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mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

Was wondering if there is such a thing as a cold wrap that can be used on the knee while running. My patellar tendinitis is acting up a litlte today, although ice this evening quickly helped relieve the pain. Working on getting away from the antiinflammatories.

Would be interested in knowing if cold application during activity is possible and beneficial.

Thanks,
Mike

Dan · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2004 7:34 pm Post subject:

I don't know if there is anything of the sort, but if there is, I would strongly recommend against it. Rule of thumb: heat before, ice after. You don't want to ice a joing while it's in use. Think stiff. Not exactly the effect you are after.

If you're experiencing undue pain on your runs, look to the cause of it and what you can do to pre-hab it. Trying to attack the problem during the activity is generally the wrong approach. Think illness vs. symptoms.

Dan
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mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

Dan · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:12 pm Post subject:

Well, one way to look at it is, the less circulation there is in an area, the less it needs to be stimulated to magnify the healing effect. People with joint problems tend to experience more pain in cold weather, so I'm assuming there's some causality there.

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:06 pm Post subject:

What heat will do is make the connective tissue more pliable. Another item to consider is your warmup. If you are able to do a 15-20 minute somewhat non-load bearing warmup for your joints, I think you will notice the difference.
Stretching: How much flexibility work have you done since surgery? Work on your quad and hamstring flexibility. If they have tightened up some, they can pull your tendons and ligaments out of their normal paths.
Don't be afraid to slow thing down a bit. Your body is telling you that the Half you ran just a week ago was a little more of a shock than you realized.
Work slowly up to the steady state running. If you were to break down a 5 mile run into, say, 20 400's, at the same pace, with a mere 20-30 sec walk in between, you would still get a lot of the benefits, but would allow your joints to decompress between repeats. As you feel less pain you can increase the length of the repeat, and eventually the speed. My personal feeling is that tendonitis from surgery responds well to work segments with short rest periods until everything is normal. That is just my personal opinion, I can't back that up with any hard data.
Dan is telling you, in my opinion, not to mask the pain. You have to have something to signal you if the pain is getting stronger. Taking an advil or aleve before you head out to just take the edge off would be acceptable, but you want to be able to monitor your body.
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Paul · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:10 pm Post subject:

Mike, don't be shy about starting a running log here. There are at least half a dozen+ people that are interested in your progression.
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mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

Dan · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 9:29 am Post subject:

Probably wise to not force the "action" so soon after a significantly longer run than you've prepped for. Give your body some time to settle back down after all that pounding before you try extracting speed from it.

mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

Dan · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:50 pm Post subject:

Hey, I hear ya. I've done a lot of debating with myself if I can get back to the level I expect to be at. But you spend enough time being injured and pretty soon you realize you have to just take what the body is willing to give. No more, and hopefully no less.

The best run right now is what you can do without pain. Steady pace at moderate intensity and distance is likely to be your best bet over the next week or two.

Dan
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Paul · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 6:23 pm Post subject:

I would still consider favoring the short runs with short rest breaks. If you are trail running and have a watch with a timer on it, you could set it for one minute beeps, run 3-5 minutes, then walk a minute, for example. When you start piling one trauma on top of another, you end up taking some serious time off or semi crippled. I've seen this with people who refuse to treat their IT Band problems.

As you encounter less pain, increase the length of the run portion. Before the end of the Winter you will be back to a point where you feel you can push some serious efforts. Give yourself a chance to decompress during these Winter months.

Use some friction massage all around your knee. Dan told me to do this and it works.
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Dan · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 7:38 pm Post subject:

Self-massage can definitely do a lot of good.

Dan
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mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

Dan · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 5:39 pm Post subject:

mlewis73 · Water Boy Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 89

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