[nbschulze]

I don't think you know anything about the cause and effect relationship considering you have no idea who I am let alone what is wrong with me knee.

I haven't been running like that since I was in college. I wore down cartilage in my knee while running through pain I had been having for a while. I wasn't taking care of myself the way I should have been. If you take the time and care to make sure you stay healthy, 20-30 miles a week is nothing. If your logic held than 'pay back time' should have happened for my peers a long time ago, they all ran more mileage than I did and some still run 100 plus miles per week. If there is some magic number of miles knees get, they would have hit it a long time ago. That is not how it works. People are different, bodies are different, you just need to make sure you take care of yourself and don't ignore the maintenance.

[Amygaz]

With only that tid bit of information you have about him, there is nothing crystal clear. There is not a single individual build the same way. Some people can run 7 marathon in 7 days, and they have been doing that for 20 years, others are going to have knee injury after a couple years of running. Some of it might be technique, but it is likely combined with different bone/joint/muscle architecture.

[greenspot]

> I don't think you know anything about the cause and effect relationship considering you have no idea who I am let alone what is wrong with me knee.

Why are you getting aggressive? You have your opinion, I have my opinion, no need to snap.

> People are different, bodies are different

Ok, I agree. But why do you then generalize yourself few sentences before and tell us that '20-30 miles a week is nothing' and treating everybody the same? I think, I was more differentiating, I said 20-30 miles/week for a long period is already too much for the majority—not for all.

> I wore down cartilage in my knee while running through pain I had been having for a while

Ok, doesn't really make your stance better. Who says that every other runner is so wise and stops running while having a pain? Maybe most of them do the same mistake like you did? Maybe they just want to win, just want to outperform other runners, just fear loosing or just want to prove themselves that they can run more than last week—all while slowly crushing their knees. And maybe it's the dynamics or game mechanics of running itself—it's not that easy to stop.

Sorry, but the cause-effect-relationship is getting even clearer with your last comment. Extensive running can get quickly dangerous and the problem is that the runner might realize this too late.

[nbschulze]

> Why are you getting aggressive? You have your opinion, I have my opinion, no need to snap.

I hope you don't think that counts as aggression, hardly. And while you are certainly entitled to your opinion, considering you know nothing about me, my running history, or my medical history, it's pertinent that people know your opinion is based on zero knowledge of the situation.

> Ok, I agree. But why do you then generalize yourself...

I was not generalizing. The conversation is about distance running. For a distance runner, 20-30 miles per week would be nothing, considering the shortest distance race is 5 miles long.

I honestly don't know how to address your last comment. You jump wildly from conclusion to conclusion and then just dismiss everything outright. And your argument isn't based on anything other than the fact that I personally got hurt, which is a dumb reason for others not to run. I don't have a great singing voice, but just because my singing hurts my ears, it doesn't mean others shouldn't sing to their hearts content. Really, the only cause-effect relationship that is clear is -> cause: be nbschulze for 25 years effect: need knee surgery. Which people can take with and do what they want. Yeah, knee surgery is a bummer, but I've enjoyed my life other than that and will continue to enjoy it.

The only stance I've taken is 'If you're going to run, make sure you take care of yourself'. I was trying to help others learn from my mistakes. If you want to argue with that, feel free. We don't caution people from buying cars just because a select few choose not to get the oil changed and ruin their cars. And you should not be caution people from running just because I personally ignored persistent and intense knee pain and damaged my knee.

[loeg]

It's worth adding that some people are able to continue running after knee surgery. And many non-runners have to have knee surgery too.

[qqw1qqw1]

Except you still don't know what's the matter with his knee, and you definitely don't know what caused it. It seems a bit premature to assume that overtraining was the cause, and it's pretty ridiculous to imply that because some runners have hurt their knees, it is unsafe, or pointless.