If you keep doing sports long enough, you discover your Achilles’ heel: the injury that keeps coming back no matter how long you rest, ice the pain and dose yourself with ibuprofen.

Finally, I think I’ve solved mine. And I want to help solve yours, too.

Runner’s knee (patellofemoral syndrome) first hit me when I was playing soccer in college. One game it was so bad I had to crawl off the field.

Taking a seven-year break from soccer helped my right knee, but when I started up again, so did the pain just below my left kneecap. Sometimes a change of shoes helped, but only for a while. A physical therapist prescribed exercises, but they didn’t make much difference.

Gradually, I gave up running. I rested all week for a weekend pickup soccer game. But as I got into my 40s, I had to cut back to two or three times a month, then twice a month and sometimes take a year off when things got really bad. Continue reading How I Cured Runner’s Knee in 220,233 Steps →