I'm a Newbie Runner

I'm a new runner. To begin running was a goal of mine last spring, before the knee injuries. I was having a hard time raising my heart rate sufficiently by speed walking or bicycling, so I knew running would have to come next. The knee injuries taught me a lot about fitness and myself. It was extremely frustrating and mentally exhausting.

I've had a hard time with any cardio since then. Walking on the treadmill too fast caused knee pain, yet my heart rate wasn't up and wasn't breaking a sweat. I would have to stop, go home, ice and ibuprofen, and curse at my knees and myself for the rest of the day whenever I felt the familiar pain.

So what does one do? Stop eating? I tried that for a while and lost a good amount of muscle. Not so cute. So I ate normally (for me) for the most part and continued upper body exercises. Luckily, this time off from squats and cardio enabled me to build upper body mass that was somewhat lacking, and now I am a little more proportionate.

The knees were feeling pretty good for a little while... so I tried a light jog on the treadmill. Not bad at all. No pain. No pain later in the day, except the usual shin splints from going from zero to 60 in one day. Cool. Ran a little the next day. WOW. Still no pain. I have had some form of knee pain every day since my ER visit last May. But now I run at least every other day and have had NO recurrent knee pain. WTF? I don't know, but I'm not complaining!

As most runners I've talked to know, running is a love/hate kind of thing. Maybe I will love it all the time someday, as I do lifting. I've only been running for a little while, so the love has time to grow. I don't know if I'll ever grow to love a constant wind gust in my face, though. I might stick to the trails until the wind dies down a bit.