No turning back now - I would appreciate your help!

Thanks, and I appreciate the advice. I did pick up a really good pair of Brooks running shoes, but I got them at the Navy Exchange. Having run before, I bought what I thought I needed. Someone else suggested that I go to Fleet Feet here in Memphis to have shoes custom fitted to my feet and foot impact. I may just do that Saturday. It sounds like it could help with the impact.

Of course, the best thing I could do to help with the impact is to lose some weight. I could stand to lose a good 20 pounds. I'm starting to eat healthier and I've began to almost totally cut out beer. Now that's a sacrifice.

 

Wouldn't the transition from landing on your heel to landing on the ball of your foot be difficult? It seems like starting out you would be shredding your calves, and it seems like there would be a significant learning curve there.

 

I'll give that a try, because honestly, my knees are starting to give me trouble already. I have a few more questions about this.

If you try to strike mid mid-foot, does that change the type of shoe you should be wearing? I ask because I'm going to Fleet Feet here in Memphis tomorrow and when they look at my stride they're going to see that I strike hard on my heels.

If I'm going to try this, should I hold off on going to Fleet Feet? I don't want to spend even more money for a second good pair of shoes if they're not going to be right.

Lastly, I have orthopedic inserts in my every-day shoes for extra arch support. Should I try running with those? I haven't been using them yet.

 

It would seem the problem with my knees is getting a little worse. I did some homework today and decided to start taking a good multivitamin along with a magnesium supplement. I'm not the best at healthy eating, so I figured that this may help. I am changing my diet though.

While we were at the store my wife suggested getting some roll-on Icy Hot to put on my knees. We got home and I dressed out to run. My wife handed me the Icy Hot and said to go ahead and put it on. I was under the impression it went on after exercise. Oh well, I'd never used it and she had, so I used that roll-on stick to slather it all around both knees. It felt pretty good!..... right up until about a mile. I had no idea that liquid, especially sweat, turns Icy Hot into acid! Well, it felt like acid anyway.

I kept going and it kept burning more. I was stubborn and I was determined to get to the two mile point. By the time I got to two miles my knees were on fire! I usually do at least a quarter mile cool down - most days even more, but my cool down today was a fast walk to the shower.

Of course, I was in for a big surprise. When that hot water hit my knees..... HOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP! I flipped that valve to cold and I was a scrubbing fool. It didn't feel much better until I got out of the shower and dried off. Then I put on some shorts and tried icing my knees down for the first time.

THERE was the relief I was looking for. Unfortunately, I don't have any ice-packs yet so I had taken two wet towels and put them in the freezer. As they started to thaw out the water re-activated the residual Icy Hot acid. I was squirming a bit, but I toughed that out.

Now that it's all over, I'm dry, dressed and aside from what feels like chemical burns all around my knees, they feel pretty good. Now I know what I need to do the next time I run. :D

 

I finally decided to go and see my doctor about my right knee pain. It would appear that I have a "sprained" MCL in my right knee. It seems to be getting better since I skipped running yesterday. I'm not sure how long I'll need to rest it, but I'm not happy about having to stop for any length of time. Hopefully it'll clear up soon.

I've started working on strengthening my legs at the non-run day gym visits. Most people agree that the leg muscles not being in good enough shape is the likely cause of the injury.

I'll get the kinks worked out of this eventually. I'm glad I decided to start running early.