Hi folks!
About a year ago, I gave myself patellofemoral syndrome. At first I thought I'd overtrained, but turns out it was mostly wrong posture, resulting from unwittingly correcting a foot deformity I didn't know about. I also gave myself osteoarthritis in both knees and one hip from it.
Anyway, I got orthotics now, and can run pain free with them+taped knees. So I'd like to start again.
Thing is, most training plans I can find are aimed at either people who are in training, running wise, or starting from 'couch', ie, being mostly or completely sedentary. I'm neither, as I've replaced with walking 5k+ per day most days and swimming 1.5k (breaststroke, keeping my head over water, and in just under 40 min if it matters) once or twice a week.
I also hike, but not all that regularly. Did 20k with 300m altitude (I know, more of a long brisk walk than a hike) last week and it didn't cause any pain during or after. Just in case that's a relevant clue.
Since my pool membership is running out and running is virtually free, id like to get back into it now that I'm mostly pain free and have my orthotics. Does anyone have a link or advice for how to pick it back up without doing more harm than good?
tia!
Oh whoops, sorry I didn't get to this earlier. I have far too many unread motifs in my inbox.
Anyway, I think it's important to clarify some terms. Cadence isn't measured in km/h, it's in steps per minute. You can go the same pace (or speed) with a high cadence or low cadence, by changing your stride length.
Definitely, a low pace is also helpful when recovering from injury. But in my previous comment, I was suggesting taking a lot of very short steps. My theory is that doing that means each step has less force going through it than fewer, larger steps, at the same pace.
Pace, fwiw, is basically the inverse of speed. Speed is measured in km/h, pace in min/km. Though terminology can be weird, because "high pace" usually means "pace with a lower number" (e.g., 4 minutes per kilometre is a "higher pace" than 5 min/km).
Oh I did know that it's not the same. I don't actually know my cadence, I just estimated that it must be too high since I walk (ie not run, so have both feet on the ground between steps) and am not that tall. Thanks for the helpful breakdown either way!