Its not been the a great week, any advise is appreciated!

lovetiffany

Ok. First things first. I started working out/running on December 23 (yes, I was so excited to start I couldn't wait till Christmas was over lol). At that point I was starting from a couch potato so it took me 14.35 exactly to finish the mile on the treadmill, I was mostly walking. Since then I've worked on that mile 5 days a week with 2 rest days (typically run 2 days, rest 1). I've bumped my time down to running a mile straight in 10:14 seconds. I'm super excited about that time drop.

But off and on I've had this slight irration behind my left kneecap (and only there). It's not painful, just slightly noticeable.

Then yesterday I felt like a cold was coming on. I didn't want to run because I felt I wasn't stong enough, but I felt like I could handle an easier exercise without much effort. I attempted to just simply walk but the only treadmill in our apartment gym was taken so I figured the next easiest would be the elliptical. (I'm not a big fan of being outside in the cold with shorts if I'm just walking) So I did that on light resistance/speed for 30 minutes. (I washed my hands throughly before jumping on, not trying to get anyone sick lol)

Then my knee irration got stronger. Still not painful, but it did get worse. I started getting worried and looked it up and im assuming what I have is runners knee. That's came the closest to describing me. I started running out of nowhere, tried going faster than I probably should have, and didn't stretch at all after (and barely before). I never iced my knee after either.

When I woke up this morning I felt not sick anymore and my knee irration is almost completely gone. All that's left is slight pops when I walk (just once in a while though). No pain no irration.

I'm so confused! Runners knee supposedly takes longer than that to heal! So maybe that's not what I have? I'm going to take myself to the doctor most likely, I'm serious about wanting to run and I want to make sure I don't ruin my knees. It's important to me. But I was just wondering if anyone had any advise

I've taken rest days, only ran on a treadmill (except for once when I ran outside in the first week), I run at a 1.0 incline, and it seemed like the elliptical is what made the irration worse...

Since I have no pain today I'm probably going to go for a walk, but obviously not a run. I don't think that would be too smart of me.

Does anyone know if a knee brace or something along those lines would be good for me?

Any advise would be appreciated! Sorry if this is confusing or hard to follow!