Message posted by: Bradley H.

I have an injury – pain at back of left knee – that doesn’t bother me for biking, swimming, and some other low impact exercises, but it seems to be caused/aggravated by running. I started seeing a physical therapist for it on Monday, and I expect to fully recover, but in the meantime I want to do things that will be a close substitute for running.

Background – my aerobic running base was really good before the injury, usually doing a long run of 3 hours or more on Sundays. I ran a half-marathon on March 29, and had done a couple of short runs 3 miles and a 2 mile transition run after biking, and thought I was all recovered. I was aiming for a 1 hour run the Friday after the race, but after 50 minutes I got pain behind the knee and had to stop. I did a couple of long bike rides after that, but I didn’t run again until last Sunday. I hadn’t run for over a week, the leg felt fine, and I had 6 weeks until my first triathlon, so I wanted to run for 1.5 to 2 hours. The pain started up about 5 minutes into the run, but I told myself it didn’t hurt all that much and ran for over an hour. It was hurting the rest of the day, and I felt like I might be making it worse – the pain is tolerable to run with, but the feeling that I might be damaging my body is enough to make me take a break.

Anyway, I expect swimming and biking to keep me fairly fit aerobically, but will do nothing for running speed. I tried an elliptical trainer at the gym, and that seems like something a little more similar to running, but without the impact. If I want to substitute the elliptical trainer for running, should I aim for a specific cadence and adjust the resistance to make it harder/easier or would it be better to keep the resistance low and try to move my legs as fast as possible? Should I spend time on the stair-climbing machines as well? I would be interested to hear from anyone who has substituted other exercises and managed to stay in good running shape while waiting for something to heal…

Brad

To view the rest of the post, please log-in to www.ontri.com

Juncture rip