New trainers & getting over knee pain...

Dragonfly1996

Hi am gonna try & get out to buy some new running trainers this weekend that am hoping will eliminate the knee pain I had both during training & my recent marathon that came on everytime I ran more than about 10 mi. My physio said I overpronated so I will be looking at getting some support trainers. My current ones are 18 m old & have done 350-400mi now (neutral)!!

How realistically time wise should I allow & expect to see a difference in my running gait etc once I have bought them? Not sure if I will instantly be able to run pain free in the right shoes!! I'm not sure how long these things take!! I think most running shops have a 30 day money back scheme to return them. I am planning on a short run this weekend, the first since my marathon as wanted to give my knee a 2 week complete rest from running.

Any thoughts? :flowerforyou:

BerryH

Start off with short distances when you change gait type - I'd stop halfway round a run and swap to my old ones for a week or two when I changed.

Check the running shop warranty - mine said they had to be "resalable condition" so I started on the treadmill and as I'd taken them outside I had to conduct a forensic clean-up on them to take them back!

New running shoes SHOULD feel better immediately. However, bear in mind support shoes will change the way you land slightly, so you may get some new aches as you up distance.

This is all overly cautious, however, and chances are you'll be running SO much better and pain free for having new, correctly fitted shoes :flowerforyou:

SueInAz

I can only give my own experience. When I first started running about a year ago, I was running (I use the term loosely) in a pair of running shoes I bought about a month before I decided to start running. In other words, while they were technically running shoes, they weren't what I really needed. I started having knee aches after a couple of weeks with the increase in distance and duration. The pain wasn't sharp but my right knee ached all day long.

I switched to an old pair of cross-trainers (not running specific) shoes and almost immediately I noticed a difference. My knee stopped hurting after the second run. After I started regularly running 3 miles at a time I purchased my first pair of real running shoes and I've had no issues since.

The running store where I purchased mine has a VIP program for a couple dollars per year that allows you to return the shoes up to 90 days later with no questions asked. I ended up returning that first pair a month later because my toes were getting hurt and trading for a larger pair. A month later, I took that second pair back because they were still not quite big enough. I only had to pay the difference in cost from the original pair and the new pair because they were a little more expensive. Well worth it!

ATLMel

If your knee pain is coming from an underlying injury you should try to let that heal up a bit before going full into high mileage again. I found my knee pain was only eliminated when I added in some ST to help balance out the difference between my hamstrings and my quads.

Aperture_Science

I think that you've done the best thing in resting before visiting a shop. When injured your gait can be different and this may affect the shop's recommendation.

Onc fully recovered and in your new shoes improvements should be quick, if not immediate. But as Berry says, ramping up the miles gently should help to prevent re-occurrence of the injury and help you acclimatise to the new shoes.