Pain below knee. What is it? (Read 25607 times)

Hello. Ran a race yesterday, and have come out of it with something of an injury. Injury too strong a word, perhaps, as it seems pretty mild, but something is definitely wrong. I have a small bump on my leg just above my shin and below my knee. To be clear, everyone has it, not just me. I assume it is the top of the bone that makes up my shin. Well, I feel mild pain/discomfort when I step with my leg, right at that bump. Mostly it hurts when I go up/down stairs, and if I step on uneven ground a bit. The pain is definitely at that bump, and below the actual knee area. The spot is mildly sensitive to touch. I've had this pain before, last year in the same spot, but it occurred after I began playing (indoor) volleyball. I attributed it then to my jumping and landing on my knees which weren't used to it, but it always went away within a day or two of playing, and eventually stopped occurring altogether. This time is different in that it was just me running in a race, not jumping or anything. It was a big crowd, so there was some weaving at the beginning of the race, but certainly no jumping. Any ideas what this could be? It almost feels like I might have bruised the bone or something. Is that possible? Is there something else that is in that area that could be wrong? Ideas on what I can do to prevent this occurring/healing faster? Thanks for any insight!

I just switched shoes a little while ago, and have 50 miles on the new pair. The new pair is same brand and line (slightly updated) as the old ones, which had about 350 miles on them. Never had any issues while in the old pair. I did have some shin splint issues when I first got these shoes, but they went away after about a week (I normally get in about 15 miles a week).

I've been dealing with the same injury for about the past 3-4 months now. It's been getting better slowly. You might have patellar tendonitis. It's also known as "jumper's knee". Check out this webside - sportsinjuryclinic.net . You may have to search this site, but they have extensive info. on patellar tendonitis. I've been treating mine with ice after every run, massage, and stretching. It's taking time (probably because I don't rest it as much as I should), but getting better. Another thing you might want to be careful about is a possible stress fracture. I actually had this happen to me in the exact area you mentioned when I was about 19 years old. Dr. told me that my bones were growing faster than the tendons and muscles in my legs. The patellar tendon was pulling away from the bone, thus weakening it, causing a small hairline fracture about 3/4 of an inch into the top of my tibia (I think the shin bone is the tibia?) Dr. said that it's just not a growing injury and anyone can get it. I wouldn't worry about this yet as you probably just have a touch of tendonitis. The webiste I mentioned also has treatment options for tendonitis. Good luck, Chris

I'll try icing it, taking a couple advil, and consider getting a strap support like the one njdave referenced. Hopefully it was just because I ran too hard after a little time off, and it won't recur in the future.

I had the same problem late last year and I also got a knee strap which helped eliminate the pain. After a while, I read somewhere that it's a not good idea to depend on the strap as it will become a crutch and doesn't really address the real problem. In my case, I think the problem was my shoes. I was running in the wrong type of shoe. I went to a running store and got properly fitted. Once I got the new shoes, I gradually stopped using the strap over a 2 week period and now I don't have any knee problems at all. This was back in January