Karen writes: Tale of a knee
My left knee hurts. It clicks and aches. It was being grumpy at spin last night and when I put my hand on it, I could feel a grind behind the kneecap with every push down on the pedal. OH NO MY NON-CAREER AS AN ATHLETE IS OVER I WILL NEVER RIDE OR RUN AGAIN! So I practiced pulling up rather than pushing and what do you know, there was less clicking. Not sure how I can apply that to running with 10+ km with some speed intervals which is on the plan tonight.
Now I know that the things we capture in this blog are often about aches and incidents, mistakes and minor disasters. Thing is, having these sorts of things happen isn't always bad. Apart from when something spectacularly good happens, the minor dramas are sometimes the only things that stand out in all the hours of one foot after another and of everything being the same. They also act as small but significant punctuation marks making you consciously think about what you can do better. I don't remember the thousands of kilometers that went along just fine with any great clarity, I do remember the last time a near miss happened and came out ok. I do remember figuring out the best way to keep going when a minor injury occurred and the wonderful relief and happiness I felt the following morning because whatever magic that happens with some panicky stretching, a handful of supplements, a good sleep and some wishful thinking had taken the pain away. When you go out onto the road jungle, or push your body, even slowly and carefully as we have learned to do, you have the occasional glitch, and you get over it, at least so far we have.
So. Something hurts. I went online and looked at the myriad of 'runner with sore knee' references, I tried to think back to last time something similar happened and remembered the physio telling me that due to a weakness in some obscure muscle my kneecap wandered off to one side and the cartilage was being damaged. Then I thought about how 3 weeks ago I was rather...shall we say...hard on my body.
Conclusion: 1) I've let the exercises the physio recommended go because things were good. 2) I possibly have not had good running posture in recent weeks while all that micro-damage of the muscles was healing, actually haven't even given it a thought. And 3) I've had such a merry old time congratulating myself on how good I'm feeling that leaping straight into the business end of a marathon programme and expecting nary a problem made complete sense.
Plan: Practice a bit of blind optimism ( it has always worked in the past) and re-start the exercises the physio gave me. Historically I have done these one legged squat things in the shower so I'd remember twice a day, until I forgot of course. Then use the roller for the niggling of a tight ITB, it all tends to be related. In addition some work to strengthen quads/glutes per exercises from excellent new trainer (that's another story) wont go amiss. Next bump up the supplements for a bit, glucosamine twice daily again, some extra fish-oil wont hurt. Lastly, take the running easy (stay away from hills and cambers) and miss Monday's spin.
Well, that's the sensible approach, take it easy now to come back stronger. This picture from favourite run is probably closer to the reality of how I'll feel though....
Now I know that the things we capture in this blog are often about aches and incidents, mistakes and minor disasters. Thing is, having these sorts of things happen isn't always bad. Apart from when something spectacularly good happens, the minor dramas are sometimes the only things that stand out in all the hours of one foot after another and of everything being the same. They also act as small but significant punctuation marks making you consciously think about what you can do better. I don't remember the thousands of kilometers that went along just fine with any great clarity, I do remember the last time a near miss happened and came out ok. I do remember figuring out the best way to keep going when a minor injury occurred and the wonderful relief and happiness I felt the following morning because whatever magic that happens with some panicky stretching, a handful of supplements, a good sleep and some wishful thinking had taken the pain away. When you go out onto the road jungle, or push your body, even slowly and carefully as we have learned to do, you have the occasional glitch, and you get over it, at least so far we have.
So. Something hurts. I went online and looked at the myriad of 'runner with sore knee' references, I tried to think back to last time something similar happened and remembered the physio telling me that due to a weakness in some obscure muscle my kneecap wandered off to one side and the cartilage was being damaged. Then I thought about how 3 weeks ago I was rather...shall we say...hard on my body.
Conclusion: 1) I've let the exercises the physio recommended go because things were good. 2) I possibly have not had good running posture in recent weeks while all that micro-damage of the muscles was healing, actually haven't even given it a thought. And 3) I've had such a merry old time congratulating myself on how good I'm feeling that leaping straight into the business end of a marathon programme and expecting nary a problem made complete sense.
Plan: Practice a bit of blind optimism ( it has always worked in the past) and re-start the exercises the physio gave me. Historically I have done these one legged squat things in the shower so I'd remember twice a day, until I forgot of course. Then use the roller for the niggling of a tight ITB, it all tends to be related. In addition some work to strengthen quads/glutes per exercises from excellent new trainer (that's another story) wont go amiss. Next bump up the supplements for a bit, glucosamine twice daily again, some extra fish-oil wont hurt. Lastly, take the running easy (stay away from hills and cambers) and miss Monday's spin.
Well, that's the sensible approach, take it easy now to come back stronger. This picture from favourite run is probably closer to the reality of how I'll feel though....
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