capital letters. Yeah! And, make sure you talk about it all the time. ;-P
ReplyDeleteNow, excuse me while I go dust off my bike in the garage.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteSorry I did not know about your knee problems before the race. I would have been happy to look at you. I too have had problems with "runner's knee" since high school really. The best things that I have done are biking along with my running and icing CONSISTENTLY. That means icing even if my knees don't really hurt. Icing can actually slow the progression of arthritis. I have actually ended up having surgery on both of my knees, but more for other reasons than the chondromalacia. The thing that was best about the surgeries, as far as runner's knee, is that they allow me to do more intense strengthening. If you do go to more PT, be sure to go to a sports PT, preferably a runner. A PT that does not specialize in sports will just say stupid things like, "Why don't you just bike instead?" So that is my unsolicited advise, if you want more free PT advice I am happy to share.
Alison, thanks for the advice. Actually, icing did seem to work in past for me, I should start it again. The bike seems to be really helping right now, so I'll give that a chance before try PT.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I plan on avoiding those knee crushing hard trail races for a while :)
Hey AC,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are making progress. But I also wanted to sound a small note of caution. I spent twenty something years cycling before I started running, and I had knee pain for most of those years. Cyclists are definitely not immune to knee problems (though different), and the formula you described (seat forward, cleats forward on the foot, and grinding a tall gear) sounds like a recipe for knee pain. Maybe there's nothing to worry about if you are not going to be doing this 200 miles a week, but just a small caution.
Also, while I completely understand what you said previously about going to PT, how do you feel about doing strength training with a competent trainer? I just wonder if you could get the same benefits as the cycling (improved strength, stability and tracking) in a more direct and controlled way? Plus I'm not sure the cycling will do anything at all for lateral strength of the knee or all the proprioceptive pathways that would be important for trail running.
I mention this because I never did any kind of strength training in my life until recently when I started going to the same trainer my kids use (soccer players), and I have seen some real differences in strength, balance, and stability of the knees. As always, it's not magic and I still have my own chronic issues I have to live with, but I think we probably live close by and if you want to check it out sometime I'd be more than happy to have you join me.