Forums >Racing>Injury
So I'm training for the San Diego Marathon. This is my second marathon.
This week, I started experiencing pain in the back of my leg in the knee area whenever I bend my left knee.
I am going to take some time off and try to rehab it. How many weeks can I take off and still be able to complete the marathon? The longest I have run is 19 miles two weeks ago.
Latent Runner
I don't know your recent running history, however, just as a guess it sounds like you're suffering from TFFFS syndrome. TFFFS? Yeah, it stands for Too Fast, too Far, too Frequently, too Soon. Given that your marathon is almost exactly a month from now, depending upon your mileage history over the last four to six months, these next two weeks will either be a deal breaker from a peak performance perspective, or no big deal.
Worst case scenario you can simply shoot for a slower time and take the race easy and have even more fun.
Fat old man PRs:
I have the similar pain: in the back of my leg behind my right knee after a hard run, but next day it is fine. Can anybody tell me what the symptom term it is and identify what part of weakness muscle it is.
My half marathon is in 2 weeks. I did run too fast, too far and too soon. I regularly ran 10 miles a week before I entered the 7-week training cycle, ramping up from 20 mi to 45 mi in 6 weeks, running 5 days a week with one speed and one tempo per week.
5k - 20:56 (09/12), 7k - 28:40 (11/12), 10k trial - 43:08 (03/13), 42:05 (05/13), FM - 3:09:28 (05/13), HM - 1:28:20 (05/14), Failed 10K trial - 6:10/mi for 4mi (08/14), FM - 3:03 (09/14)
I should say mine is very sore rather than pain.
Thanks for the help!
some call me Tim
I had some similar back of knee issues (soreness) during marathon training... every reason to believe it was popliteus. I worked on some rehab exercises repeatedly internally rotating the tibia and also spent a lot of time working on the soft tissue around the knee. It never got to the point where it affected my gait during a run, but I was able to get ahead of it and things are going swimmingly now. Good luck to all of you!
ME WEBLARG
Pain behind the knee is sometimes due to a hamstring issue. The hamstring tendon runs down behind the knee more towards the outer part of the knee. If that's where your pain is, roll the hamstring good just above the knee. Google "hamstring trigger points" and look at the image results.
Thanks blargendarg and Tim. Once I understand the trigger point, I know what caused my pain now. I stretch my hamstring too much using a strap and pulling too hard after a run. I tried to make my hamstring more flexible to increase my stride angle but not patient enough as always.