Runner's Knee & a Book Review

My training schedule was put to a halt the past couple of weeks because I developed a pain in my left knee while running. After doing some research, my self diagnosis is runner's knee! I attributed this to my mileage increases since I have started training for my first half marathon. I went from running 3 miles one week to 6 the next followed by 7! Although I am EXTREMELY proud of myself for finally being able to overcome the 4 mile hump, I think I might have overdone it....just a bit.

Anytime I have questions about running my go-to site is Runner's World. There really is an answer for everything and I also love the magazine. They have a great book for first time runners:

Buy it here!

This is truly a beginners book, but helpful and encouraging nonetheless. It is the perfect guide for first time runners of any age. I had already begun running to lose weight before I bought this book, so I was able to bypass the majority of the beginning and most of the information I already knew. I would only recommend this book for people who have really never run before. There is good advice on motivating yourself to stick with it, along with diet suggestions, but at my stage of running I definitely need to find something more advanced and focused on training to increase distance and speed. Any suggestions welcome!

I found this article about knee injuries at Runner's World which help me to determine the cause for my pain and how to help it. I took advantage of RICE the past couple of weeks while adding in only a couple of low mile jogs to help ease my knee back to its normal self.

Today I am ready to get back to it and will be working my mileage up slowly this time. We'll start off with 4 miles :)