Hello,
I know this is a topic that's probably been dragged out, shot and then revived and beaten to death again. However, I feel like mine is a little different scenario than most. So, allow me to set up the story if you will:
While I've never been an official "hiker," I spent the entirety of my adult life (from the age of 17 up until 29) in the military and was no stranger to the military's love affair with ruck marches. All of that running and rucking surely didn't do me any favors. That being said, in May of 2010, I was in an IED strike which caused damage to my left shoulder, left ankle, left knee, lower back and c-spine. Now, fast forward to the current time and I've been sedentary for the better part of 2 years now and I'm gazing all starry-eyed at the AT and a possible thru-hike but I'm not entirely stupid and know there's some train-up involved. So yesterday on my day off, I took my little brother and we decided to see how close we could get to Springer. We started at the visitor's center which proves that, while not entirely stupid, I am at least a little dim-witted because they charted us on a course right for all of those dadgummed steps.
Now, my point is, we made it roughly what I think was 7.5-8 miles back up the approach trail and back down and near the end (coming of the creek trail) my knee starting killing me and it has carried over to today. It's mostly on the lower left side of the knee (right if you are looking at it head on.) There is some slight swelling in the area as well.
My real question is, I didn't have the proper gear (just some Under Armour tennis shoes/trainers) and I did all those cursed steps, so do you think that's a contributing factor to the knee pain and should I just go ahead and put to rest my hopes of the trail if this is part of trail growing pains? Or is this typical and with perseverance and patience, can be overcome?
Thanks in advance for any advice to my poor, noobie self,
Richard