Knee Pain?

[amyjeanne]

I JUST started running three weeks ago. I started out with VFF Bikilas because I was too chicken to go completely barefoot, but went barefoot a couple of times just for a 1/4 mile or so. Every run I would go out and see if I could tweak my form to be even more natural or efficient, or whatever. Bending knees, lifting feet, landing softly, I thought I was doing it all. I was doing fine until last week when I convinced myself that my heels weren't touching the ground enough. In my zeal, I may have let my heels stay on the ground too long because now I have this annoying pain on the inside of my knees near what feels like the top of my tibia. It's not sharp, just really uncomfortable and achy, almost like it's tight. Is that my MCL? Or something else? When would it be safe to run again?

Man, I'm such a n00b

 

[amyjeanne]

Oh, and I do plan on running completely barefoot when I can run again, at least until I have my form dialed in.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Please feel free to also ask the Docs in the Ask the Docs forum. We have a podiatrist, an MD, and three chiropractors there.

 

[BFwillie_g]

Ask the Docs for sure but I'll take a stab at it and suggest that whatever you're feeling, it's not serious. You don't have the kind of mileage to really damage something. I'm just saying, don't worry too much. It's a learnign experience: don't force the feet to fit your idea of what they should do. You can fool around with lot's of elements of running form, but should really just relax the feet and let them do their own thing.

imo