Hey Shamrock,

One thing I forgot to mention is that when you do want to gradually get back into using the knee a longish walk warm up might be helpful. I now walk for a minimum of 10 minutes but usually longer before any running.

I got onto the idea because my chiro said at one stage I could walk for a period of time when she didn't recommend running. She said that the walking motion will make your spine move with a therapeutic oscillations which are quite healthy for it.

I think the walk warm up prepares my back and helps it find a saer alignment before running which prevents the knee pain i get when things are out of alignment.

Another woman I originally met through swimming who also was unable to run for a long time has found the same thing works for her. She also had back problems and found that running caused her too much pain but now she does run about 3 times a week with a 20 minute walk warm up.

Anyway maybe see how it goes when you think you're ready to gradually get back into slightly higher impact stuff. Of course it took me months of running for short periods of time on very soft grass with very gradual build up to get back into things. I found when i got too excited and tried to speed up the process I was my own worst enemy though so I'd recommend taking it slowly!

Hope it's getting better for you though - let us know how it's going sometime!