Athlete with Quad Pain (Read 33 times)

Hi everyone. I have a high school athlete who has been experiencing quad pain during long/base runs for the 3 years that I've known him. We've tried several different changes to his training in order to confront the problem. I've shortened his weekly mileage, had him just do bike work for a few weeks, taken time off, had him run slower paces for his easy runs, etc. He appears to have normal flexibility in his hips, quads and hamstrings (at least compared to my other athletes). I'm at a loss for how to help this kid.

He describes the pain as a burning down the middle of his quads. He said that it usually only happens on easy runs (he hasn't ever been able to do long runs with me because this issues popped up when he was a freshman), but not when we do shorter, more intense intervals. He said that cross country, even though they are on the trails/grass all of the time (we are on sidewalks a lot because winter/spring in Illinois are brutal at times) is worse because it is all easy/long/base runs. I'm frustrated for him, so anything that you can suggest would be great.