just seeing what was out there to help mitigate the pain walking up and down that hill in France...
I developed a very swollen knee training for the marathon, didn’t want to take time off as had very little to spare. Physio identified a muscular imbalance that meant instead of knee bending in just a vertical plane, weakness in glute and muscles on medial side of knee allowed some sideways movement that caused rubbing on the patella and inflammation.A week off, targeted weights/exercises to correct and all was fine- and the knee had been too swollen to allow it to bend fully.My point is, a muscular imbalance may be the cause and easily fixed with the right advice.