Welcome to the Running Explain podcast. I'm Elizabeth, a marathoner, running coach, and answer seeker.

When I became a new runner at the age of 29, I had so many questions, but it felt like I was on my own to figure all of the answers.

So now I'm here to answer all your running questions to help make you a better, smarter, faster runner. There's no question

too simple and no topic too complex. So let's get started. My guest this week is physical

therapist Dr. Lauren LaPierre. And not only is she a physical therapist who specializes in treating

runners, she is of course a runner herself as well as being a running coach and a running rehab specialist. Now, this week we are finally tackling the big topic of

knees. Why are knee injuries and knee-related issues so common in runners? What is it about the knee

joint, the way that our body moves that make our knees so

susceptible to running related injuries, dealing with the more common kinds of running related

injuries like runners knee, huge catch-all phrase there, and IT band syndrome, and what you can do

to help make your knees less likely to be prone to injury,

and especially talking as we usually do about up and down the kinetic chain

and how everything in our body is always connected.

Dr. Lauren LaPierre, welcome to the show. I'm excited to have you here.

Thank you. I'm super excited to be here.

So tell us, Lauren, how did you become a runner?

So it was so long ago now it feels like because I've been running for 15 plus years,

but I started in middle school simply because at the time I was pretty shy. And

one of my friends was just like, come to the cross-country team and try out. But it wasn't

really tryouts. It was just like essentially a mob of pretty much all-aged children. And

she wanted it to essentially make me come out of my shell.

She was trying to be a good friend. And it really did. It helped me grow in so many ways.

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