Lately I have been more acutely aware of my knees. I have some feelings of clicky achy feelings and occasional feelings of slight instability the day after runs. They feel great during the runs however. I have noticed no swelling at all. Recently I lowered my volume of running and added some intensity work. I have also become resistance training. My symptoms seem to match classic Runners Knee, except they don't hurt during runs and the symptoms are relatively minor. I have come to really love running. If I had to take off a significant amount of time off because of an injury I am not sure if I will be able to get back to running. I would like some good advice as to knowing how much discomfort on knees is okay to HTFU through? When do I know when I need to rest it for awhile? Or am I being paranoid and mildly achy knees are very normal for runners? Also could some of this discomfort be by body adapting to the weight training? So far I have been doing leg extensions, leg curls, Toe raises, lunges and inner/outer thigh machine. The treatment I have prescribed for myself... weight training, and no high intensity running till the knees are 100%. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

currently looking for some place to to do some miles on a soft surface. I don't wanna have to run 30 labs around in a circle to get a couple miles in It sure would be great if I lived by the beach.

I do a bit of running off road... but everywhere here it is very rocky. Even though the surface is softer, being that it is uneven it is just as likely to cause me trouble.

You should reconsider running in circles, try a football yard with some music. The ground there is soft enough to not hurt your knees.

Try 1 mile intervals on the track at 5k pace with a quarter cool down. Trying to keep pace breaks the monotony.

Chris, I'm not a big believer in HTFU when it comes injuries, particularly when they appear to be getting progressively worse. Not to say that I don't run through some soreness but you've got to distinguish between a little discomfort and something that's getting worse with more running. I'm facing the same thing over the last couple of runs but I'm pretty sure its too much intensity and too much volume added together. My approach was to take an extra day off and really back off the intensity but not the volume. No high intensity running is probably a good first step. I checked your log and it looks like you just started into a new pair of shoes as well. Might be the old ones were long in the tooth. I'm hoping it was the same for me. Also had my feet/gait checked at the local running store and they recommended a slightly different shoe. We'll see after tomorrow's long run.