A sore knee makes for a concerned Jenn

I guess I've been lucky because up until this point in my "athletic" endeavors because I've never had anything hurt. This week I started to have troubles with my right knee and now it starts aching after I've been running about 15 minutes. I remember when I started out last year, I stayed on nice padded surfaces because I was worried about aggravating my knee.

It all goes back to an Outward Bound backpacking/mountaineering expedition that I took in 1998 in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite. It was an 8 or 9 day trip and we had to carry pretty heavy packs since we were going into the woods for so long. Around day 6 we climbed to a peak and had to descend in flurries and drizzle - it was a bit scary that's for sure - at one point as we were coming down a scree covered slope, I felt something pop. At the time there wasn't much I could do except keep descending to our camp. I ended up taking a ton of ibuprofen and hiking out the last 2 days in excruciating pain with every step. It was probably made worse by the fact that we were descending most of the time at that point which put even more stress on it. By the time the expedition ended, I had a horrible limp that lasted for at least a week and the pain took several weeks to completely go away. I was underinsured at the time so I never had it evaluated.

Anyway, in the years since that happened, every now and then when I'm lifting something or move a certain way, I might feel a shooting pain in that knee. I'm guessing that since I'm actually following my training plan and upping my miles appropriately, I'm finally reaching the point where my knee is rebelling.

On Wednesday, I had shooting pain during my run that was quite uncomfortable so I iced and rested for a day. On Friday, it was just a bit sore at times during my 3 miler. Today was my big test since it was my long run. I took more frequent walk breaks hoping to rest it, and still managed to do 9 miles. It's definitely sore and the discomfort during the run was bearable but worrisome.

I'm not sure what to do at this point, I guess I'll continue to follow my training plan but take it easy and walk more frequently if I have to and ice after each run. I think I'll try to get some different shoes, maybe that will help - and maybe if I wish hard enough it will just go away???? I can't have a bad knee this early in my race season!!