Strange lower leg and knee pain after running. Advice?

araneae77

I've always had a recurring issue with my knees since I was in middle school, usually without any provocation or obvious cause. Seemingly at random throughout my life, I would experience inflammation and pain on top of either knee cap, alternating legs. Usually I would have this for a few days to a week a few times a year. Since I didn't exercise regularly until recently, I can't think of any specific injury that would cause the flare ups. I went to my physician on at least five occasions when I was younger for this, but they never found any specific medical cause during the exams. Eventually they would just write up an excuse note for my gym class and call it a day.

Anyway, I noticed this started happening again last week. It's died down now, but I still don't know where the swelling and pain during leg movement is coming from or how to avoid it. The day before it came back I did my usual routing of running/squats/free weights with no pain or injury, and woke up the next day with pain in my knee cap. It usually gets intense enough that I limp and can't bend my leg at all.

I also have a weird new pain in the front of my lower leg, kind of along the divide where my shin bone and calf muscle meet. It mostly just aches when I run, so I'm giving it a few days to chill out.

I want to keep up my routine, but I'm concerned that I'm further injuring myself somehow. Is the knee thing an inflammatory response or a joint problem? Does anyone else experience this?

TavistockToad

Shin splints.

Did you get gait analysis when you bought your running shoes? Do you stretch after each run?

I'd see a physio about the knee problem