Chondropathia patellae - any chance to go for marathon distance?

Hello,

Ever since I was 15, I was suffering from chondropathia patellae, which seems to be a defect I inherited from my father. Normally, I do not feel any pain, but when walking downhill for some time I get pain in the knee that lasts for about three days. Since I've witnessed the Munich marathon, I've decided to try and do some long distance running again, as I used to do as a kid. Right now, I can run about 10 miles in 90min without greater problems, and my knees do not really hurt, but in the next days they feel somehow 'destabilized' and even walking down stairs can cause short pain feelings. It's not really bad, but I take it as a warning. I'm really serious in taking any buildup training, increasing distances slowly, switching to forefoot running technique (althought recent attempts gave me TREMENDOUS muscle achings the days later, and it also felt like my knees did not like this as well) and stuff. But if there is no way to evade long-term knee problems, I'd rather forget about running marathon right now... anyone with experience with that particular knee problem? I do not want to spent the winter with training just to be unable to walk during summer

Thanks Moritz

I suggest you go to see an orthopedic doc and get an xray. If your knee cartiledge is thin, you should forget running a marathon. If it is OK, there are a variety of exercises you can do to build up your quads and stretch the muscles that affect your knee.

I misread your original note to read chondromalcia. I have no idea what chondropathia patellae is. So, disregard my advice.

No problem, asking a doc about the problems is a good idea, of course.

Anyway, I've already been to some docs and had x-rays, but all they could really say is that I do have weak knees (the knee cup is too short, as I understood it); but I never got a clear statement wether I should skip running (althought I was asking them for mountaineering, which I do quite a lot). Of course, running marathon is not a very good thing to do, but running in general might even help... and maybe I could stabilize my knees enough to go for marathon one day.

Thanks, Moritz

MH

As you live in or near Germany, Chondropathia Patella is another way of saying Chondromalacia patella. Chondropathia just means cartilage disease of the patella etc.

There is no known genetic marker for the specific disease, but it does tend to run in families because of body habitus etc. My wife was an all american xc runner and she has had it for years. My younger son has similar knee structure and is developing similar pains.

The wife uses Glucosamine with chondroitin and it does help her. I was skeptical but there is at least one valid study that shows improvement compared to Ibuprofen anti-inflams.

You may want to try it out.

There are many techniques to try and reduce retropatellar pain and running downhill doesn't help. Check out some quad strengthening sites also to help stabilize your knee, but avoid isotonic exercise and try the isometric.

As a side note: there is a product available to help reduce DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness). I am ALWAYS a skeptic about this type of stuff, but the family tried it and it seems to help. You may want to try it also. Endurox R4.

Let me know if this helps.

Bob

PS The answer to your subject line is: yes.

Wanted to add that x-ray does not predict cartilage thickness unless totally shot. An MRI of the knee could be useful to look at cartilage and be sure you do not have degeneration that would rapidly progress with marathon training.

Seimens Symphony MRI is a great unit and they are obviously widely available in Germany. Bob

I did a Google search for chondropathia patellae, and got a number of German language pages. Asked for a Google translation of a page (that was pretty funny!) I'll bet that chrondropathia patellae and chondromalacia are one and the same. There is abundant information about chondromalacia, much of which centers on strengthening the quadriceps muscle in order to stabilize the patella (knee cap) and nearly any exercise targeting the quad will help. As for anybody, you are doing the right thing in building up your mileage slowly (10% increase per week is the usual rule), but if you are having pain the next day after a 10 mile run, you should limit your distance to that which does not cause pain until your legs are stronger.

Easy quadriceps exercise that helped me a lot: squat with your back leaning back against the wall, thighs roughly parallel to the floor (or working to that with time). Feet parallel to each other and a few feet away from the wall, and hold that position. You may be able to do no more than 30 seconds at first, and then work up to 2 minutes at a time. Do this daily or twice daily. Hope this helps!

Margaret

Hi,

I have had chondromalacia patella for several years now and doctors have been telling me to do leg raises to strengthen my quads, but leg raises aggravate the problem and my knee hurts. Going up and down stairs or hils is a problem too because there is pain afterwards. Lately, i've been doing Iyengar yoga and my knees have become more stable.

According to this site though http://www.sportmed.com/pdf/Chondromalacia.pdf deep knee bending (which i do in yoga class)should be avoided. Go figure! It's a vicious cyrcle. If you don't exercise, you lose muscle. If you do, the knee hurts.

Check the above site out. It'll put things in perspective.

How is the knee now? Any suggestions you might like to share?

John