Yesterday, I hit the treadmill for an easy three miles followed by some upper body strength training. The three miles on the treadmill actually made my knee feel better than it did before I started. That was a good time. In the spirit of caution, I skipped the weights on the lower body and just did an upper boy workout. I moved quality workout #2 (a tempo run) up to today, saving the short intervals (Q1) for Thursday.
It was fairly cool out when I left the house, but my warmup mile took the chill out of my body and I hit the park for a planned 40 minutes at 7:25 pace. I focused on keeping things relaxed through the first mile or two and that worked out well. Halfway in I was a little off the pace due to some traffic stops and I really pushed the second part through a strong (20 MPH) head wind along Tampa Bay. The tempo portion wound up being 5.38 miles in 40:04 – an average of 7:27. I finished at an easy pace to round off the total run at 7 miles. The left knee felt fine until about 5.5 miles when it started to tighten up a bit. I was able to still maintain the tempo pace, though.
I can tell the knee tightness is emanating from my rear. Specifically, I’d narrow it down to the Gluteus minimus. That, coupled with a tight left calf I think is hitting the knee from both sides and the knee cap is not tracking quite right. With stretching and massage, I can make the tightness go away, so it’s not anything too major. It’s just a decision whether to take a day or two off now to let things loosen up before strengthening the muscles again. I’ll see how it feels in the morning before deciding.
Try using the pigeon pose. Its a yoga position that stretches the gluts, groin, hips and knee. It helps with lower back pain too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVlX5HNKamw
I had an issue with tightness in my knee that lasted quite some time. Turned out to be my IT band and soleus pulling on it from each side.