Hey there-

My name is a Judi. I am a triathlete and did my first full marathon
last spring. My last tri was an oly distance in August. I am
training for a half Ironman and hope to do a full IM in 2009.

Last spring while I was training for my marathon, I had a knee
injury on my right leg, the outside of my knee. It hurt to do
stairs, hills, up or down, so I did some rest. I cross trained with
swimming and biking which helped me become a triathlete - but
running is my 1st love.

I also take handfuls of supplements such as fish oil (sometimes as
much as 10,000mg a day), vit c (up to 4000mg a day) to help heal my
bones, glucosamine and sometimes MSM (which is a natural anti-
inflamatory). Acupuncture is a life saver as well, for injury, as
well as some other issues I have.

So, my right leg has healed up just fine. Oly tri's only require a 6
mile run so I haven't been doing many long runs since last spring
except for a few 10-12 mile runs this summer in between racing.

Recently my left knee has been giving me some nagging pain in the
same place as my right knee last spring. I rest it for a week, take
Alieve, cross train on my road bike, and try to run 4-6 miles again
and sometimes it seems ok, and other days, like this morning, it
hurts like he**!

The last couple weeks I have begun to incorporate yoga into my
routine as the stretches always seem to heal, but I have also
started doing some squats with a bit of heavy weight, which I know
must stop immediately.

Note - I do not like western medicine much, have had some bad
experiences but am open to http://www.activerelease.com/ which I
found a chriro near me that is looking to see if my insurance will
cover me, and will call me on Monday. I know if I go to my regular
DR she will just want to give me a cortisone shot and I think that
is just going to give me some short term relief and not actually
heal my knee.

I went ahead and ordered http://www.itbs.info/html/patt-strap.html
the patt strap thingie this morning.

My question for you guys is I read in an earlier post that seat
height on a bike can affect this, and I have raised my seat quite a
bit in the last few weeks to maintain race position. What is your
take on this?

Any other advice for me, I would really appreciate -

Judi in Cincinnati