Runners! I have two questions for you.
1) Is this a thing, high fiving each other for running? And if not can we make it a thing? Because it was pretty great.
2) Having been told a few horror stories, I’m a little terrified of hurting my knees. This morning during a run, just as I was hitting my stride, I had a brand new, kinda sharp pain on the side of my kneecap. I stopped right away and just walked the rest of the route. I’m not sure if I was being paranoid or not, but… is there anything I should be doing to protect my knees while I’m running? I have very good shoes, so I’m not so much worried about that. I would very much like to keep running, but not at the expense of usable knees.
I see the high-fiving happening more often during races than casual running, but yeah, it happens.
With knees… everyone will have a different opinion on this, including doctors. BUT! A sharp pain on the side of the knee is probably your IT band, which runs down the side of your leg. And the good news is that IT band pain is something that is easily solvable. (Also I’d guess about half of all runners have had IT band issues at one point or another. Like shin splints, it’s something that comes with the territory, especially in the first year or two of running.)
There are a lot of great IT band stretches — I will let you find the ones you like the most, a web search will pull up a lot — but the one that *I* do every time before I start a run (and several times a day back when I had IT band pain) is to cross my legs so that my feet are next to each other but reversed, and then lean down to touch my toes. (Or as close as one can get to the toes.) It should be a slow stretch, but you will most definitely feel it. I’ll hold it anywhere from 1-2 minutes, then slowly come back up and switch the legs (right over left, then left over right) so that the other IT band will also get stretched.
Seriously, I swear by this stretch. It’s one of the three I absolutely cannot leave out before a run. Hopefully it’ll help you out too!
Oh yeah — and while I do this stretch before running, it’s also always good to do again after the run as part of the cooldown. Which I’m sure you’d already sussed out for yourself, but good to mention just in case.
Thank you Greg!! That’s enormously helpful, I’m so glad to hear it’s probably something simple and stretchable. :)
I like giving fellow runners a smile and a nod when we pass, but a high five would be so much better!
As for injury stuff: have you read “Born To Run,” by Christopher McDougall? It’s a fun book, definitely a page turner, but he also talks a LOT about feet and shoes and how to avoid the kind of strain that can eventually cause injury. Spoiler alert: he’s all for barefoot running! I was kind of eye-roll-y about that when I started in, but he makes some pretty convincing arguments. Anyway, it’s a fun book.
PS I love all the green in this strip.
So I used to be a runner (fencer/ swimmer/ dancer/ softball player/ other stuff) before I got seriously injured and made peace with my yoga mat. Stretches are excellent, and absolutely where you should start. Often it’s just about strengthening a certain area, so if you do weights you can also add different leg lifts to specifically target the area around your knee. If you go to YouTube and search “knee strengthening exercises” there are a bunch of helpful options.
But I will say, if it keeps up, gets worse, or gets more frequent, go see your doctor for a talk about knee braces and physical therapy. I’m a huge fan of PTs because they’re experts in teaching a person how to move without hurting themselves. And if they can teach you how to do things without hurting yourself before you *seriously* hurt yourself you get to do what you love for longer.
Have fun!
I wish I could run… I have fallen arches and if I run for long stretches I start getting annoying pain. I love bikes, though. Us bikers should start high-fiving, seriously! Why should runners get all the fun?
Quick comment on shoes… I don’t know how you went about buying them, but don’t base your choice on just anyone’s recommendation. You really need to have a professional look at your feet and how you walk/run to ensure you’ve got the ideal shoe for your particular gait. I highly recommend Murphy’s Fit in Evanston; the guys there really know their stuff.
As for high fives, I’m totally going to try to start that around my neck of the woods! :)
That’s a very good suggestion about the shoes, but I actually did go get fitted at a running shoe store. They analyzed my gait and everything! So I’m less worried about that. The more I read, though, the more I think it’s just that I’m still a bit new to running, and I just need to pay closer attention to my stride and how my feet hit the pavement. And I clearly need to stretch more, before and after running. I’ll get this eventually!
I like the idea of high-fiving on bikes, although I’m sure I’d end up falling over :D I can definitely bike a lot longer than I can run at this point, but I’m encouraged to find that running seems to loosen some of the muscles that biking tightens, and vice versa.
Also! @NomadiCat: Fencing!! AWESOME. My brother is taking swordplay lessons right now, rapier. It’s not formal fencing, but it sounds like it’s the same sort of general skills. He keeps talking about how physically taxing it is!
Yeah, runners especially in nice weather tend to be in a good mood and like seeing other runners!
Re: the knee pain I ditto the IT band comment and would highly recommend a foam roller, they are awesome! If you go on runners world and just type in IT band (pain, issues, stretches, prevention) you’ll find a ton of articles and should find some advice that makes sense to you and works for you.
Hee! Yup, swordplay is pretty much the bestest best thing ever. I used to fence (and teach) French foil, Italian foil, epee, and sabre, and I was learning singlestick and rapier when I got injured and had to quit. It’s definitely physically taxing, and the mental aspect is oh so sweet as well. I hope he has a blast!
SARAH! I will be running a 5k in Chicago Easter weekend. If I see you around, I will high five you, even if we are just on the EL.
Also- running. Still pretty much all pain all the time, so I can never tell.
I want that to be a thing! It’d get me to start running! That sounds like it’d be an incredibly encouraging thing to do for anyone doing anything.