I have always been blessed with perfect knees. Beautiful they're not, but they have always functioned perfectly. I have seen other runners with their knees strapped and wondered whether they should really be running, wondered whether they were making their injury worse, and been thankful that I never had knee pain.

Until today.

I had been a little “off color” for the last few days, but today I felt well enough to run again. I decided I would set the intention of a long, slow (LSD) run and see how it went. If it didn't feel good, I'd switch to a 30 minute easy run.

It felt good, and I was just getting back into the flow when, after about 15 minutes of running my right knee suddenly gave out on me. I didn't fall over, but it felt just as if the tendon on the inside of the patella was in spasm and wanted to do something different from what it was designed to do. Even to walk was a problem.

What to do when sudden knee pain happens? By chance, I had written an article on acute injuries, which was published in my last newsletter. (Shameless plug here – you can sign up as a member now and, if you ask for it, you'll get that issue.)

Of course, I couldn't just run back home and read the article, but fortunately I write based on experience (my favorite teacher!) so I knew what to do. I had not experienced knee problems before when running, but for most sudden injuries the procedure is similar. The details vary with the location of the injury, of course (I mean the body part – not where it happened to you!)

I would be interested to hear of your experiences with knee pain and what you have done to alleviate it. You can use the comment form on this page, or post to the forum. I know a lot of runners suffer with knee problems and we can all benefit from each others' experience.

Meanwhile, I'm going to add a section about knee pain to my next newsletter: sign up now, while it's on your mind!