Running A Marathon After Knee Surgery

When a knee surgeon rebuilds your damaged knee, you're given a new lease on fitness. Suddenly, what was once painful is pain-free. Unfortunately, achieving an ambitious goal like completing a marathon requires extra training and care when you're on the mend from knee surgery.

Here are some tips to help you go from your orthopedic surgeon's operating table to the finish line of a marathon:

Intensity and Volume

When training for a marathon after knee surgery, there are two major components of your training to monitor: intensity and volume.

Volume: is the amount of training you complete in the week. This includes time spent running or minutes spent on rehab exercises designed to strengthen your damaged knee. Because a marathon is a fixed distance, 26.2 miles, you will need to build your training so that you're able to complete at least 26.2 miles worth of volume in a week. This figure doesn't necessarily need to be computed in mileage, as time can be just as reliable of a metric.

Intensity: is the amount of "strenuous" exercise completed in a week.  Although level of exertion is inherently subjective, using heart rates to determine your level of exercise gives you a personalized and objective way to gauge your training intensity. For most patients recovering from knee surgery, any prolonged bout of exercise completed above 155 heart beats per minute (HBM) should be considered "strenuous". During the course of your post-knee surgery marathon training you should aim to build your weekly training to include about 20% of your exercise to be completed above 155 HBM.

Supercompensation and Consistency

You can progress the intensity and volume of your marathon training by adhering to other important training principles: supercompensation and consistency.

Supercompensation: relates to the body's adaptability to any type of training stimulus. Essentially, you get faster only after your body adapts to specific types of exercise. It's one of the reasons why don't suddenly become stronger when you're forced to move the contents of your house or go one very long hike during the summer. The supercompensation process progresses about every 18 to 21 days. Thus, when your body becomes accustom to some aspect of your marathon training for about three weeks, it will begin to adapt to your hard work. This principle is particularly important for patients recovering from knee surgery, as they often sustain injuries by attempting to do too much too quickly. Every 18 to 21 days you can gradually increase your marathon training volume or intensity. Trying to progress both variables simultaneously can be recipe for injury.

Consistency: is the frequency any type of training stimulus you complete during your marathon training. Above all else during your post-surgery marathon training, consistency is the most important factor. Consistent training allows your body to complete the supercompensation process and to safely progress your training volume and intensity. Consistency, however, also applies to rest and recovery. As you organize your training plan, it's critical to add both rest and recovery from marathon training and rehabbing. The latter consideration, you should consult your orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist. For your marathoning training, you should consistently incorporate about two to three "easy" days for every "hard" day you complete. Again, using the aforementioned heart rate figures can help you objectively monitor your training volume and intensity for recovery purposes.

Benchmarks

Having benchmarks along the way are important physiological and psychological factors in your training. With every completion of the supercompensation process discussed above, you will take another step toward achieving your goal of completing a marathon after knee surgery. Integrating shorter races like a 5k, 10k, or 10 mile can validate your emerging fitness and confidence in your newly rebuilt knee.