Prepping for 10K and knee pain

[Alfred Day 90]

I'm at 109 pounds down from my starting weight and 73 pounds down from my surgery weight. I set a "mega" goal for myself of running a 10K at Disneyland over Labor Day weekend.

Things have been going well. I started with walking on the treadmill pretty briskly and then moved to a run walk cycle after I dropped into the 200's. I have worked through some significant hip pain from my osteoarthritis and my endurance and breathing are improving almost daily. I'm using one of the couch to 10k apps on my iPhone and on Sunday I went for 72 minutes/5.4 miles and felt pretty good.

But Monday morning I woke up with severe knee pain and stiffness in my right knee which has prevented me from doing aerobic exercise for the last 4 days. I'm well enough to start back tonight, but I'm curious what other folks have done to address/alleviate knee pain. My runner friends have already recommended a good pair of running shoes which are on their way. I'm also going to try to adjust my gait to land more on the ball of my foot rather than the heel.

Any other advice from folks who have done running while still carrying a significant amount of weight? I'm currently at 288.

[Newme17 3,444]

Ooh...knee pain and running. Well, I'm no doctor. But I am a daughter of a physical therapist and I would have to say by what he would tell me "you shouldn't be running with the extra weight and knee pain"

Every one pound loss is 4 pounds of pressure taken off the knees. Congratulations on your 109 weight loss, that's 436lbs of pressure off of your knees!!!! WOW!

But also, please listen to your body. Pain is usually screaming when something is wrong. Yesterday I went for a walk, a very long walk, my knee started acting up. I stopped and rested. Then I finished (only because I had to, to get to my car). Needless to say, I won't be taking any long walks for a while.

Have you had your knees checked? Are you in therapy for your knees? Anything?

Hope you find a great solution--cause that 10K sounds awesome!

Edited March 16, 2017 by Newme17

[Berry78 4,261]

This is one of those big picture examination times.

Running is not causing weight loss. It is helping your cardio vascular fitness, but walking the same distance will do as much or more for weight loss.

Injury at this stage can lay you up for weeks or months, and you won't reach your goal.

Consider this your body's way of warning you against running for now. Swimming is good cardio, as are elliptical machines. Look for low impact activities while waiting for the weight to come off.

Walk, walk, walk. After you have dropped another 50-60lbs, start jogging a bit and see how it goes.

Congrats on the weight loss! You are doing great!

[Alfred Day 90]

Here's the update.

I laid off running for about a week (still walked and swam) and did ice the knee a bit. Changed to new, professionally fitted running shoes and watched a bunch of videos that taught me that my posture while running was completely wrong. Started running again this week and no knee pain to speak of. Still have a bit of stiffness if I don't cool down efficiently and still working through what to do about the arthritis pain, but overall a significant improvement.

[hmills653 365]

If it's from osteoarthritis my doctor just gave me some info on gel injections to help nourish the list cartridge. I just got a steroid injection yesterday. But the gel can last a year or two.