I dislocated my kneecap at the end of 2024. Ouch! A patella dislocation is when the kneecap bone is fully forced out of the groove it normally sits in atop the femur (thigh bone). This type of injury sometimes causes complications like torn ligaments, fractured bone, and damaged cartilage. Lucky for me, I had no serious complications, and am recovering as quickly as could be hoped!

The first 6 weeks following the injury took me from crutches to doing some pretty serious walking. Weeks 6 through 12 post-injury, shared in this post, were all about returning to running, hiking, and lifting weights. I’m eager to get back in shape as I prepare to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) this spring and summer! My goals for this phase of recovery are to get stronger and do everything I can to prevent another injury.

In this post, I’m sharing my experience returning to activity after a patella dislocation. Following the injury, I’ve found myself wishing for a road map of what the recuperation might look and feel like. I hope this post can help provide that to someone. However, if you are recovering from a similar injury, your recovery process and timeline may look different from mine – please listen to your body and talk to your doctor. This post is not medical advice – I simply wanted to document and share my recovery process.

Weeks 1-6: Read about the first 6 weeks recovering from a patella dislocation.

End of Week 7

Week 7 was all about the walk-jog! I started out with 1-minute jog intervals and built up to 90-second intervals. My knee felt surprisingly pain-free while running. However, after 6 weeks of no running, my “easy” run pace had my heart beating out of my chest. Even so, I’m thrilled to be running at all again! Since trail running is still off-limits for my unstable knee, I did an 8-mile hike over the weekend – the furthest I’ve walked since the injury.

In terms of weight training, I’m still working on rebuilding strength on my injured side. This means doing my PT exercises 3x every week. It is hard work, and I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m seeing steady progress each week. I’ve also started doing several yoga stretches each night before bed to help with range of motion and flexibility. One weird, lingering effect of the injury is that my quad is too tight to pull my heel to my butt. This makes kneeling and doing the yoga pose “child’s pose” impossible.

End of Week 8

During week 8 I bumped up to 2-minute run intervals on my walk-jogs. I asked some friends to watch my form while walking. Both said my stride looked uneven. Since I’m not in pain, I’m pretty sure the problem is my head. I can’t run symmetrically when I don’t fully trust one of my legs.

Even though I don’t trust my knee yet, it is still getting noticeably stronger each week. I’m gradually adding more weight to my leg exercises including dead lift and leg extension. To track my progress, my physical therapist measured and compared my strength on both sides. My left hamstring and quad are only about 80% as strong as my right.

End of Week 9

I’m now running in intervals of about 5 minutes on my walk-jogs. More importantly, I’ve started doing a little running on “uneven surfaces” – not quite trail running, but getting closer. This includes things like dirt roads, soccer fields, and wide gravel paths. I wish I could say this felt amazing, but honestly, I’m just terrified. I don’t trust my kneecap to stay in place if I trip or misstep.

Another big milestone was achieved in week 9: I touched my heel to my butt! It only took NINE WEEKS to regain my full range of motion in my injured knee! Even so, the left quad is definitely still much tighter than the right one, so I’ll keep on stretching.

End of Week 10

This week, I did my first hilly hike since the injury. I picked a 7-mile route to the top of a big hill with 1,800 feet of elevation gain – a favorite local route of mine. The way up was no problem for the knee – though I was breathing pretty hard! The way down was tougher – I think I forgot how to walk downhill like a normal person. I was thankful I brought trekking poles.

While I was still doing lots of walking during my runs, I finally tested how long I could run continuously. I made it to about 30 minutes before form failure on the injured side, and I took a walk break. While I’m thankful I’m not in pain, I find myself getting easily annoyed on runs. Right now running feels unnatural and DIFFICULT!

End of Week 11

Week 11 was tough. With my start date for thru-hiking the PCT now less than 2 months away, I found myself worrying that I’m out of shape. Now that I’m back to running and hiking, I can really tell that my fitness decreased while my injury healed. I’m walking on hills that I used to run. And I’m finding it’s no longer easy to carry on a conversation at my former “conversational” pace.

While overall I felt like my progress was stalling, I still made some improvement in week 11. I did a big hike with a loaded pack on – something I’m hoping to do a lot more of over the coming weeks, now that my knee can handle it. Hiking with a loaded pack is one of the best things I can do to prepare my body for the demands of a thru-hike. While running is a great way to build and maintain general fitness, I know that the best way to train for walking with a heavy load is walking with a heavy load.

End of Week 12

Week 12 brought a return to near normalcy. For the first time since the injury, I felt confident enough to tackle some of my favorite local trails – places I’ve really missed while I’ve been injured. Also, I ran continuously for an hour without the knee causing any problems! Hooray! Though it will take time to rebuild my fitness, strength, and confidence on tough terrain, I’m thrilled to get back into my regular routines – going for chill runs with my dog most weekdays and tackling bigger adventures on the weekends.

I’m super happy with the progress I’ve made these past few weeks. Now, it’s time to start slowly rebuilding my endurance and confidence before the PCT. I plan on gradually building back up to bigger mileage and hilly terrain, as much as my knee will tolerate. I’m glad it only took me 12 weeks to get to a point where I feel I can return to trail running and hiking.

With a start date in less than 2 months, I’ll need to keep up with my training and physical therapy exercises to prepare for my PCT thru-hike! I’m focusing on staying injury-free and exercising consistently each week. I’ll share more updates about how my PCT training and other preparations are going before I embark on my thru-hike.