I’ve been having some issues with my knees lately, and it’s gotten to the point where I need to take a short break. Last year I developed Osgood-Schlatters in my left knee. It was uncomfortable, but eventually it all settled down. Now, I’ve started developing it in my right knee, and this time it’s downright painful.

In layman’s terms (my wife can get into all the details), Osgood-Schlatters is when the spot where the patellar tendon connects to the shin gets pulled too tightly and causes a ton of discomfort. It can also result in additional bone growth in that spot resulting in a painful lump just below the knee (as seen in the pic above). A lot of what causes it are from the quads and hamstrings being too tight and not being stretched properly while being very active.

Needless to say, I’m working on stretching things out better, but it still takes time to heal properly. So I’m going to take a couple weeks off of running to let everything settle down better and then get back at it in June. I’m thinking this is going to be one of my low mileage years, but that’s OK. They can’t all be 1000+ mile years.