Triathlon, running, martial arts and knees

[frightened]

Hi,

I did my first triathlon - sprint distance - at the end of August, and frankly I'm getting all ahead of myself and thinking Ironman thoughts one day. Anyway. It was great fun and I finished in under two hours, and didn't walk, and this pleases me, given my ambition was to finish at all.

I also did a 7 km road run recently, and I've been doing Shotokan karate (traditional style, legendarily hard on the knees) for a few years, and I've recently taken up capoeira. So I'm slightly worried that my knees are going to explode. I get some pain when I've clearly overworked them, but it's not chronic or anything.

I know the glucosamine-chondroitin combo is supposed to be good, but I don't eat fish, and I'd rather not take it on ethical grounds. (No judgement implied of people who do take it, and I don't really want to get into a discussion about my diet - it's just not right for me.)

I've got in the habit of wearing elasticated bandages to support my knees when running or doing karate, though I've also heard that they can do more harm than good, so I'm a bit nervous about that now.

I've heard one cause of knee pain in runners is weak quadriceps compared to hamstrings, so I figure I can hit the (horrible horrible difficult painful) machine at the gym where you sit and straighten your legs against the weights. (And frankly I need better quads for my karate anyway.) And I've heard running backwards can sort of balance things out if you've worked one set of muscles around your knees too hard, and helps you maintain fitness without making things worse.

Any other ideas?

Comments

[ell]

How old are you and how long is a few years? (if you don't mind my asking) I can't think of anything else to do except strength work, more running (slowly build up to it) for additional leg strength.

Karate is a joint killer, I honestly am not sure there's too much you can do about that except make sure your form is perfect and that you're rotating your foot correctly before side and round kicks. I've been doing karate for a few years, but i am ridiculously protective of my knees and don't do nearly as many kicks as would be needed to make me good at karate. I've been doing aikido and kendo for about 13 years, I'm a distance runner and cyclist and my knees are holding up well for a 40 year old. I basically take extreme care with anything that involves lateral movement and pressure these days.

So not much advice other than what you're already doing.

[frightened]

Hey,

I'm 27 and I've been doing karate three or four years.

Ah, pivoting the foot. That. I think Sensei'd save breath if she just recorded herself shouting "PIVOT!!!!!" at me, and played it constantly. I'm working on it.

[ell]

I think that as long as you train smart, your knees will last quite a while :-)

I love your icon!

(yeah, that pivoting thing always gets me, too, but I can feel it in my knees when I do it wrong. They protest)