I survived my first week of running fine – no pain, no problems. Sadly, starting this week I’ve begin to experience some pain in my left knee. Surprise. Surprise.

About 70% of the way through the run on Monday my knee began to ache. It slowed me down but didn’t stop me from finishing. A bit of ice and rest and all seemed well. I thought the problem might be my shoes. After all, I’ve done some heavy walking in them over the past few months. It’s possible they might be wearing down.

So I tried wearing my backup shoes.

Big mistake.

Turns out that my backup shoes, seemingly fine for walking, increased the pain in my knee and added the joy of shin splints to my evening. I barely finished tonights run and definitely brought up the rear of the pack.

So, definitely a shoe problem for the second set. Might keep the around for walking or the gym for a bit longer as they don’t seem to be totally shot. That said, I’ve learned my lesson and will never try to run in them again.

I continue to suspect that my knee pain on Monday may be related to the shoes. They’re not as bad as the pair I was wearing tonight. No shin splints at least. But the location, timing & manner of the pain, along with it’s near immediate disappearance when I’m not running (i.e. walking, ascending or descending stairs), makes me hope it’s not a developing or permanent injury.

Post run I was back at the store getting my gait rechecked and testing out new shoes. Luckily for me the store allows me to return shoes after testing if they don’t work out. As long as I don’t wear them outside while I’m testing them and make a decision within 30 days.

Enter the treadmill. On Thursday & Friday I’ll be testing the new shoes. Hopefully one of the two pair will reduce the knee pain so I can run in semi-comfort on Friday. Also, my budget would prefer the return of one of the pairs of the shoes…

Here’s hoping the knees are only a temporary setback and that I manage to make it to week three…

Keep your fingers and toes crossed.

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