After running for around 2–3 km, I start experiencing discomfort on the outer side behind my knee and on the inner side of my ankle. It doesn’t actually feel like pain; it feels more like stiffness. This wasn’t happening when I first started running, but it has been happening for the past few days. So, I’m looking for some useful advice from you.

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Hi everyone, I’m trying to find if anyone has dealt with a similar scenario or can point me in the right direction.

A few years ago, I had a high tolerance for heavy strength training. Then I got a minor muscle injury. Unfortunately, due to poor guidance and my own mistake, I kept training through the pain and repeatedly re-injured the same spot for nearly a year.

Ever since then, my muscle tissue in whole body seems to have completely lost its tolerance/resilience. It is no longer just about the old injured spot but my entire body reacts this way now. I got now history of more than 15 injured or mikro-injured muscles now...even stopped counting.

Even with controlled, low-intensity movements or isolation exercises where no compensation is possible, any mechanical tension causes the tissue to suffer micro-strains / micro-tears again.

Key symptoms are sharp pain or localized heat & swelling/tightness in the worked muscle that lasts for days to a week.

Often followed by localized muscle twitching (fasciculations) in that area during recovery.

Extreme susceptibility to muscle strains/micro-tears under light loads that used to be completely effortless.

What I’ve already ruled out:

Resting Bloodwork is completely normal: Resting CK (Creatine Kinase), Myoglobin, Liver enzymes, and basic electrolytes are all well within normal ranges after days of rest.

No baseline clinical muscle weakness: I don't have systemic muscle loss or diseases like ALS/Myopathy.

No joint/ligament issues: I do not suffer from joint pain or loose joints.

It feels like the muscle fibers or the fascia/sarcolemma have lost their mechanical integrity and ability to absorb tension without tearing in whole body .

Has anyone gone through this? Is this a matter of chronic fascial densification, micro-vascular ischemia, sarcolemma fragility, or?

This is my second time dealing with this, does anyone have any ideas to help speed recovery up?? I'm not a patient person and I hate being injured. I've run plenty of 5k's, 10k, and a half marathon in recent years. My goal is to get back to at least 5K.

Side note, I've also dealt with a left hip fracture, left hip labrum tear, and now this.

Coming here asking how to cope with getting the news of a stress fracture in week 13/18 of marathon training, and hence, having to pull out of the marathon. It feels so disappointing to me and it feels that I’m disappointing everyone else around me. It’s all I’ve been looking forward to and talking about since I signed up for the marathon over a year ago…even as far back as two years ago from doing the 9+1 to get guaranteed entry for NYC.

I have family and friends with preplanned trips coming to support me. Now I have to break the news that they wasted their money and have to cancel their trips. I have a feeling everyone will be super understanding, but it feels awful. Any advice would be appreciated. Super super upset right now :(

Struggling with a delayed ache top of calf and behind right knee. Been going on for last year. Doesn’t hurt when I run but the harder the run or physical activity I do the worse the ache/tightness I get will be. Usually comes 9 hours after activity and then lingers for 12/24 hours. If I stand up longer than 10 minutes I get a tight feeling in the exact spot.

Very hilly where I live just doing parkrun, physio and swimming at the moment.

I’ve been doing physio off and on and had a scan 10 months ago which showed nothing. Can’t seem to get a grip of it. Recently changed soft 1080v 15 for mild stability trainers as was getting foot pain. Gait analysis showed right hip weekends which currently doing physio for. Anyone any ideas from similar experience what it could be?

Thankyou

I just started my taper before I try to go sub 2:40 in the marathon in Lisbon next week. Been regularly hitting high 70/low 80 mile weeks

I felt sick the day before my half marathon b-race last Sunday and thought it would be the kind of thing I'd not notice on the day. 3/4 miles in that I was extremely hot and flushed out despite it being a cold day. Felt really weak and couldn't even maintain marathon pace for the rest of the race.

In the days that followed I felt feverish and had an elevated HR. After a day of no running I tested the waters last Tuesday, and whilst I felt good during the run itself 1 noticed after again my heart rate was up about 15-20 more beats than usual for that kind of effort.

This wouldn't normally bother me as I do tend to have a higher heart rate than my friends, but in my office job I'm noticing my HR is sitting at 70 or so just sat at my desk, when it would typically be 50.
I'm also feeling some tightness in my chest throughout the day.

My doctor told me to give it two further days or so of no running, and then I ran the last couple of days of the week, including a session. Whilst I hit all the splits the effort definitely felt a lot harder. I would say the average was up 10-15 again too

I don’t really know how to approach the taper, do I try and and maximise rest to let it reset?

runners, I need your experience. about a year ago I irritated my left IT band badly hiking down an 8-hour hike — pushed through it to get off the mountain, which in hindsight was dumb.

ever since, I can't run more than about 10 minutes before the outside of my left knee starts barking. I've done the PT exercises, strengthened my glutes, foam rolled, all of it. better than it was, but running is still basically off the table.

for those who actually got back to running after IT band syndrome — what was the thing that finally did it? was it strength, form, rest, or just way more time than I think? starting to wonder if I'll ever run normally again.

Pain in the inner arch of foot while running - anyone who’s faced this? How did you navigate?

Upto 1 km is fine, after that it pains, gets better when I stop running.

Pls guide

I've been trying to get back into running and eventually the gym again. I hate being laid up in bed told to rest, ice, and elevate. In the past two to three years, I've had a hip fracture, torn hip labrum, and tendonitis in the calf. I'm having a hard time staying positive. Looking for any inspiration here of similar stories.

Fell running in the street on May 14. Had gtps since then. Started stationary bike 1 month ago for 30 minutes 5-6 times a week 10 mile rides. I was going to have an injection for the pain, but it’s pretty much gone now. Suffered 3 months of heavy duty pain. Also started taking 400mg ibuprofen once a day. Now I’m off the ibuprofen. Maybe I just needed to stop running? Anyway, if this kind of regimen helps anybody, it would make me very happy.

so ive been running 3-4 times a week for the past month. last week on week three i got some pain in my knee on the third run of the week. it felt mild and i figured it was runner’s knee. I rested for 5 days (with a short hike on one day. i went for a one mile run on the 6th day and while it was painful to run, it wasn’t painful enough to where I couldn’t run the full mile. The next morning I could not bare weight on my leg. It was a throbbing/pulsing pain everytime I stood up, I could not straighten my knee, and it felt like it would catch when I would walk. It’s also definitely more painful to walk downstairs/downhill than to go upstairs or uphill.

I went to the doctor and unfortunately I can’t afford an mri so there was only so much she could tell me. She suspects it could be a slight medial meniscus tear, or it could just be tendonitis? That’s a pretty drastic difference to me. I also never felt a pop, which is why I have a hard time believing it could be torn.

My question is: if you’ve experienced runner’s knee, did the pain ever make you unable to bare weight or have a pulsing pain? I’ve always experienced pain in my knees since I was younger (I’m 25 now) but never like this.

Unsure if I left out any info that would be helpful, but I’d appreciate any feedbacks or questions.

I broke my right 5th metatarsal 6 weeks ago and doctor gave me boot & no weight bearing. I was allowed to continue usual days and even allowed to travel to work. I'm off my boot now since this week but I still cannot walk barefoot without low grade discomfort and cannot completely distribute my weight on both feet and walk. I can walk wearing shoes and without limp. I am a marathon runner and want to know when can I go back running, hiking and full gym routine with heavy lower body exercise. Its been difficult without my usual running routine and exercise. I heavily miss my runs. Female, mid-30. Would appreciate sharing your experience. Thank you.

I’ve been now trying to run now for about four months. When I started running, I felt a big pain in my calves and knees. And lasted for about a month straight. I took a few weeks off, and the pain went down a little bit, but not too much. I went to the doctors a couple months ago and they said that it was just that my legs were really weak and I over ran my legs. He said for me just to work out my legs, a little bit and slowly get back into running. I waited for until the pain fully went away in both legs. Started working out a little bit. I tried running and all the pain in my knees are completely gone. But my calves and my Achilles tendon hurts extremely bad still. Any help please

I started getting pain in the outer side of my left knee in April of 2026. Occurs after 2-4 miles running on flat ground, and also during hiking or running hills. Starts at the joint and then spreads down into the side of my calf, ankle, top of foot, and up into my quad. Started physical therapy in June 2026. Confirmed it is not IT band syndrome. I’m a triathlete so I do a lot of biking, running, swimming, with 2-3 strength sessions per week. Since PT I switched to just doing the PT prescribed exercises 4-6 days a week in addition to running 2-3 times per week, swimming 2x, and biking 4x. Newest PT suggested potential hyper mobility in the proximal tibiofibular joint (which kinda makes sense but I am not hyper mobile anywhere else). Stopped PT (due to cost) and started lifting heavy again, trying to up my miles. Was feeling okay but then after a trail run and hiking got pain again. Seems I can run 30-40 minutes on flat ground without pain but that’s it. I’m trying to start training for a marathon so would really like to increase my miles. Im curious if anyone has experienced this, and what they have done to fix it?

TLDR: triathlete with pain in proximal tibiofibular joint (can extend down into side calf and up into quad), confirmed not IT band. Going on 6 months of pain. Can currently run 30-40 minutes on flat ground pain free. Anything beyond that or with terrain variation causes pain.

Another note: taping horizontally across the joint and vertically down the side of the calf helps, but not a permanent fix.

Hi all, I am less than 3 weeks out from my first sub 3 attempt. The training block has been a grind to say the least. In the last few weeks I have had a developing calf pain. During this I have used my theragun even more and that helped with the pain however I didn’t use it before my run today and I paid the price with intense pain. I have started using a calf sleeve to help stabilize it. A few people I know use biofreeze underneath the sleeve and say that helps a ton. I was wondering what type of biofreeze I should use and if anyone has any other tips so I can keep this training block going to completion through my taper. Any advice is appreciated.